FEDEORA joins IPA

  • FEDEORA, the federation of European and Mediterranean film critics, has joined with the International Press Academy (on November 9 2011) to extend IPA’s membership and the cross-cultural reach of both organizations. The joint announcement was made by Ronald Bergan, FEDEORA’s President, and Mirjana Van Blaricom, IPA President.

    FEDEORA, which was founded 18 months ago at Cannes, includes members from The United Kingdom, Sweden, The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Israel, Spain, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Macedonia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Russia, Denmark, and Turkey.

    “We are delighted and honored that you have welcomed us as a partner and colleague of such a prestigious association as IPA,” said Ronald Bergan. “I’m proud to say that we already have members from 20 different countries.”

    He added that FEDEORA has “established juries at seven festivals (Pula (Croatia), Mons (Belgium), Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), Haifa (Israel), Novi Sad (Serbia), Koper (Slovenia) and Aarhus (Denmark)), created a lively website with festival reports and articles, and published a book on the Polish film director Dorota Kedezavska, with the co-operation of Cinema City in Novi Sad.”

    “We will now have eyes and ears on the ground at the source, in the home countries where world cinema is produced,” said Van Blaricom. “Films that might have been overlooked now stand a chance of being seen, appreciated, and reviewed. IPA welcomes an exciting chapter with FEDEORA. These new members represent not only the Euro-Med region and beyond, but their experience and expertise reflects a worldwide perspective on American films as well.”

    “Although the official language of FEDEORA is English (for obvious practical reasons) the vast majority of our members come from non-English speaking countries and their opinions will   create a more cosmopolitan counterbalance.  In these days of blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, a federation of well-known film critics from different countries with different cultures is not only rare, but essential,” Bergan concluded.

    With the addition of FEDEORA’s working membership, IPA will include new member choices and input in the balloting process for selecting nominees for the Satellite Awards.
    More on IPA: www.pressacademy.com