European Partners & Col­lab­o­ra­tions

Cineregio is the sister association of EFAD: a network of regional film funds in Europe. It represents 54 regional film funds from 12 EU Member States, Norway, Switzerland and UK.

The members exhibit a range of support schemes and services to the film sector which aim to support film culture, encourage social cohesion and build regional infrastructure. Regional film support is vital to foster and safe-guard the development of the European audiovisual sector and promotes regional and local cultural identities, cultural diversity and democratic empowerment.

Cineregio's main objectives are threefold and interlinked: Knowledge Sharing, Film Policy and Co-Productions.

EFAD and Cine-regio work together on a wide range of issues from State aid law to co-productions and trade issues.

The CICAE (Confédération Internationale des Cinémas d’Art et d’Essai) is a non-profit association bringing together over 2400 arthouse cinemas with more than 4400 screens, in 46 countries in the world, thanks to the collaboration of 14 national and regional arthouse cinema networks (Belgium, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Venezuela and arabic-speaking countries), as well as individual cinemas, not yet represented by a national network, and festivals across the world.

The CICAE was funded in 1955 by the national arthouse associations of France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, aiming at promoting cultural diversity in cinemas and festivals, as well as at reinforcing at political level the support for theatres that took a stand in favour of this “high-risk” cinematographic art form.

The collective action of these pioneers led to the emergence in each country of a real market for quality films, as well as national schemes aimed at supporting cinemas, taking a stand in favour of this high-risk cinematographic art form.

Cineuropa is an online information portal dedicated to the promotion of European cinema. It publishes daily news, reviews, interviews, and industry reports and maintains a database of information. It is available in four languages: English, French, Italian and Spanish It is co-funded by the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union.

Eurimages is the cultural support fund of the Council of Europe. Active since 1989, it numbers 38 of the 46 member states of the Strasbourg-based Organisation, plus Canada.

Eurimages promotes independent filmmaking by providing financial support to feature-length films, animation and documentary films. In doing so, it encourages co-operation between professionals established in different countries.

Eurimages has a total annual budget of approximately €27.5 million. This financial envelope derives essentially from the contributions of the member states as well as returns on the loans granted. Eurimages has three support schemes: feature film co-production, the promotion of co-production and exhibition.
Eurimages has also adopted a strategy to promote gender equality & diversity and sustainability in the film industry.

EFAD and Eurimages collaborates on different aspects, including gender & inclusion and sustainability, participating at each other's working group on relevant subjects. In 2022 a partnership was established to create the Inclusion and Diversity mapping, collecting information about the diversity and inclusion measures already developed in the associations’ member countries. It concentrates mainly on film funding measures, festivals, associations and resources. The focus of the mapping is on current diversity and inclusion measures in the audiovisual and cinemas sectors, with a desire to emphasise the necessity of more action in these areas.

CEPI founded as the European Coordination of Independent Producers in 1990 to organise and represent the interests of independent cinema and television producers in Europe. In 2018, CEPI relaunched itself as European Audiovisual Production and today is the only European Association including independent television and film producers, representing over 2.400 independent production companies in Europe.

Its members create a wide range of diverse film and television content, from standalone documentaries and special event programming, to game shows, animation, light entertainment and high-cost drama series. CEPI members are creating some of the most innovative, popular, and challenging film and television content in Europe. Together, our members supply over 16.000 hours of new programming each year to broadcasters in Europe.

The producer is central to the creation of a film or television programme from beginning to end and therefore plays a crucial role in the audiovisual value chain. CEPI exists to articulate the interests of independent producers and ensure that all relevant stakeholders at the national and European level are engaged in and committed to fostering a strong, independent film and television production sector.

Supported since its creation by the European Commission (Creative Europe / MEDIA Programme) and by the CNC (France), Europa Cinemas is the first network of cinemas focusing on European films. Created in 1992 at the initiative of a group of thirty cinema exhibitors, it has become in 30 years a network of 1,263 cinemas and 3,121 screens in 39 countries.

Its main objectives are to provide operational and financial support to cinemas that undertake to give a significant part of their screenings to non-national European films and to put in place activities for young audiences.

Thanks to Eurimages and the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Europa Cinemas' action extends to countries in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia and Turkey. In addition, 54 screens (57 screens) in 53 cities in 37 countries in Europe and worldwide are also associated with the Europa Cinemas network under the partnership with the Institut Français.

