The European Film Academy restructures its board of directors to increase regional and ethnic diversity

The European Film Academy is restructuring its board members to enhance regional and ethnic diversity in its management structure.

From 2024, each of the 15 members of EFA’s Management Board will be selected from 15 distinct geographical or linguistic regions in Europe, each comprising several countries. In addition, a seat on the board will be reserved for a transnational ethnic representative of the Sámi or Roma populations in Europe. The first term for this seat will be for an elected member of the Sámi population.

The remaining three board members, including the president and two vice presidents, will not be chosen based on their region of origin.

The changes, voted unanimously, will enter into force for the next EFA elections in 2023 and 2024. Members of the European Film Academy can apply for the region where they live and work. Board members are elected from all members of the European Film Academy registered to vote.

The changes will take place in two phases: a six-week self-nomination period, starting in mid-August, and council elections, which will begin in October and run for another six weeks. The new board will be announced at the Academy’s general meeting in early December, and the new members will take office in January. Current board members who were elected in December of last year will serve until their terms end at the end of 2024.

“These changes will create a more diverse and more democratically representative board at the service of the European Film Academy,” said EFA President 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 that will help us better serve our members and provide a voice for some of those territories that have occasionally been marginalized or marginalized, not through malicious intent, but simply by virtue of their geopolitical location.As we make these changes, we will now rectify and recalibrate and the Academy will emerge stronger, more inclusive and fit for purpose for 2023 and beyond.

The 15 regions are as follows:

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia
Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein (from 2025, after the end of the current mandates)
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia (since 2025)
Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands
France, Principality of Monaco
Ireland, United Kingdom
Italy, Malta, San Marino
Poland, Ukraine
Andorra, Portugal, Spain
Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Palestine
Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania
Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Israel
Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia
Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

EFA said it had decided to make the structural change after “extensive consideration and with a desire to reflect the reality of Europe today”.

Currently, representatives from Western European countries are over-represented on the EFA board compared to members from the East and South-East. At present, 25% of board members represent Eastern and South-Eastern European countries. Under the restructuring, those regional groups will account for 50% of all seats on the board.

The European Film Academy, first established in 1989, represents filmmakers from 52 European countries in Europe, as well as Israel and Palestine.