Goodbye & Hello

Time flies…

25 T oo old F o R

2017: After the successful implementation of a new look and communication strategy, my presidential term started with working on a strategic development plan for ECFA to figure out what we could set in motion with the resources available. Vision, Mission and Core Values were identified; our objectives formulated: Informing * Networking * Facilitating * Lobbying. Being as precise as possible has been an important step for our organisation – even more so, considering the tough times laying ahead of us. Focusing helped to work ourselves through the global Pandemic which shook our lives for almost three years.

ECFA and its members stayed active and in touch, shared ideas and plans to tackle the difficult situation: new digital, hybrid and analogue formats were developed, no member festival or ECFA Award was cancelled and the growth of ECFA continued: From 120 members in 2017 to 160 by the end of 2022. Meanwhile, the ECFA Award is flourishing: 2017 saw the first ECFA Doc Award, in 2019 the first ECFA Short Film Award was handed out. ECFA launched its award in 2012 with nine participating festivals; for the 2023 edition, 26 festivals presented one or more awards.

2023: Thanks a lot to my fellow board colleagues in these turbulent and inspiring years: Becky, Edita,

Elisa, Kathy, Maciej, Marjo, Marketa, Marta J., Marta N., Maxime, Pantelis, Petra & Per; to the team: Felix, Gert, Günther, Reinhold, Stefan & Udo.

And thanks a lot to you! The entire ECFA community is passionate, creative, dedicated, resilient, likes to share and to have fun. To put it short: it is irresistible.

Therefore, I’ll leave the board but join the team as coordinator and look very much forward to our future activities & adventures.

–Margret Albers

Some of our readers might have missed out on several editions of the ECFA Journal. Due to problems in the online universe, subscribers using a gmail address might have not received ECFA’s communication in 2022. We truly apologise for this inconvenience, we hope to have the problem solved from now on, and we remind you that every missing Journal or news item can be consulted on the ECFA website.