The European Film Academy is an initiative of a group of European filmmakers who came together in Berlin on the occasion of the first presentation of the European Film Awards in November 1988.

In 1988, the Academy—under the name of European Cinema Society—was officially founded by its first President, the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, as well as 40 filmmakers from all over Europe in order to promote European film culture worldwide and to protect and to support the interests of the European film industry.Wim Wenders was elected Chairman. Two years later, the European Cinema Society was renamed European Film Academy and was registered as a non-profit association.

In 1996, Wim Wenders took over the presidency from Ingmar Bergman, and the British producer Nik Powell was elected new Chairman. The decisions about political targets and contents are made by the 15 Board members of the Academy which has its seat in Berlin.

Due to a decision of the General Assembly, the number of members - originally limited to 99 - has been continuously increasing and has now reached 2,300 (as of October 2010). The Academy is thus working in close contact with the European film industry.

Kenneth "Ken" Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.

He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness (Cathy Come Home) and labour rights (Riff-Raff).

Loach was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the son of Vivien (née Hamlin) and John Loach. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and following two years in the Royal Air Force read law at St Peter's College, Oxford. There he performed in the now well-established comedy group, the Oxford Revue. He initially worked as an actor in repertory theatre, but in the early 1960s moved into television direction and was credited in this role on early episodes of Z-Cars in 1964.

In 1966, Loach made the influential docudrama Cathy Come Home portraying working class people affected by homelessness and unemployment, and presenting a powerful and influential critique of the workings of the Social Services. Soon afterwards with Poor Cow (1967) he started directing films for the cinema, and in 1969 made Kes, the story of a troubled boy and his kestrel, based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. The British Film Institute named it No 7 in its list of best British films of the twentieth century, published in 1999.

Krzysztof Zanussi, (born 17 July 1939 in Warsaw, Poland) is a Polish producer and film director.

He is a professor of European film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland where he conducts a summer workshop. He is also a professor at the Silesian University in Katowice.

Zanussi studied physics at Warsaw University (Uniwersytet Warszawski) and philosophy at the Jagiellonian University (Uniwersytet Jagielloński) in Kraków. He is the director of the Polish Film Studio TOR and has received several prizes and awards, including the David di Donatello Prize of the Accademia del Cinema Italiano, the Cavalier's Cross of the Polonia Restituta Order, and the Cavalier de L'Ordre des Sciences et Lettres.

Krzysztof Zanussi has written On editing an amateur film (1968), Discourse on an amateur film (1978) and the memoirs, memoirs Time to Die (1999). He appeared as himself in Camera Buff (1979), a film about an amateur film maker, directed by his friend Krzysztof Kieślowski.

He is currently planning on directing an international production about the life and contributions of St. Hedwig of Poland, as well as a Polish-Ukrainian comedy.

Tudor Giurgiu (b. 1972 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania) is a Romanian film director. He was President of the Romanian National Television, TVR between 2005 and 2007. Tudor Giurgiu is also a director of music videos and has made documentaries. Giurgiu owns Librafilm, an independent production company and is the initiator and President of the Transilvanian Film Festival.

Love Sick, his first full-length film, was released in Romania 2006.

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930) is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one of them being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award) and three Golden Globes (including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award).

Connery is best known for portraying the character James Bond, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983 (six Eon Productions films and the non-canonical Thunderball remake, Never Say Never Again). In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His film career also includes such films as Marnie, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, Highlander, Murder on the Orient Express, Dragonheart, and The Rock. He was knighted in July 2000. Connery has been polled as "The Greatest Living Scot" and "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". In 1989, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine and in 1999, at age 69, he was voted "Sexiest Man of the Century".