General Assembly 2019 Dear colleagues, The General Assembly of FIPRESCI is organized in Miskolc Welcome to Miskolc ! for the first time. We are kindly hosted by our dear colleague and member Géza Csákvári and the administration of the 16th CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival. After enjoying the generosity and hospitality of Bif&st and our honorary member Felice Laudadio in Bari, Italy for a decade, we start Contents a new chapter in collaboration with our Hungarian friends. I hope our collaboration will be beneficial for both parties and Welcome will continue for a long time. On behalf of all of us I wish to express our gratitude to CineFest. Participants 2 We don't have any elections this year, therefore we have a Agenda 2 shorter and more relaxed General Assembly, but we have important issues to discuss concerning the future of our Activities of the Federation 3 profession and the working methods of our Federation in a Klaus Eder, Alin Tasciyan rapidly changing conjecture. Financial report 4 A heartfelt welcome to all of you for the first time in Miskolc! Reports of the board members 5 You may find all the material you need on these pages. I wish Isabelle Danel, Barbara Hollender, Rita Di Santo you all a constructive and enjoyable meeting. Reports of the Departments 6 Alin Tasciyan Philippe J. Maarek, Barbara Lorey, Ahmed Shawky, Djia Deputy General Secretary Mambu, Birgit Beumers, Pamela Biénzobas, Amber Wilkinson Jury participations 2018/2019 9 All Juries of 2020 12 Special Events in 2020 14 Revised Website. Since middle of August, 2019, a new version of our website www.fipresci.org is online. The members area informs of all topics which happen “between circulars”, in particular changes of and additions to our juries at current festivals. The user name is ‘fipresci_member’, the password is ‘truffaut’ (attention: case-sensitive). FIPRESCI International Federation of Film Critics Schleissheimer Str. 83 D 80797 Munich T +49 (89) 18 23 03 Hungary, September 17, 2019 Cell +49 (172) 850 53 02 [email protected], www.fipresci.org General Assembly 2019 – Materials Page 2 General Assembly 2019 Participants Tuesday, September 17, 2019 Delegates 9:30 – 13:00, 14:00 – 18:00) Hotel Pannónia, Miskolc, Hungary. Tonci Valentic, Croatia Taneli Topelius; Finland Agenda Philippe J. Maarek, France Carolin Weidner; Germany 1. Ingrid Beerbaum, Germany Opening, Presentation of the Delegates. Vasileios Kechagias, Greece György Báron, Hungary 2. Renzo Fegatelli, Italy Activities of the Federation. Leo Bankersen, The Netherlands The General Secretariat presents the report of activities Dana Duma, Romania and the financial report. Alexey Gusev, Russia The members of the board (president, vice-presidents) report Beat Glur, Switzerland about their activities. Rita di Santo, UK 3. Board Gender Parity in FIPRESCI Juries. As the gender equality becomes an essential topic Isabelle Danel, France, President in today's world, Rita di Santo, UK, Vice-President we need to discuss the gender parity in composing juries Klaus Eder, Germany, General Secretary (and other events). Alin Tasciyan, Turkey, Deputy General Secretary Platforms like "50/50 by 2020" have asked festivals to sign letters for parity in their selections, Departments selection committees and juries. FIPRESCI has also been demanded sensitivity Philippe J. Maarek, France in this matter. Legal Advisor Barbara Lorey de Lacharrièr, France 4. FIPRESCI-Awarded Film Series Projects 2019/2020: Juries, Events. State Septembert 10, 2019 5. Any Other Business. Notes General Assembly 2019 – Materials Page 3 Activities of the Federation ments got unstable, persons and functions and even names changed. Birgit Beumers, in charge of our Central Asian Resumed by the General Secretariat department, followed the events and finally was in favor of waiting until the (political and festival) situation calms down, and therefore not to risk a jury in 2019. See her report. Special Events (1). FIPRESCI's 90th anniversary, celebrated The splitting of one jury into two or three sub-juries, at the four years ago in Bari, still seems to afterglow. At the Sofia occasion of the major events in Cannes, Berlin and Venice, Film Festival, we presented the "FIPRESCI 90+x Platinum must be re-valued: It gets every year more difficult to find Award”, in 2016 to Béla Tarr, in 2017 to Goran Paskaljevic, jurors for the parallel sections. in 2018 to Ildikó Enyedi, in 2019 to Bille August. Klaus Eder From several years, Anne Brishoual prepares all juries: she moderated masterclasses with the filmmakers. Thanks to our gets the requests ([email protected]), confirms receipt, checks Bulgarian colleagues who offered the award trophies. – In them, chases missing information (lots), forwards the com- Lodz, at the Transatlantyk Film Festival, we presented the plete list of candidates to the General Secretary. As this is the "FIPRESCI Platinum Award 94" to Arturo Ripstein, the bigger part of the jury work, this procedure facilitates the work Mexican filmmaker. Klaus Eder moderated the masterclass. - of the General Secretary