ARP calls for vigilance in face of technological advances
At the end of the Dijon Film Meetings, the ARP (Civil Society of Writers-Directors-Producers) put forward several proposals with regard to the latest technological advances which risk disrupting regulations introduced to protect and develop film creation.
The ARP is calling for the speedy publication of the draft decree on on-demand audiovisual media services for "beyond this text’s symbolic nature in the regulation of digital media, it paves the way for new, relevant financing methods that will guarantee the diversity of creation."
Secondly, "faced with the colossal stakes for the world of creation linked to the arrival of connected television sets and an overly individualistic vision of the Neutrality of the Net", the Writers-Directors-Producers are calling on the authorities to "immediately launch a large study into the arrival of these new methods of circulating and exhibiting films."
Finally, the ARP continues to "demand reduced-rate VAT for cultural goods and services, both on a European and French level."
On the subject of film exhibition, the ARP is delighted at the implementation of a legislative plan for the digital equipment of theatres, but underlines that it is now necessary to fulfil the aim of neutrality for digital film exhibition including through "accreditations relative to groups and programming agreements so that the market isn’t dominated by a few and the publication of decrees on supplementary programmes so that movie theatres remain movie theatres."
On the issue of distribution windows, the ARP concludes from the debates that successive exclusive rights create and preserve a film’s value, but it is pleased that the sector’s main stakeholders have "acknowledged that distribution windows could, as an exception, be adjusted to help more fragile films (for example those not backed by a TV network) to get onto the subscription video market."
Finally, the ARP is concerned about the reconsideration of cultural financing through regional authorities and has announced that the next edition of the Film Meetings will turn to Europe because "French positions on cinema and culture cannot be exemplary without a European resonance".
(Translated from French)
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