Susan Newman Baudais has been named executive director of Eurimages, the Council of Europe’s cultural fund for the support of independent film co-production. She took up her new position on 1 March 2022.

Of dual Irish and French nationality, Susan Newman Baudais brings more than 27 years of experience in the audiovisual sector to the role. She has been at Eurimages since 2012, initially as a project manager with special responsibility for first films and for the revised Council of Europe Convention on Cinematographic Co-production and since 2020 as head of the fund’s co-production support programme. She joined Eurimages from the European Audiovisual Observatory, where she was a market researcher and analyst specialising in public funding and policy for film. Her previous experience was in the UK television sector, as a producer and director for on-air promotions at ITV broadcaster Granada and subsequently as a presentation editor at Channel 4 Television. She has also worked as a special effects producer in London and in the post-production sector in France.

She commented, “I look forward to building upon the work done over the last years to update the functioning of Eurimages and to collaborating closely with the fund’s board of management in implementing our new project selection methods and revised governance structure. Pursuing the pioneering work done on gender equality and expanding it towards diversity will also be a priority, as will the development of a green action plan.”

Since it was set up in 1988, Eurimages has supported 2,296 co-productions for a total amount of approximately €655 million.