immensely. At the Festival of Rio de Janeiro, the Lifetime Achievement Award / LatinAmerica was presented (2018) to Walter Salles. Special events (2). Palm Springs, January 2018. Our jury saw We will hopefully be back this year (November) with another a majority of films submitted to the Foreign Language award winner, in spite of the problems the festival is faced to, Academy Award and presented the "International Critics' Prize in today's Brazil. - At the Fénix Awards of Latin American (FIPRESCI Prize) for the Best Foreign Language Film of the Cinema, we awarded "our Fénix" of FIPRESCI to our Year" to "Félicité" by Alain Gomis (2018) and to "Shoplifters" Argentinean colleague Luciano Monteagudo. Pamela Bién- by Hirokazu Koreeda (2019). zobas had organized our entry to this prize. After the 2018 In Bangladesh, at the occasion of the Dhaka International edition, the Fénix initiative ended, mainly from financial Film Festival, the "2nd Asian Film Critics Assembly (AFCA)" difficulties. – The poll among all members for our "Grand Prix took place (January 2019), a meeting on Asian film criticism – Best Film of the Year", presented at the televized opening and a chance for our Asian colleagues to meet. The event was ceremony of the San Sebastian Film Festival, showed clear organized by the International Film Critics Association of winners: "Phantom Thread" by Paul Thomas Anderson (2018) Bangladesh (IFCA), by the festival (headed by our colleague and Alfonso Cuarón’s "Roma" (2019). - Another award which Ahmed Musztaba Zamal) and by FIPRESCI. Unfortunately, made FIPRESCI visible to a larger audience: The "European this initiative cannot be continued in 2020. Discovery Award – Prix FIPRESCI", part of the "European Film Awards", went to "Girl" by Lukas Dhont. Talent Press. Was for the 16/17th time organized in the Apparently we have more and more "special awards", framework of the Berlinale Talents, in February 2018 and in decided not necessarily by a jury and at a festival. It wouldn't February 2019, in a cooperation between Berlinale, Goethe be bad to coordinate these award-activities, by a special Institute and FIPRESCI. The texts written by the talents were department (to be created). published on our website (daily uploads during Berlinale). Other cooperation with Berlinale and Goethe-Institute: Talent Members. We've 47 national sections. Individual members Press workshops at the festivals of Guadalajara (March (mainly in countries where national associations don't exist): 2018/2019) and Buenos Aires (BAFICI, April 2018/2019), around 50, the database is just in revision. The tendency is and, for the third time in 2018, at the Rio de Janeiro increasing. Thanks to Ahmed Shawky and Djia Mambu who International Film Festival. Still under discussion: Durban, advised Arab and African colleagues to join us. Following South Africa; Sarajevo; and, maybe, Beirut. We supported the national sections are composed of two associations: Australia Rotterdam "Trainee Project" (January 2018/2019) and the (Sydney and Melbourne), Brazil (Rio de Janeiro and Sao Warsaw Critics Project (October 2018) for young critics from Paulo), Canada (Montreal and Toronto), France (Paris and eastern European countries, and co-organized a talents Paris), Germany (Berlin and Berlin), Italy (Rome and Rome), workshop in Tallinn (Black Nights Film Festival, December Peru (Lima and Lima, on the way to be finalized), Spain 2018). (Barcelona and Madrid). The board tends to apply the statutes to national sections not paying membership fees, to suspend Website. Without any doubt, this is the most visible part of them and to invite their members to an individual membership. work. And it is the part which had most problems (it couldn't Concerned are in particular the associations in Argentina, be maintained anymore, mostly because of technical problems Portugal and Serbia (Srpska Sekcija FIPRESCI-ja). The fact which could not be updated because the (Turkish) company that they are in a considerable arrear of membership fees seem doesn't exist anymore which had drafted the site a few years to reflect a general crisis of film criticism in those countries. ago). We obtained various offers for a re-installation of the Juries. Still the biggest part of the Federation's work. In 2018 site to another system and server. Finally, Jurij Smrke we established 79 regular juries (three more than the year (Ljubljana, London) migrated the whole database to a more before). New requests are in discussion. Most of the juries common and easier to handle system (WordPress). The revised could be completed without problems worth mentioning. An site went middle of August (2019) on air. All festivals and overview on jury participations in 2018/2019 is published in news and announcements are since uploaded immediately. this circular, and is part of this report. We've a team of native speakers who language-edit all texts. Problems came up in Kazakhstan: the situation of the We began also to build up a new team of editors who can festivals became unclear if not confusing, the festival manage- upload incoming texts.