Committee Members Attending

Georges Fondeur (President)
Jeanne Glass (Vice-President)
Jan Essing (Secretary General)
Thomas Kräuchi (Treasurer)

Advisers:

Also Present

Max Hänsli (Honorary President)
Fred Graber (Friends of UNICA)
Wolfgang Freier (UNICA Patronage)
Claire Auda (Translations)
Alois Urbanek (Congress President)
Serge Michel (IFTC Liaison)
Wolfgang Schweiger (Executive Director)

Not Present

Zeljko Balog (Adviser)
Arie de Jong (Webmaster)

Federations Represented

Armenia
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Switzerland
Czech Republic
Germany
Spain
Estonia
Finland
France
United Kingdom
Croatia
Italy
Republic Of Korea
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Netherlands
Poland
Romania
Russia
Slovakia
Ukraine

19. Discussion and vote about proposals submitted by members

Georges Fondeur (pres.) points out that new proposals have to be admitted at least 5 months prior to the General Assembly.

From Italy the committee received a proposal in accordance with this. On behalf of the FEDIC President, Rolf Mandolesi (ITA) reads the proposal aloud, containing the proposal to waive from every kind of categorization in the UNICA annual film contest. (Read it here.)

Briefly: “Film is film and should be assessed as such”.

André Lion (BEL): How do you distinguish between professionals and non-professionals?

Rolf Mandolesi (ITA) answers this could be checked in the internet.

Rolf Diehl (CHE): what do we gain by accepting your proposal?

Rolf Mandolesi (ITA) The jury should asses a film by its merit not by its author.

Georges Fondeur (president) : I was a bit surprised by this proposal from FEDIC. In the UNICA Committee we discussed the matter thoroughly and voted for the categories we have now in majority. The committee thinks that we will not keep any non-professionals in UNICA contests if we change from categories we have now.

Emil Mateias (ROU): suggest to remove all categories but leave the Jeunesse-category. In his country it’s quite difficult to distinguish between categories other than Jeunesse.

Georg Schörner (AUT): we have good confidence in the committee. It’s not only the films we’re interested in, but also in our public. Our public consists mostly of amateur film makers and we have a good system that has proved to be OK. The committee has issued a renewal questionnaire, that covers all of the discussions we’re having now. So,why don’t we wait with which proposals the committee confronts us with?

Georges Fondeur (president) brings the ITA proposal into vote: only ITA is in favour, no abstentions, all others against. Rolf Mandolesi (ITA) accepts the result of voting.

20. Determination of next year's contribution

Georges Fondeur (president) explains that we maintain the system of contribution at UNICA as fixed in Luxemburg. There are no questions nor objections and all vote in favour.

21. Confirmation of the budget

Thomas Kräuchi (treasurer): explains that the budget for 2014 had been sent out together with the balance sheet for 2013. We calculate with 32 countries. The revenues are about 11,000 Euro and the expenditures also.

There are no questions nor objections, so the budget for 2014 is determined with all in favour.

Part 1

• Opening address by the President of the Congress
• Federations / Representative / Deputies
• AGM Organisation
• Confirmation of the agenda
• Address by the President of UNICA
• Vote on the proceedings of the General Assembly UNICA 2013 in Fiberbrunn (AUT)
• Report of the Committee by the Secretary General
• Report of the Treasurer
• Report of the Auditors
• Report of the Film Librarian

Part 2

• Report of Friends of UNICA
• Report of Patronages
• Report of the delegate to I.F.T.C.
• Report regarding UNICA Web
• Discharge of the Committee
• Election of a new auditor
• Admission and resignation of members
• Discussion and vote about proposals of the Committee

Links

UNICA-news.com

22. Selection of the place and dates of the congress in future years:

2014: Piešťany (SVK) (determined).