Open to all types of cinemas, from the municipal ones to the multiplexes, the network has also expanded well beyond Europe according to the support programmes implemented: yesterday in Asia and Latin America through the Mundus programme, tomorrow in Canada via the Eurimages programme. Europa Cinemas thus contributes to making Europe and its cultural diversity a shared idea around the world. 

Europa Distribution is the international association of independent film publishers and distributors, created in 2006. With more than 125 leading independent film distributors representing 32 countries in Europe and beyond, it acts as a network and a think tank, and serves as the voice of the sector. For over 15 years, Europa Distribution has been creating new bridges for its members to share knowledge, experience and ideas.

Through dedicated brainstorming, training sessions and informal gatherings, the Network constantly works to enhance the circulation of information and know-how and to improve the curation, promotion and distribution of independent films. Besides offering an insight on the world of independent film distribution to other sectors of the film industry, through its open panels Europa Distribution also aims at helping its members to take a step back and look at the bigger picture of the constantly evolving Audio-visual sector.

The association also acts as the voice of the sector and regularly exchanges, in its capacity as a recognised spokesperson for independent film distribution, with the main European associations and bodies involved in the audio-visual sector, to ensure that the priorities and concerns of its members are taken into consideration.

Founded in 2011 during the Berlin Film Festival, Europa International is the European network for sales agents, aimed at raising awareness on the job of a sales agent and their essential position within the film ecosystem. The idea was to have a new face for this profession, which represents an essential segment of the European audiovisual sector. 

Europa International is now a non profit organization committed to the European world sales agents and providing back up to its members on the international marketplace, from sales all the way through to distribution, as well as on the international film festival circuit. 

Its objective is to provide a community service by creating a network of European sales agents in order to represent the profession and defend its general interests. Europa International intends to share the broad experience of its members in order to prepare efficiently the future of film industry.

Its aim is to improve and increase the international distribution and circulation of European films inside and outside Europe.

Europa International actions are:

• To pool and share information, experiences and best practices;
• To seek a common position and organize common actions;
• To develop collaboration and interaction with distributors and exhibitors;
• To promote a larger circulation of the European films worldwide.

The European Coalitions for Cultural Diversity was created in 2005 as an informal network to welcome the adoption of the UNESCO Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in October 2005 and to work on its ratification by the European community in December 2006.

In its first achievements, ECCD has also campaigned to protect cultural diversity, ensuring that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiating mandate does not risk prejudicing the Union’s cultural and linguistic diversity, including in the audiovisual and cultural services sector.

Since its creation, the ECCD defends that cultural diversity plays an important part in our democracy, ensuring that the voices and stories from all our communities are told and seen widely. This fosters a better understanding and cohesion and helps to ensure that decision makers can make public policy reflecting the needs of all communities. To carry out its missions, the ECCD monitor EU policies in order to provide its members a legislative expertise and cooperate with EU institutions to share its inputs from the cultural and creative sector.

Since 2013, the ECCD is an official association.

The European Film Academy was finally founded in 1989 as the European Cinema Society by its first president Ingmar Bergman and 40 filmmakers to advance the interests of the European film industry. The Academy Academy seeks to support and connect its 5,000 members and celebrates and promotes their work. Its aims are to share knowledge and to educate audiences of all ages about European cinema. Positioning itself as a leading organization and facilitating crucial debates within the industry, the Academy strives to unite everyone who loves European cinema, culminating annually in the Month of European Film and the European Film Awards, by including European film heritage in its portfolio and by expanding its focus on young audiences through the European Film Club.

The European Film Awards are backed by the international film industry, among which are several EFAD members.

The European Producers Club (EPC) is an association of 185 influential independent film and TV drama producers from all over Europe.

Founded in 1993 within the framework of the GATS negotiations, it acts as a network, a think tank and as a lobby. Its mission is to keep its members up to date with the latest developments in the film industry in Europe and across the world; it encourages collaboration, joint financing and coproduction across countries; it also lobbies on a political level to protect and further the interests of the European industry and European producers.

To this end, it has become an expert in the organization of events that bring together film professionals from around the world, whether for conferences, networking events within or outside Europe, or workshops.

In addition to the individual companies that are members of the EPC, the EPC coordinates an alliance of national Producer Associations across Europe through the EPAA (European Producer Associations Alliance) and thus boasts a network of over 3000 industry professionals.  The EPC opened a representation office in China in 2013.

