Screenwriters and directors call on European Parliament to put authors at heart of copyright reform

Published on 23.11.2016

A delegation of audiovisual authors and their collective management organisations (CMOs) from across Europe met Members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg to discuss copyright package ahead of the announcement of the winner of the European Parliament’s LUX Film Prize.

With the European Parliament about to start discussing the European Commission’s copyright package proposals, SAA and FERA brought screenwriters and directors from across Europe. During their meetings with MEPs, they encouraged them to change the rules to achieve two main objectives: ensure that authors are fairly remunerated when their works are seen; better support the circulation and promotion of European audiovisual works.

The delegation also met the teams of the three LUX Film Prize finalists (My life as a Courgette by Claude Barras, Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade and As I open my eyes by Leyla Bouzid) present in Strasbourg for the awarding of the 2016 LUX Film Prize on 23 November. The European Parliament’s cinema prize provides distribution support through subtitling in the 24 official European languages, an essential element of a films’ circulation across Europe.

The delegation was made up of SAA members from Croatia (DHFR), France (SACD, Scam), Germany (VG Bild Kunst), Poland (ZAPA), Slovenia (AIPA), Spain (SGAE, DAMA) and the United Kingdom (ALCS, Directors UK) as well as Members of FERA’s board of directors from Germany, Slovenia and France. The authors in the delegation included:

Julia Altares (Amar en tiempos revueltos), Spain
Christophe Andrei (Plus Belle La Vie), France
Karolina Bielawska (Mów mi Marianna), Poland
Peter Carpentier (Wie es Bleibt), Germany
Carlos Clavijo (Gernika), Spain
Klemen Dvornik (Kruha in Inger), Slovenia
Dariusz Gajewski (Obce Niebo), Poland
Anne Georget (Festins Imaginaires), France
Virginie Linhart (Lundi en Histoires - Manuel Valls : Le Matador), France
Jobst Ötzmann (Tatort), Germany
Di Redmond (ZOU), UK
Tom Roberts (Company of Soldiers), UK

About SAA

Founded in 2010, the Society of Audiovisual Authors (SAA) is the association of European collective management organisations representing audiovisual authors. Its 29 members in 22 countries manage rights for over 120,000 film, television and multimedia European screenwriters and directors.

The organisation’s objectives are:

to defend and strengthen the economic and moral rights of audiovisual authors;
to secure fair remuneration for audiovisual authors for every use of their works;
to develop, promote and facilitate the management of rights by member societies.

www.saa-authors.eu @saabrussels

About FERA

The Federation of European Film Directors (FERA), founded in 1980, represents film and TV directors at European level, with 35 directors’ associations as members from 29 countries. We speak for more than 20,000 European screen directors, representing their cultural, creative and economic interests.