Georges Fondeur (president): recalls that UNICA 2014 was also voted upon viz. in the spa city of Piešťany in Slovakia about 100 km. from Bratislava.  Zuzana Skoludova (SVK) refers to the film that was shown about UNICA 2014. The dates  will be 23rd– 30th August 2014. She’s prepared to answer all questions.

2015: St. Petersburg (determined).

Georges Fondeur (president): gladly declares that an official proposal was received to organise UNICA 2015 in the city of Saint Petersburg (RUS). The committee will visit St. Petersburg in June 2014.

2016: Romania (proposal)

Emil Mateias (ROU): although Romania has been member of UNICA for only three years, we are confident organising a UNICA Congress and Festival in the eastern parts of Romania. We have good faith in a long co-operation with the UNICA committee and I myself was part of the Aachen organizational committee in 1982. In mid-October we have meetings with officials and authorities. And we make good use of the script Zuzana drew up.

Georges Fondeur (president): Next year we’ll decide when there are more things clear about the Romanian proposal. Every member of the assembly approves Romania as a candidate for organizing the 2016 Congress.

For later years (2017, 2018) there are only thoughts in the Netherlands (2018) and United Kingdom or Germany (no certain year).

23. Miscellaneous, without vote

Vladimir Murtin (NLD): We should do something about UNICA Jeunesse. We have happy memories about Luxembourg and somewhat less so for Bulgaria, but in Austria nothing was organised. We posed many question, but received no answers. Thus we didn’t bring any Jeunesse-participants (although their films were represented in the Netherlands programme.

Georges Fondeur (president): stresses that the committee also regrets no Jeunesse program was initiated. In Luxembourg we organised together with the E.U. Youth in Action and it was meant to be organised in Bulgaria as well. Given the situation this year in Austria there was no possibility of organising anything special for Jeunesse. Hopefully in Slovakia things will turn for the better.

Ladislav Frantis (CZE): thinks that we should allow more technical possibilities with the screening of films.

Georges Fondeur (president): answers that the 2013 forms allow almost any kind of data and almost all carriers.

Bernhard Zimmermann (DEU): rules about the UNICA Jeunesse should be more clearly communicated.

Georges Fondeur (president): they are displayed in the UNICA website. One author under 25 years with a film in the national programme has the right of a free congress card (half paid by the UNICA-cashier and half by the national federation) and free lodging (congress organizer). The young film-maker takes care of the cost of (remaining) meals and the travel costs.

Dave Watterson (visitor and UNICA-news webmaster): we get together in UNICA because we like watching films and discussing film. In the official UNICA website you’ll find official information about UNICA. We launched a UNICA-News website for other useful and nice information. I incorporated the information Art Hovanessian sent to me and added a cartoon, drawn by Fred Graber. In no way it was meant to offend Art. On several occasions I made apologies to him and I repeat them publicly in your assembly.

Georges Fondeur (president): apologises to Dave Watterson if  he rashly commented on the UNICA News-website in the preparations to this meeting.

Rolf Mandolesi (ITA): it’s a pity if Hungary will not come to UNICA anymore. Can UNICA Friends pay for their contribution one more time?

Georges Fondeur (president): Fred Graber already mentioned that Friends paid for Hungary for three years. It’s not only a matter of money also of interest in Hungary for UNICA.

Emil Mateias (ROM) will try to contact Hungary next year in Romanian activities.

A question is raised about whether the lists of participants to UNICA Congress can be distributed. That could be of help connecting to other people/federations around the world.

Georges Fondeur (president): We’ll examine the applicable privacy regulations and see what can be done.

Art Hovanessian (ARM) wants to discuss discrimination within UNICA. He produced a paper on this subject and offers a German translation for everyone.

Georges Fondeur (president) knows about his paper, but it wasn’t addressed to the Committee. We take note of it. The German translation was produced by the secretary-general just for information and use within the committee.

Georges Fondeur (president) thanks the participants for their contributions, especially the interpreters for performing their difficult job and his fellow committee members for their support and closes the meeting.