President’s Letter
Over the past two years, we have experienced some of the most exciting times in the history of our profession. In 2024, ICDA appealed to the European Film Academy to create an award for casting directors. After decades of building the foundations for this request, our entreaty was finally heard, and this cherished, longtime goal of our founding members was achieved when the first European Casting Director Award was presented at the 2026 European Film Awards in Berlin. Two months later, the historic first Oscar for Best Casting was given at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
When AMPAS and the European Film Academy announced publicly that these new prizes would be created, a seismic shift occurred. Whereas previously, our profession struggled for recognition, suddenly, with a pending Oscar and European Casting Director Award, all eyes began to turn on us. There’s a new interest in hearing about our process, whether in interviews, on panels, or in the press. It is now up to us to clarify to industry and the public what defines good casting.
Casting directors understand the complexities that go into assembling the perfect cast, but because our work happens mostly behind closed doors, it can be difficult for the average viewer to gauge what went into finding the right actors, drawing out their performances, and creating the perfect chemistry between them. It’s part expertise, part intuition, and part alchemy.
ICDA will continue to support exchange within the profession, foster collaboration across borders, and contribute to a shared understanding of casting as a creative and strategic discipline. We are committed to strengthening professional standards and to maintaining an ongoing dialogue with the wider industry alongside our fellow department heads.
We are also thrilled that our membership extends well beyond Europe, encompassing casting directors working across Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Australia, alongside a strong and diverse European base. This international perspective remains central to our identity.
Together, we will continue to share the artistic and financial value that casting directors bring to the filmmaking process. I would like to thank our founding members, Debbie McWilliams (UK), Beatrice Kruger (IT), and Camilla Valentine Isola (ES), for their leadership and vision, as well as our previous and current Board Members, for their support and guidance.
Lana Veenker
President, International Casting Directors Association (ICDA)
2024-Present
2026-2028 Board of Directors
ICDA’s 2026-2028 Board of Directors was elected in July 2026, with Lana Veenker (USA) reelected as President, Sofia Dimopoulou (Greece) elected as Secretary, and Anders Nygaard (Denmark) elected as Treasurer. Advisory Board Members are Piotr Bartuszek (Poland), Kolade Shasi (Nigeria/ UK), Donna Morong (USA), and Armando Pizzuti (Italy).
From top left to right: Lana Veenker, Sofia Dimopoulou, Anders Nygaard, Armando Pizzuti, Piotr Bartuszek, Donna Morong, and Kolade Shasi.
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 Association (ICDA).
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, the overall ICDA 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 ICDA identity: open, respectful and keen to collaborate with other countries and associations.
We look forward to working with you!
Beatrice Kruger
ICDA President 2018-2020
ICDA – 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 Association 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.
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 an Award for Excellence in Casting, presented for the first time at the Locarno Film Festival.
Read more about the ICDA’s Award for Excellence in Casting
In the meantime, we also became independent of the EFP and officially founded the International Casting Directors Network (ICDN) as an international non-profit organisation based in Berlin in 2019. This then became the International Casting Directors Association (ICDA) on 1st January 2023.
We have a truly international board. 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 BAFTA for Best Casting, the Academy Award for Best Casting, the new Casting Chapter within the European Film Academy and the European Casting Director Award.
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!
