Visibility of Screenwriters

The low visibility of screenwriters and their work has been a concern of FSE and its individual members for many years. As examples, the FSE publication “Somebody Wrote It” and the campaign run by the Verband Deutscher Drehbuchautoren (VDD) “Kein drehbuch, kein film”.

The 16,400 episodes of television drama and 1,600 feature films produced in the members states of the European Union each year are written by screenwriters, members of guilds and unions, and would not exist were it not for their work (Source : European Audiovisual Observatory).

Various campaigns and activities intended to bring attention to the fundamental importance of the work of screenwriters to the film and television industries of Europe, worth €107 billion and employing 1.2 million Europeans (Source).

FSE established the European Screenwriters Awards in 2015 and held it again in 2017. It will next be awarded in 2020.

Additionally the FSE initiated the World Conference of Screenwriters (WCOS). Its first iteration in Athens in 2009 has been followed by three others and the fifth will be held in Copenhagen in 2020.

FSE believes that the low visibility of screenwriters is a contributory cause of their low payment and unstable working conditions. FSE will continue to emphasise it in its policy and practical work.