Archive notice: This article was originally published on September 12, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
In front of around 150 invited guests, speakers emphasized the festival’s European dimension and its importance for Hesse as a media location.
The venue could hardly have been better chosen for presenting the eDIT Filmmaker’s Festival to a broad audience on the European stage. Around 150 invited guests from Brussels politics, culture, and media accepted an invitation from Hesse’s Minister for Federal and European Affairs, Volker Hoff, to the state’s representation. His welcoming remarks made clear why the State of Hesse supports the festival: “Over the past ten years, the eDIT Filmmaker’s Festival has established itself permanently as an innovative forum for filmmakers within the European festival landscape. Its impact in presenting Hesse as a media location is of international significance.”
The strategic aim of the State of Hesse and the festival management is to maintain this European position and expand it further in the coming years. Future cooperation with the European Federation of Cinematographers IMAGO is strong evidence of this. Alongside the American Cinema Editors (A.C.E.), IMAGO is a new cooperation partner of the eDIT Filmmaker’s Festival.
Nigel Walters explained why collaboration with the festival is attractive to the European federation. The president traveled to Brussels especially for the presentation: “One of IMAGO’s most important goals is to raise broad public awareness of the importance of cinematographers in the filmmaking process. Our collaboration with the eDIT Filmmaker’s Festival is a milestone on the way to achieving this goal.”
At the same time, the IMAGO president used the opportunity to call for binding Europe-wide standards for cinematographers’ rights. “The cinematographer’s role must be understood as that of an author,” Walters said during the presentation of the eDIT Filmmaker’s Festival at the Representation of the State of Hesse in Brussels. “Just as with the rights of a musician, photographer, or screenwriter, the cinematographer’s creative contribution to a film must be protected by law.”
Walters also recalled the poor production conditions in some European countries: “On the one hand, cinematographers are expected to be well trained, but on the other, they often have to accept poor conditions during filming and work many hours of overtime. We therefore advocate better production conditions and Europe-wide contractual minimum standards.”
Nigel Walters, president of the European Federation of Cinematographers, will also be a guest at the 11th eDIT Filmmaker’s Festival in Frankfurt am Main. It is an innovative forum for creative professionals in the international film and media industry and is unique in Europe. The festival begins with a major opening gala on September 28 and ends on September 30, 2008. Further information about the festival is available online.
Further Links:
- eDIT
