1st Joint Communiqué

The Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE) and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG) has published its first joint communiqué since the World Conference of Screenwriters in Athens last November. Together, we represent approximately 25,000 writers in 27 countries; together, we can best meet the challenges of our changing industry. We plan to circulate [...]

Busy Awards Weekend

This past weekend there were film awards handed out in four different countries: The Writers Guild of America Awards The BAFA Film Awards The IFTA Awards The Berlin Film Festival Awards Congratulations to all the screenwriters who won awards!

The European Screenwriters Manifesto

Launched in February 2007, the Screenwriters Manifesto is available to read in English, and other languages, on the website of the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe.  Signatures are regularly coming in. Show your support and sign the declaration of rights for screenwriters. Important If you signed the Manifesto between February 2009 and January 2010, we [...]

Joint Activity Programme – IAWG/FSE

The Board of the FSE and the PRG of the IAWG have discussed the strengthening working relationships between the two organisations, which have grown quickly following the solidarity campaigns of guilds around the world with their colleagues in the writers’ strike in the United States which ended in February 2008, and which will be further [...]

World Screenwriters Declaration

In the new digitised and globalised world, we screenwriters have today come together, in Athens Greece, to discuss our central role in the creation of the stories that are carried with such impact to the world’s myriad screens and to people’s minds and hearts. Stories influence our behaviour and shape our culture. They help us [...]

Participant profile: Lars Boom

We leave Greece temporarily to travel to the Netherlands to meet Lars Boom. Lars Boom has been writing since 1990 for television, film and theatre. In theatre he has written musical plays like the award-winning In the shadow of Brel (about Jacques Brel through the eyes of his driver and friend Jojo) and two libretti [...]

Conference is underway

Due to the traffic in Athens the conference is running approximately half an hour late. We’re only a hour into the event, and already many serious issues facing screenwriters across the globe are being delved into. Christina Kallas, president of the FSE, and Michael Winship, President of the WGA (East), introduced the event and welcomed [...]

Acropolis photos

I’ve added some photographs to the Conference’s Event page on Facebook, and I’ve also created a Picasa Album with some of my images. The low light comined with my average camera meant that they are good for viewing on the web only.I spotted a number of fancy gadgets among the conference members so I’m sure [...]

Participant profile: Marcílio Moraes

We’re just in time to meet with Brazilian writer Marcílio Moraes. Marcílio was born in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and writes short stories, novels and screenplays for television. He has written for famous Brazilian soap operas (known as telenovels) like Roque Santeiro, Noivas de Copabacana, Mandala, and Roda de Fogo among others. Recently he [...]

Participant profile: Stefano Rulli

We jaunt over to Italy, to say ciao to Stefano Rulli. Stefano was born in Rome, and after graduating in Literature with a thesis on ‘Neorealism and the Cinema Critic’ in 1974, he organised the conference on Neorealism at the Mostra del Nuovo Cinema in Pesaro.  He wrote the book Polanski and began to contribute [...]

Participant profile: Eylem Kaftan

It’s over to Turkey now to meet screenwriter Eylem Kaftan. Eylem was born in Turkey, she completed a B.A. in Philosophy at Bogazici University in Istanbul and a Masters degree in Cinema at York University in 2002. At York University, she worked as a teaching assistant and wrote her thesis on the identity crisis in [...]

Participant profile: Sebastian Andrae

It’s over to German screenwriter Sebastian Andrae. Sebastian was born in Hamburg, and studied history, German studies and law in Göttingen. From 1992 on he studied at the HFF (University of Television and Film) in Munich, Germany. While studying he worked as a freelancer for a German newspaper and as a comedian and gag writer [...]

Participant profile: Arvind Ethan David

This morning we bid hello to Arvind Ethan David, CEO and a Producer at Slingshot. Arvind co-founded Slingshot, the next generation film company, in 2005. He leads both business and creative strategy for the company, and has served as a producer on all of the company’s films to date – Sugarhouse, Faintheart, French Film, Tormented [...]

Participant profile: Jochen Greve

In Germany, we meet screenwriter Jochen Greve. Jochen was born in Bielefeld, Germany, and studied Communication Studies, Theatre Studies and History at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (MA). He worked as an assistant director, cameraman, editor, location manager as well as a production manager and producer for various academic films and television movies. Since the mid 1980s [...]

Participant profile: Răzvan Rădulescu

Today we meet screenwriter Răzvan Rădulescu. Răzvan studied Literature and Opera Directing in Bucharest. Afterwards he wrote two novels and worked as an art director for magazines. In 1999 he started to write for films, among which are the award-winning Stuff and Dough (Cristi Puiu, 2001), Niki and Flo (Lucian Pintilie, 2003), The Paper will [...]

Participant profile: Philipp Weinges

We arrive back in Germany to meet screenwriter and producer Philipp Weinges. In the late 80s Philipp Weinges started writing German-dubbed versions of American sitcoms. After attending Robert McKee’s seminar ‘Story structure’ he sold his first script Alone among women (1991), which became a major German box office hit. In the 90s, together with Günter [...]

Participant profile: Leora Kamenetzky

We zip into Israel today, where we can meet screenwriter and director Leora Kamenetzky. Leora studied at the Tel Aviv University and at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Since then she has  worked mainly in the field of television drama and has created  the following successful series: Alex (2008), Dog’s Life (2006), Adumot [...]

Participant profile: Mark O’Halloran

We arrive in Ireland, early, to meet screenwriter and actor Mark O’Halloran. Mark was born in Ennis Co. Clare, Ireland. His first feature film screenplay, Adam & Paul (2004), won ten international awards, including the London Evening Standard award for Best Screenplay, and the European Film Award for Best Screenwriter. He followed it with the [...]

Participant profile: Jeff Gross

We swing by Paris this evening, where we sit down with novelist and screenwriter Jeff Gross. Jeff was born in Stamford, Connecticut, USA. He moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the age of four and lived there until the age of six, while his father was South American Editor of Look Magazine. After moving [...]

Participant profile: Alexandros Nterpoulis

In Greece we can meet author, scriptwriter, playwright, and columnist Alexandros Nterpoulis. Alexandros was born in Athens, studied Archaeology & History of Art at the School of Classical Studies in the University of Athens, and followed it with post-graduate studies on Creative Writing in the University of Western Macedonia. He’s taken acting and script writing [...]