European Film Academy welcomes record 462 new members

The European Film Academy welcomes 462 film professionals as new members, who will all be eligible to vote. The names of all new members have been announced on Europe Day, 9 May 2023. Members are invited once per year. A record of invited European filmmakers has accepted membership this year, strengthening the voice of European cinema all over the continent.

Among the new members, 50% are women, 49% are men, and 1% defines as non-binary. Most new members stem from Germany (68), France (38), Switzerland (37), Poland (36), Italy (33), Spain (24), UK (28) and Ukraine (26), but also numerous members have joined from the Netherlands (19), Sweden (13), Serbia (11), Austria (10), Norway (9), Bulgaria, Finland, Iceland, Turkey (all 8), Belgium and Denmark (both 7). A fifth of the new members joining are young members under 36 years old. This strengthens the representation of a younger yet notable generation of European filmmakers within the EFA. Overall, an increasing number of members representing the arts and crafts of cinema have been invited. In the upcoming years, the European Film Academy is keen to further increase the number of members working as editors, production designers, sound designers, composers, hair and make-up artists or costume designers.

New members of the EFA include Kurdwin Ayub (Austria), Marie Kreutzer (Austria), Sebastian Meise (Austria), Aliaksei Paluyan (Belarus), Michiel Dhont (Belgium), Diana Cam Van Nguyen (Czech Republic), Vicki Berlin (Denmark), Elliot Crosset Hove (Denmark), Laura Birn (Finland), Sherwan Haji (Finland), Karim Aïnouz (Germany), Christopher Aoun (Germany), Charly Hübner (Germany), Meltem Kaplan (Germany), Paulina Lorenz (Germany), Abdullah Emre Öztürk (Germany), Christiane Paul (Germany), Frank Petzold (Germany), Philipp Scheffner (Germany), Faraz Shariat (Germany), Ina Weisse (Germany), Pipaluk Kreutzmann Jørgensen (Greenland), Katalin Bársony (Hungary), Hera Hilmar (Iceland), Valdimar Jóhansson (Iceland), Willem Dafoe (Italy), Laura Samani (Italy), Signe Baumane (Latvia), Stephanie Stremler (Luxembourg), Jerzy Skolimowski (Poland), Aleksandra Terpińska (Poland), André Santos (Portugal), Marco Leão (Portugal), Adam Davenport (Serbia), Jasna Đuričić (Serbia), Erdal Murat Aktaş (Spain), Séverine Cornamusaz (Switzerland), Louis Hothothot (Netherlands), Dana Nechushtan (Netherlands), Walter Stokman (Netherlands), Kutluğ Ataman (Turkey), Anastasia Karpenko (Ukraine) Christina Tynkevych (Ukraine), Mia Bays (UK).

Among the new members of the EFA Academy are also 8 Romani filmmakers, stemming from the Roma populations in Hungary, the UK, Germany, Austria, Kosovo and Sweden.

A full list of members can be found on the EFA’s website.