The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) originated in 1925 when some film journalists from Paris and Brussels founded a Professional Association of the Film Press. Soon after, the Belgium journalists took the initiative in making contact with others in foreign countries. The idea of an International Federation subsequently took shape in Paris during the Congress of Cinema, held in the Rothschild Foundation building between 27 September and 3 October 1926. By the outbreak of World War II, FIPRESCI consisted of seven national sections - Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and Czechoslovakia - with nine other countries - the Vatican City, Spain, the United States of America, Holland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland - represented by individual members. After the war it was again France and Belgium which started the process of getting FIPRESCI running once again. When the Cannes Film Festival began in 1946, FIPRESCI was present and at a meeting new officials were elected, with British critic Dilys Powell as President. FIPRESCI also formed a jury at this first festival and awarded its prize ex aequo to David Lean's Brief Encounter and Georges Rouquier's Farrebique. In 1947 the organisation was fortunate enough to find Denis Marion, a man of great diplomacy and charm who helped direct FIPRESCI towards its current situation. The purpose of the Federation, as set out in its statutes, is to develop on an international scale the activities of its members, particularly: (i) to safeguard the freedom and ethics of film criticism and film journalism and of information; (ii) to promote and expand the idea of the cinema as a means of artistic expression and of cultural education; (iii) to discuss, define and confirm the specific rights and obligations of film criticism and journalism; (iv) to encourage the exchange of ideas and experience among film critics and film journalists of all countries and thereby create, outside all ideological and political distinctions, a new foundation for a permanent dialogue; and (v) to publish and distribute all the documents which accord with this view.
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