The European Film Academy, the board that oversees the European Film Awards, has voted to restructure its membership for the 2024 awards cycle.
As part of the plans announced today, the Academy will broaden its governing board to include representatives from 15 defined regions across Europe. Each region will be comprised of a cluster of neighboring countries. The UK and Ireland, for instance, make up one distinct region. Each region will be represented by one official.
Additionally, one current Academy board seat will be made available for what has been described as a transnational ethnic representative, allowing Academy members of either Sámi or Roma heritage to be elected. In mutual agreement, the first mandate for this seat will be for an elected member from the Sámi population. The Academy said this decision was made following extensive discussions with representatives from both populations.
The restructuring will take place in two stages, allowing current board members elected in December 2022 for a two-year stint to finish their mandate. The Academy said today that the changes were made to “reflect the realities of modern Europe and give a fairer and more equal distribution of voices from all over Europe within the board.”
“These changes will make for a more diverse and more democratically representative board to serve the European Film Academy,” said Mike Downey, Chair of the Academy board. “We are making a number of structural changes to the way the Academy is run, in order to bring it up to date with contemporary best practices, and this is just one of the changes which will help us serve our membership better, and provide a voice for some of those territories which have occasionally been marginalized or sidelined, not through any malign will, but simply by virtue of their geo-political location. In making these changes we will now rectify and recalibrate any and the Academy will emerge stronger, more inclusive, and fit for purpose for 2023 and years to come.”
The 15 new regions:
- Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia
- Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein (as of 2025, after current mandates end)
- Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia (as of 2025)
- Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands
- France, Monaco
- Ireland, UK
- Italy, Malta, San Marino
- Poland, Ukraine
- Andorra, Portugal, Spain
- Turkey, Azerbaijan, Palestine
- Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania
- Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Israel
- Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia
- Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden
- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
Additional seat
- Transnational ethnic representation (current eligible groups: Sámi population and Roma population)
