German Directors Guild

{{Short description|Association representing German film and TV directors}}

The German Directors Guild (German: Bundesverband Regie; BVR) is an association representing film and television directors in Germany. Its functions include protection of their members' rights to assert authorship; minimum fees; filming conditions; and liaising with government and other bodies to advocate for various issues affecting their members. From 2012 to 2018 it awarded film awards known as the {{ill|Deutscher Regiepreis Metropolis|de|lt=Metropolis Film Award}} (also referred to as the German Directors Guild Awards).

History

The Bundesverband Regie e. V. (BVR) was formed in 1975, following the example of the {{ill|Société des réalisatrices et réalisateurs de films|fr}} in France, to represent film directors in Germany.{{cite web | title=Wer wir sind | website=Bundesverband Regie | url=https://www.regieverband.de/wer-wir-sind | language=de | access-date=30 January 2025}}{{cite web | title=Chronik | website=Bundesverband Regie | url=https://www.regieverband.de/ueber-uns/chronik | language=de | access-date=31 January 2025}}

The BVR celebrated its 35th anniversary at the 2010 Berlinale, as well as holding its annual General Assembly. The anniversary party was attended by over 600 people, and a new German director prize was announced.{{cite web | title=German Directors Guild General Assembly | website=Federation of European Screen Directors | date=30 March 2010 | url=https://screendirectors.eu/german-directors-guild-general-assembly/ | access-date=30 January 2025}}

On 1 March 2024, the BVR joined the UrheberAllianz (UA), an organisation founded in 2018 to jointly represent the interests of film authors{{cite web | title=Developments: German Directors Guild joins Film Author Alliance with production designers, costume designers, camera and editors | website=Artscenico, European Federation for Costume & Production design | date=1 March 2024 | url=https://www.artscenico.com/developments/#ua | access-date=31 January 2025}}

People

Volker Schlöndorff is an honorary president of the BVR.

Screenwriter, author, and filmmaker {{ill|Marie Noëlle|de}} (aka Marie Noëlle Sehr) was managing director of the BVR from 2018 to 2022,{{cite web | title=Marie Noëlle Screenwriter, Author and Filmmaker | website=P'Artisan Filmproduktion | date=26 July 2024 | url=https://partisanfilm.de/marie-noelle-screenwriter-author-filmmaker/ | access-date=31 January 2025}} and sat on the Oscars nomination jury panel as the BVR representative.{{cite web | title=Oscar® Race: Search begins for German candidate | website=German Films | date=16 October 2020 | url=https://www.german-films.de/news/all-news-releases/article/oscarr-race-search-begins-for-german-candidate/ | access-date=31 January 2025}}

Activities

=Member representation=

With more than 580 members, the BVR is the largest association of film and television directors in Germany, and represents the artistic, social, legal, economic, and labour interests of filmmakers from the areas of cinema, television, documentary, dubbing, music video, and other areas. It has representatives on the boards of the {{ill|Filmförderungsanstalt|de}} (FFA; the German Federal Film Board) and the German Media Council (Deutschen Medienrat). It has regular contact with the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM). It negotiates minimum rates of pay, as well as filming conditions and copyrights, with streaming services, broadcasters, and producer associations.{{cite web | title=Mitglied werden | website=Bundesverband Regie | url=https://www.regieverband.de/ueber-uns/mitgliedschaft | language=de | access-date=31 January 2025}}

The BVR was signatory to the 2024 Declaration of Filmmakers (Declaration des Cineastes / Die Deklaration der Filmemacher:innen), a document drawn up collaboratively by 14 associations, which affirms the moral rights of filmmakers regarding the protection of their works by copyright.{{cite web | title=Déclaration des Cinéastes; The Declaration of filmmakers; Die Deklaration der Filmemacher:innen, 2024 | url=https://www.regieverband.de/sites/default/files/2024-03/2024-Declaration-des-cineastes-TEXT-E-D-F_Ver4.pdf|date=2024| via=BVR | access-date=31 January 2025}}

=Advocacy=

In 2007, the BVR called for a review of the {{ill|Deutscher Filmförderfonds|de|lt=German Federal Film Fund}}, following the collapse of a production deal for Jan de Bont's project Stopping Power,{{cite web | last=Meza | first=Ed | title=Directors call for funding review | website=Variety | date=6 September 2007 | url=https://variety.com/2007/film/news/directors-call-for-funding-review-1117971454/ | access-date=30 January 2025}} which was due to be filmed in Berlin.{{cite web | title=Stopping Power Is, Erm, Stopped | website=Empire | date=2 October 2007 | url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/stopping-power-erm-stopped/ | access-date=30 January 2025}}{{cite web | last=Gardner | first=Eriq | title=Jan de Bont sues for $1.25 million over pay-or-play snub | website=The Hollywood Reporter | date=15 September 2009 | url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/jan-de-bont-sues-125-63334/ | access-date=30 January 2025}}

At the meeting of the BVR General Assembly in 2010, two major decisions were taken:

BVR would take public broadcaster ZDF to court, for not having implemented the Authors Contract Law of 2002, and evading properly paying writers of content
On request by members, the board would negotiate new terms for film funding laws, to improve conditions for authors and directors

In 2024, the BVR, along with the German Screenwriters Guild, the alliance of film and TV producers, the federal acting association, and the producers association, called for public broadcasters to commit to investing at least half of their budgets to making shows, in an open letter to German state and federal governments outlining their "50+ for Programming" plan. Public television was being criticised by Germany's growing far-right populist movement, including the AFD.{{cite web | last=Roxborough | first=Scott | title=To Counter Right-Wing Populism, Invest More in Better Shows, German Industry Tells Public Broadcasters | website=The Hollywood Reporter | date=2 October 2024 | url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/counter-right-wing-with-more-program-investment-german-public-broadcasting-1236019677/ | access-date=30 January 2025}}