The European Women Audiovisual Network (EWA) supports female audiovisual professionals through community-building and networking opportunities, capacity-building programs and access to the audiovisual industry through several events and activities. It was born in 2013 as an initiative of a group of women working in the European film industry. The feeling they shared of inequality for women working in the film industry was confirmed with facts and figures revealed by the EWA Network study published in 2016: although 44% of film school graduates in Europe are women, only 16% of public funding goes to films directed by women. Since then, EWA Network has grown as a strong and supportive community for women audiovisual professionals across Europe, organising activities for members which boost their careers and put them into a new spotlight, being present at important industry events and advocating for more gender equality measures in the European film industry.

Along with UniMei, EWA and EFAD co-organise every year a conference to keep track of the latest developments related to the presence of women in European cinema. The main objective, years after the emergence of #MeToo and from the "50/50 by 2020" target, remains to keep the topic on the agenda, monitor progress and identify priority actions for the future.

The Federation of European Screen Directors (FERA) was founded in 1980 and is the only European organisation representing film and TV directors. Driven by 49 directors associations with members from 35 countries, we speak for more than 20,000 European screen directors, representing their cultural, creative and economic interests at national and European level. We work to promote policies that maximize the creative, social and commercial potential of European directors and the audiovisual industry.

It focuses on issues of major importance in the creation and promotion of audiovisual works. Its mission is to enhance the recognition of the cultural significance of audiovisual works and to defend their integrity in 21st century Europe. FERA represents directors as the authors and primary creators of audiovisual works. The director is the creative decision-maker in a process of artistic collaboration and takes final responsibility for the aesthetic cohesion and artistic integrity of the work. FERA is committed to safeguarding the craft, artistry and the creative and economic rights of the director as essential components of the diversity of audiovisual culture in Europe and beyond.

The Lab Femmes de Cinéma is a think tank focused on gender parity and diversity in cinema and audiovisual industries. Its goal is to generate ideas, raise awareness, propose actions and encourage experimentation to "shift the boundaries" of the sector. Currently, across Europe, only one in four directors is a woman. Female filmmakers are still, on average, paid less, receive fewer subsidies, are programmed less and their characters are often stereotyped. Cinema, however, is a powerful realm of influence that partly shapes our collective imagination: it reflects and contributes to the construction of society.

Promoting and encouraging gender parity and diversity in this industry is a matter of mathematical fairness and a necessity for enabling a greater diversity of stories to be told.

Since 2020, it has collaborated with EFAD publishing an annual qualitative study focusing on the measures and policies that exist at the European level to promote parity, along with statistics provided by the European Audiovisual Observatory (OEA). The study has gained significant institutional recognition: it has been supported by the Ministry of Culture since 2022 and by the CNC and EURIMAGES since 2023.

The Society of Audiovisual Authors (AISBL) is the umbrella association of European collective management organisations representing audiovisual authors. Its 34 members in 26 countries manage rights for over 167,000 film, television and multimedia European screenwriters and directors. 

It supports audiovisual authors and promotes cultural diversity through policies that enable the dissemination of audiovisual authors’ works to the audience. CMOs’ role is to give easy, legal access to those works and ensure authors are fairly paid to encourage further creativity for the benefit of society.

 The SAA's main objectives are to:

• Support and strengthen the economic and moral rights of audiovisual authors (screenwriters and directors);
• Secure fair and proportional remuneration for audiovisual authors for every use of their works;
• Develop, promote and advance the collective management of rights by member organisations to provide a cost effective, transparent and efficient system to facilitate the dissemination of audiovisual works and the distribution of royalties to authors.

UNI MEI is the division of UNI representing workers in the media, entertainment, arts and sports sectors (staff freelance, independent and contract workers). It brings together over 100 unions and guilds in over 70 countries. UNI MEI caters to the special concerns of unions and similar associations whose members are engaged in mass media, entertainment and the arts. It serves as a point of contact for its affiliates and the members they represent in this increasingly internationalised sector. It is concerned with issues ranging from ownership structural evolution, trade policy and technological change to copyright and neighbouring rights, piracy and censorship. It acts to exchange information about collective agreements, legal standards and practices of the categories it represents at an international level, aiming where relevant and feasible to temper chaotic labour relations and practices with common regional or wider minimums in consultations with employers or in practice alone by employee concertation.

UNI MEI and EFAD collaborate on different topics and initiatives. In particular, every year we co-organise a conference to keep track of the latest developments related to the presence of women in European cinema. The main objective, years after the emergence of #MeToo and from the "50/50 by 2020" target, remains to keep the topic on the agenda, monitor progress and identify priority actions for the future.