The panel aims at investigating the concept of auteur in the European context from a media industry perspective, combining political economy and production studies. Despite there is a wide scholarship about film authorship, European directors have rarely been investigated as stakeholders within the film business, and this panel aims at starting to fill this gap. The increase of sources of film financing, the growth of production volumes, and the advent of wide on-demand libraries are transforming well-known directors in key players for collecting money and into recognizable brands able to guarantee financers, gatekeepers and also spectators. Moreover, despite of policies, rules and praxes, there is room within media industry for personal paths that directors can undertake in order to make their films and establish themselves as auteurs/brands. In order to demonstrate that, the papers will address three globally successful European directors from different countries: Paolo Sorrentino (Italy), Lars Von Trier (Denmark), and Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey). Each analysis will present the modus operandi of one of them in terms of financing, production and distribution. This panel invites scholars to undertake a new research perspective in studying directors and authorship, and in doing that it meets the concept of “transition”. As the three papers will demonstrate, contemporary and acclaimed global film directors are in transition between film and scripted TV, in transition between countries for financing their works and collecting niche audiences, and, above all, in transition between art and industry.