The European Film Academy (EFA) is to restructure its board membership for 2024 to improve representation from different parts of Europe.
From the upcoming elections in 2023, board members will be chosen from 15 defined regions in Europe.
EFA said that the defined regions, each comprising different countries, are meant to “reflect the realities of modern Europe and give a fairer and more equal distribution of voices from all over Europe within the board.”
One board seat will also be made available for a transnational ethnic representative belonging to either the Sámi and/or Roma populations in Europe. The first mandate for this seat will be for an elected member from the Sámi population.
The European Film Academy works in 52 European countries including Israel and Palestine.
Currently, 25% of the board members represent all 30 Eastern and Southeastern European countries, and this will rise to 50% of the board seats when the restructuring is complete.
The existing board has two representatives each from France, Italy and Germany, but these countries will only be allowed one board seat under the new rules.
The EFA board consists of 19 members, including one chair and two deputy chairs. The chair and deputy chairs do not represent any region or population in their function.
The restructuring will take place in two stages, allowing current board members elected in December 2022 for a two-year period to finish their mandate until the end of 2024.
The following 15 new regions will all have one representative in the board from 2024 or 2025 onwards:
- Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia
- Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein (as of 2025, after current mandates end)
- Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia (as of 2025)
- Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands
- France, Monaco
- Ireland, UK
- Italy, Malta, San Marino
- Poland, Ukraine
- Andorra, Portugal, Spain
- Turkey, Azerbaijan, Palestine
- Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania
- Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Israel
- Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia
- Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden
- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
- One additional seat for transnational ethnic representation (current eligible groups: Sámi population and Roma population)
“These changes will make for a more diverse and more democratically representative board to serve the European Film Academy,” said EFA chair of the board, Mike Downey. “We are making a number of structural changes to the way the Academy is run, in order to bring it up to date with contemporary best practices, and this is just one of the changes which will help us serve our membership better, and provide a voice for some of those territories which have occasionally been marginalised or sidelined, not through any malign will, but simply by virtue of their geo-political location. In making these changes we will now rectify and recalibrate any and the Academy will emerge stronger, more inclusive and fit for purpose for 2023 and years to come.”
Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and director of EFA added: “Making sure we serve our Academy members better, is an important aim of the European Film Academy. Therefore, including members from different regions of Europe that haven’t been part much in the workings of the Academy is a great step forward. It also forms part of making the organisation more sustainable, ensuring its future and its ongoing support by members from all the 52 countries we work in.”
EFA’s 2023 election process kicks off in mid-August with a six-week self-nomination period. From October members having another six weeks to elect or re-elect the new board members. They are announced at the Academy’s general assembly in early December and take up their mandates in January.
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