Key European film organisations join forces in new anti-racism task force

In the Summer of 2020, a group of European film industry professionals gathered to form ARTEF, the Anti-Racism Taskforce for European Film. Engaging over thirty organisations, their first step was an awareness training programme lead by Dr Emilia Roig, trainer, author, and founder of the Centre for Intersectional Justice in Berlin. The workshop encounters lasted between November 2020 and May 2021 online with an average of forty participants from all over Europe in each session.

With a broad and intersectional approach ARTEF’s main aim is to dismantle racist structures and combat all forms of racism in the European film industry. Their goal is to become a task force for change: by raising awareness, by offering education and insights, by suggesting revisions to regulations and practices, as well as to weather opposition from the industry — especially from those who habitually benefit from institutionalised racism.

After its initial year, ARTEF will continue organising training programmes for European film professionals who are keen on tackling institutionalised racism and willing to do the personal work needed to help dismantling existing structures, and help building new, inclusive ones in the decades to come. Anyone who has been or is affected by racism in the European film industry is invited to come forward and engage with ARTEF to help them build a meaningful task force together.

Thus far, they have been laying the ground for future actions and we will be reaching out to all European film institutions, including film festivals, film commissioning organisations and filmmaking collectives, asking them to join ARTEF, and commit to training, ring fencing of resources, and to turn their awareness into actions.

They invite filmmakers in every European country to write to their institutions, collectives, unions, and organisations to request they join and support ARTEF’s work, and to engage with us with ideas, suggestions and/or requests. They are opening a line of communication via artef@artef.org.

LIST OF MEMBERS

Initiated by Matthijs Wouter Knol, the newly appointed director of the European film academy, ARTEF was also co-founded by its current board of directors: Helene Granqvist (producer Nordic Film Factory and president WIFTI), Paula Alvarez Vaccaro (producer Pinball London and European Producers Club vice president), and Marion Schmidt (co-director Documentary Association of Europe).

Steering committee

Paula Alvarez Vaccaro
Véronique N. Doumbé
Helene Granqvist
Laurence Lascary
Regina Mosch
Marion Schmidt
Matthijs Wouter Knol

Funding partners
Bertha Foundation, British Film Institute, FOCAL, HessenFilm, MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, International Sámi Film Institute, Film Fund Luxemburg, Netherlands Film Fund, Norwegian Film Institute, Swedish Film Institute and contributions from the participating organisations ACE, EAVE, EWA, and WIFTI as well as production companies Magic Hour Films and Pinball London and further donors.

The awareness trainings were attended by top-level representatives of the following organisations:
ACE Producers
British Film Institute
Cinéastes non alignées
Collectif 50/50
Creative Diversity Network
DAE — Documentary Association of Europe
Doc Society
EAVE
European Film Academy
EFM — European Film Market
EFP — European Film Promotion
EWA — European Women’s Audiovisual Network
EPC — European Producers Club
FOCAL
International Sámi Film Institute
Magic Hour Films
MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein
Netherlands Film Fund
Norwegian Film Institute
Pinball London
Power to Transform
Programmers of Colour Collective (POC2)
ProQuote Film
Swedish Film Institute
Queer Media Society
WIFTI — Women in Film and Television International

As well as by key representatives of the supporting funds and companies.