– The initiative provides a platform where writers can connect, share questions, support each other and escape from their isolated working environments
The European Writers Desk participants on a boat tour in Hamburg
“Can you ever break up with your mother?” This was the question posed by a Swedish-Danish-Finnish writer in a simulated writers’ room during the European Writers Desk (EWD) workshop in Brussels. What began as an exercise in collaborative writing during the 2024 workshop has since developed into a comedic road movie about a codependent mother-daughter relationship. This is just one of the success stories to have come out of the EWD network.
The EWD was initiated in line with the different funding schemes dedicated to the “Writing European” programme, based on a request from the European Parliament in 2022. This stemmed from evidence that writing is the basis of successful content. After 25 years of experience in fostering European co-productions, it was time to open the floor to another and long-neglected group of players in the industry: writers. As a result, Creative Europe Desk Hamburg encouraged its colleagues in all member states to be part of a screenwriters’ network. Immediately, it teamed up with around 20 desks.
The procedure is simple: all desks announce one to three writers who have expressed an openness to working internationally. So far, there is a catalogue of nearly 100 writers, from Georgia to Ireland, and from Norway to Portugal. First, this was to give them a platform where they could connect, share questions, support each other and escape from their isolated working environments. The team organised several online meetings with different guests, like Frank Doelger, producer at Intaglio Films (The Swarm); David Kavanagh, executive officer of the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE); Marc Lorber, an Emmy- and Bafta-winning executive producer; Francesca Bianchini, head of Business Affairs at Amazon Studios; Fedos Silio-Simon and Ben Harris, creatives at Netflix; Christian Friedrichs from NDF; and many more.
But to achieve a deep connection, they would need to meet in real life. So again, through the joint efforts of the desks, an in-person meeting was arranged once a year. The focus of the first such meeting, in Copenhagen, was to encourage the writers to open up to collaboration, to improvise creatively and to get to know which difficulties they were experiencing. The result was overwhelming: “I hadn’t expected such immense positive feedback – people were extremely open to getting in touch, and they were full of gratitude and were motivated to collaborate in a supportive and appreciative way. It felt as though we had opened the door to something that had been brewing for a long time,” sums up Christiane Siemen, of Creative Europe Desk Hamburg.
Agata Malesińska, who has already experienced working in an international writers’ room for the Netflix series 1899, remarks: “I joined the EWD hoping to maybe pick up a few craft tips – I did not expect to walk away with a best friend from Vienna and the Heldinnen in Serie 2024 Award for a comedy-series concept, but here we are. And it’s all because of what EWD is about – you show up for the networking and leave with collaborators and people who will laugh at your worst first drafts without judging you, instead giving you the best feedback notes you could imagine. Professionally, EWD has changed the trajectory of my career; personally, it has given me a group chat that I actually enjoy. I am truly, deeply, enthusiastically grateful to be part of this community – so thank you, EWD, for building something so quietly extraordinary.”
More meetings in Hamburg, Brussels, Stockholm and, once again this year, Hamburg brought the network closer together.
Additionally, the team is now focusing on forging a closer link with the industry. It has started cooperating with different markets focused on series, like Seriencamp in Cologne and Seriesly in Berlin. There is a dedicated slot in the pitching schedule open for one writer in the network.
During the last few meetings, it has invited producers to present their companies and have one-on-one meetings with the writers. Encouragingly, the producers have embraced the invitation, proving that the initiative is on the right track.
The EWD is set to become a place of excellence, where producers know they can get in touch with one another while looking for scribes. With a bit of time and openness, co-writing will become as usual as co-producing.
