• Home
  • About ICDN
    • President’s Letter
    • Award for Best Casting
    • Statutes of ICDN
    • Protocols
  • Members
  • News
  • Join ICDN
  • Contact
ICDN
  • Home
  • About ICDN
    • President’s Letter
    • Award for Best Casting
    • Statutes of ICDN
    • Protocols
  • Members
  • News
  • Join ICDN
  • Contact

About ICDN

Photo: Harald Fuhr / ICDN

President’s Letter

In February 2020, I was honoured and thankful when selected as chair of the ICDN. A task that I hope I will be up to, after taking over from a dear colleague, Beatrice Kruger, who gave so much to the ICDN, and who left the Board only after taking good care that we are an association standing on firm legal ground. 

With excitement for the future of the ICDN, we are eager to build our network, as well as its content and activities, considering the cultural variety of our membership – something that we are very proud of! 

We are here to demystify our profession, to make a difference, and be an important voice in the industry of film, TV and new media. 

In this difficult moment on our planet, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we all need lots of strength and patience. When not immediately confronted by this virus’ terrible consequences, we might not take it all that seriously—but we should. (Keep in mind the example of Italy.) Stay home: it could save lives. 

The ICDN is wishing good care for you, your families, and your loved ones.  

Timka Grin 
President of the ICDN

ICDN President Timka Grin

2022-2024 Board of Directors

ICDN’s 2022-2024 Board of Directors was elected in February 2022, with Timka Grin (Bosnia & Herzegovina) continuing her role as President, Lana Veenker (USA) as Secretary and Anja Dihrberg (Germany) as Treasurer. Advisory Board Members include Jeremy Zimmermann (UK), Piotr Bartuszek (Poland), Lilia Hartmann Trapani (Italy), Sofia Dimopoulou (Greece), and newly-elected members Cassandra Han (Italy/Germany), Kristina Kolytė (Lithuania) and Florentina Bratfanof (Romania). Despite COVID restrictions, the majority of the board was able to meet at our Annual Assembly in Berlin on February 12th, 2022.

Pictured from left at ICDN’s Annual Assembly in Berlin: 2022-2024 Board Members Lilia Hartmann Trapani, Florentina Bratfanof, Lana Veenker (Secretary), Anja Dihrberg (Treasurer), Sofia Dimopoulou and Cassandra Han.
From left: 2022-2024 Board Members Kristina Kolytė, Piotr Bartuszek and Jeremy Zimmermann

Co-Founder’s Letter

When three individual Casting Directors from Spain, the UK and Italy were invited to speak about Casting at a Forum in Germany in 1994, little did we know that this would be the first step to what was to become the International Casting Directors Network (ICDN). 

Photos 1-3: Camilla-Valentine Isola, Beatrice Kruger and Debbie McWilliams at the first European casting meeting in 1998.
Photo 4: The New Faces workshop at the first European casting meeting. Left to right: Olle Westholm, Beatrice Kruger, Thomas Biehl, Jeanette Snik, Debbie McWilliams and Camilla-Valentine Isola.
All photos © Uwe Völkner/Fotoagentur FOX

Today, 25 years later and with over 90 members from 29 different countries, the overall ICDN goal continues to be what our colleagues in the US and UK have worked so hard to achieve: the recognition of the Casting Director as a Head of Department. Just as is the Costume Designer, the Director of Photography and the Art Director.

In order to achieve this goal, we need to be aware of and respect all our different cultures and histories, and how they may have conditioned us. This is an opportunity that you don’t get in an organisation that operates on a national level – to discover, grow together, make decisions and share responsibilities. And thereby to develop our very own ICDN identity: open, respectful and keen to collaborate with other countries and associations. 

We look forward to working with you!

Beatrice Kruger
ICDN President 2018-2020


ICDN – the story so far

In 1994 film critic, former CEO of the NRW Film Foundation and later Director of the Berlin International Film Festival, Dieter Kosslick, invited international Casting Directors Debbie McWilliams (UK), Camilla Valentine Isola (ES) and Beatrice Kruger (IT) to the Media Forum in Cologne to speak about casting. The very first step towards what was later to become the International Casting Directors Network was taken.  

Since then, we remained in touch, shared our experiences of casting in various countries, helped each other and started collaborating on co-productions.

ICDN members meet the Shooting Stars at Berlinale 2018. 
Photo: Harald Fuhr / EFP / European Shooting Stars

As the Internet was not yet established, we met at the Berlin International Film Festival every year, in particular for the European Shooting Stars Awards, and this also started attracting more and more casting director colleagues from other countries.

In 2016, we decided to create a Best Casting award, presented for the first time at the Locarno Film Festival.

Read more about the ICDN’s Best Casting award

In the meantime, we also became independent of the EFP and founded the ICDN officially as an international non-profit organisation based in Berlin in 2019. We have a truly international board, currently consisting of 10 members. Our main focus is always to make our profession known in each of our members’ countries and promote the advantages of collaborating with a Casting Director to their respective directors and producers at film and TV festivals, film schools, theatre academies and industry events. 

And now is a good moment for our profession, thanks to a few very important events, such as the recognition of a Casting Directors Branch at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the election of Casting Director David Rubin as the Academy President, and the new BAFTA for Best Casting.

As always, casting is both a blessing and at times a slightly more challenging blessing.

There is still a lot to do and together we can do it – step by step!

ICDN is supported by

Spotlight - the home of casting

Latest News

  • ICDA members prominent at 2023 Berlinale 24th January 2023
  • Simone Bär (1965-2023) 18th January 2023
  • White Lotus, TÁR and Elvis score at Golden Globes 12th January 2023
  • 7 ICDA members nominated for 2023 Artios Awards 12th January 2023
  • Happy New Year! – A message from the ICDA President 3rd January 2023

Supported by

Spotlight - the home of casting

Follow ICDN

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Notice
  • Cookie Policy
  • Useful Links

Copyright © 2023 ICDN

This website uses cookies to provide you with the best browsing experience. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However you may visit Cookie Settings to provide a controlled consent.

Cookie Policy Cookie settings Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Non Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-vimeo1 yearThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The purpose of this cookie is to check whether or not the user has given the consent to the usage of cookies under the category 'Vimeo'.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-youtube1 yearThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The purpose of this cookie is to check whether or not the user has given the consent to the usage of cookies under the category 'YouTube'.
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Non Necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

CookieDurationDescription
test_cookie11 months
YouTube

Cookies placed by the third party service provider YouTube

CookieDurationDescription
GPS30 minutesPurpose: Analytics.
This cookie is set by Youtube and registers a unique ID for tracking users based on their geographical location.
IDE2 yearsPurpose: Advertisement.
Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE5 monthsPurpose: Advertisement.
This cookie is set by Youtube. Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a website.
YSCPurpose: Performance.
This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos.
Vimeo

Vimeo’s embeddable video player uses first-party cookies that Vimeo consider essential to the video player experience. They do not use third-party analytics or advertising cookies when the video player appears on a third-party website.
https://vimeo.com/cookie_policy

CookieDurationDescription
vuid2 yearsPurpose: Analytics.
This cookie is set by Vimeo and is used to obtain statistics about the players’ performance on customer sites.
Save & Accept