This brand-new report: “Writers and directors of film and TV/SVOD fiction: 2015-2022 figures ” has just been published by the European Audiovisual Observatory, part of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. This report provides an analysis of writers and directors of European theatrical films and TV/SVOD fiction produced in Europe between 2015-2022.
Key findings include:
- Over 25 000 writers and over 17 000 directors were involved in the production of European theatrical and TV/SVOD fiction between 2015 and 2021.
- The strong growth in the production of European TV/SVOD series since 2015 logically led them overtaking theatrical films in terms of writing and directing assignments (For TV/SVOD series: 1 assignment = 1 season, no matter the number of episodes written or directed).
- However, the boom in TV/SVOD series production has not led to less precariousness, as the number of active screenwriters and directors in this segment has grown faster than the number of assignments; in other words, theatrical films assignments are quite stable and TV/SVOD series assignments are more competitive as film directors and screen writers move into the segment.
- Intense turnover: Theatrical film writers and directors worked on average on 1.4 films between 2015 and 2022; TV/SVOD fiction writers participated on average in 1.7 TV films or TV series and TV/SVOD fiction directors participated on average in 2.2 TV films or TV series.
- Moving from films to TV fiction: A significant share of 2015-2022 TV/SVOD fiction directors (59%) have at some point also written or directed a theatrical film.
- The ‘film d’auteur’ model remains dominant in European film: close to half of theatrical film writers active between 2015 and 2022 wrote only films they directed. However the model is radically different for TV/SVOD fiction where most writers (91%) wrote for projects they did not direct.
