Azerbaijan Professional Film Directors Guild

Date of establishment: 17.05.1999

Honorary President: Eldar Guliyev
Honorary Vice-President: Rasim Ojagov
Honorary Chairman: Huseyn Mehdiyev

Chairman of the Board of Directors: Ayaz Salayev

Director, 1st Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors: Shahira Tajaddin

Deputy Chairmen of the Board of Directors: Elkhan Jafarov, Nadir Mehdiyev

Secretary: Ramil Alakbarov

The Azerbaijan Professional Film Directors Guild was established on May 17, 1999 at the initiative of 32 film directors (“The Thirty”). It was registered by the Ministry of Justice on June 18, 1999. On March 22, 2001, a protocol of agreement on cooperation was signed with the Copyright Agency.

The main purpose of the establishment of the Guild is to ensure the protection of author, creative and social rights by implementing collective management of the property rights of audiovisual authors in a market economy, to increase the prestige and public importance of the director's art as the author of an audiovisual work and the head of the creative team, and to create conditions for the development of national cinema at a high artistic level.

By the decision of the Guild Bureau adopted on 01.09.2000, the activities of the Guild cover the rights of all audiovisual authors. During this time, the number of Guild members has exceeded 200, and more than 5,000 audiovisual works have been transferred to the Guild for collective management by producers, authors and their legal heirs under contracts.

In 2001, the Guild was admitted to the European Federation of Film Directors (FERA), and in 2016 to the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC).
The Guild's main projects are the "Audiovisual Festival" of Young Audiovisual Authors and the "Golden Fairy - Gizil Pari"  (2001) awards.