=Awards=

In 2012, the BVR established a new award, known as the {{ill|Deutscher Regiepreis Metropolis|de|lt=Metropolis Film Award}}{{cite web | title=Rome, Munich ... The Best of All Worlds keeps winning | website=AUSTRIAN FILMS | url=https://www.austrianfilms.com/news/en/bodyrome_munich__the_best_of_all_worlds_keeps_winningbody | language=de | access-date=31 January 2025}}), the biggest German film award for directors.{{cite web | first= Peter|last= Carpentier| title=ARAS Symposium "The German Directors Guild BVR, the German Audiovisual Industry and commissioning in German TV" | format=slide presentation| website=SlidePlayer | date=16 April 2015 | url=https://slideplayer.com/slide/6675682/ | access-date=31 January 2025}} Winners of the directing prize receive a "Metropolis" statuette as well as prize money worth more than US$60,000 (€55,000) ({{as of|lc=yes|2015}}). A gala ceremony is held in November, where the awards are presented.{{cite web | last=Blaney | first=Martin | title=German Directors' Guild nominates 'Labyrinth of Lies', 'Summers Downstairs' | website=Screen | date=31 January 2025 | url=https://www.screendaily.com/news/german-directors-guild-nominates-labyrinth-of-lies-summers-downstairs/5094674.article | access-date=31 January 2025}}{{cite web | title=Feo Aladag is nominated for the BVR – German Directors Award METROPOLIS 2014 | website=Independent Artists | date=6 October 2014 | url=https://www.independent-artists.de/feo-aladag-is-nominated-for-the-bvr-german-directors-award-metropolis-2014/ | language=de | access-date=31 January 2025}}

The awards were expanded to include various categories. Edward Berger's film Jack won Best Director and Best Picture at the German Directors Guild Awards in 2015.{{cite web | title=Villa Aurora Grant Recipients 2015 | website=VATMH | url=https://www.vatmh.org/en/grant-recipient-details/grant/329-edward-berger.html | access-date=29 January 2025}}

In 2017, the Metropolis Best Director award was presented for the seventh time, to Austrian director Adrian Goiginger for his debut feature film, Die beste aller Welten (The Best of All Worlds), with Verena Altenberger winning Best Actress for her role in it.{{cite web | title=The Best of all Worlds | website=Winter Film Festival | date=8 January 2018 | url=https://winterfilmawards.com/film/wfa18-the-best-of-all-worlds/ | access-date=31 January 2025}} Roland Klick won the Lifetime Achievement Award, and a new award, the Jannet Fechner Award, was established, for an assistant director for their life's work. Helga Asenbaum was the recipient of the inaugural prize.

In 2018, the drama Styx won the Best Director award for Feature Film ({{ill|Wolfgang Fischer (director)|de|3=Wolfgang Fischer (Regisseur, 1970)|lt=Wolfgang Fischer}}), and (Susanne Wolff won Best Actress for her role in the film.{{cite web | title=Styx | website=eQuinoxe Europe | url=https://www.equinoxe-europe.org/screen/styx.html | access-date=31 January 2025}} A German-Brazilian co-production directed by Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck, The Cleaners, won the Best Documentary Directors Award Metropolis.{{cite web | title=German Documentaries | website=The Cleaners | url=https://german-documentaries.de/en_EN/films/the-cleaners.10220 | access-date=31 January 2025}}

There does not appear to be evidence of the Metropolis awards continuing beyond 2018.

=Oscars nomination jury=

In 2017, a representative of Directors Guild was one of nine members of the independent jury appointed by German Films to represent Germany in the Oscars. The other members were representatives from the German Producers Association, the German Producers Alliance/Cinema Section, the Association of German Film Exporters, the Association of German Film Distributors, the Association of German Exhibitors, the {{ill|Verband der deutschen Filmkritik|de|lt=German Film Critics Association}}, and the German Film Academy. In that year, they chose In the Fade, directed by Fatih Akin, as Germany's official submission for the 90th Academy Awards, in the Best Foreign Language Film category.{{cite web | title=In the Fade is the German submission for the Oscars | website=Cineuropa | date=25 August 2017 | url=https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/333529/ | access-date=31 January 2025}}

=Publications=

In 2014 the BRV published their first diversity report, "Erster Regie-Diversitätsbericht des BVR, 2010-2013". Data and methodology from this report (among others) were used by the European Women's Audiovisual Network to compile a Europe-wide report on women in the film industry in 2015,{{cite report| url=https://www.ewawomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Complete-report_compressed.pdf| title= Where are the women directors? Report on gender equality for directors in the European film industry, 2006-2013| p=Appendix, 10|date=2015}} as well as a 2020 report looking at international figures on women creatives.{{cite book | last=Prommer | first=Elizabeth | last2=Loist | first2=Skadi | title=Women in the International Film Industry | chapter=Where Are the Female Creatives? The Status Quo of the German Screen Industry | publisher=Springer International Publishing | publication-place=Cham | year=2020 | isbn=978-3-030-39069-3 | doi=10.1007/978-3-030-39070-9_3 | page=43–60}}

It has since published updated diversity reports, as well many others on topics such as copyright and funding.{{cite web | title=Publikationen/Stellungnahmen | website=Bundesverband Regie | url=https://www.regieverband.de/stellungnahmen | language=de | access-date=31 January 2025}}