Société des Réalisateurs de Films

The Société des Réalisateurs de Films (SRF) is a French filmmakers' organization founded on 14 June 1968 in the context of the protests of the late 1960s, with founders including Robert Bresson, Costa-Gavras, Louis Malle and Jacques Rivette. It states its mission as defending the artistic and moral freedoms and the professional and economic interests of filmmakers. By August 1968 it had 155 members, and it describes itself as the most representative filmmakers' organization in France, with more than 500 members.

The SRF was born from the protest fervor of the 1960s. The replacement of Henri Langlois at the Cinémathèque française in February 1968 sparked a mobilization against the Gaullist government, culminating in the interruption of the Cannes Festival and the États Généraux du Cinéma. In this context, a group of directors founded the Société des Réalisateurs de Films (SRF) on 14 June to defend artistic and professional freedoms. Among the founders were Robert Bresson, Costa-Gavras, Louis Malle and Jacques Rivette. By August 1968 the SRF had 155 members, bringing together various sensibilities of French cinema. The following year it launched the 'Quinzaine des réalisateurs', and 'Perspectives du cinéma français' in 1974. In the 1980s the SRF acquired an international dimension — notably with the FERA (Federation of European Film Directors) — and an institutional one, engaging in monthly discussions with the CNC. It fought for the Avance sur recettes and the status of author-director, leading to the law on audiovisual copyright in 1985. Those years also saw the creation of the Agence du court-métrage (1983). The following decade was marked by the fight for the cultural exception at the European Parliament, leading to the exclusion of cinema from the GATT agreements in 1994. In 1998 it helped counter the Multilateral Agreement...

The most representative filmmakers' organization in France, in number as well as in diversity of backgrounds and practices.

1. 1Société des réalisatrices et réalisateurs de filmsla-srf.fr
2. 2La SRF, déjà 50 ans d’histoire ! | Société des réalisatrices et réalisateurs de filmsla-srf.fr
3. 3法國導演協會wikidata.org