European film is once again reflecting on its future. The film director and conference curator of the Euro Balkan Film Festival (running 30 October – 9 November) Maurizio Sciarra is gathering together directors, producers, screenwriters and institutional representatives in order to contend with the challenges of filmmaking in an age of artificial intelligence, streaming platforms and new copyright laws.

Cineuropa: In your experience, and as an observer of the situation in Italy, are streaming platforms undermining European creativity? In other words, are we seeing an impoverishment of cultural diversity?
Maurizio Sciarra: There’s a levelling off and a standardisation of creativity. And algorithms, which are hidden, owned by the big platforms and created outside of Europe, are shaped by standardised audiences. This is a problem. Increasingly, local productions are having to conform to these models and, as a result, our creativity is at risk of being “exported” outside of Europe. European films and audiovisual works have been great when they’ve been able to express different sensibilities and perspectives. And when they’ve explored the many different faces of Europe. But we’re at risk of losing all that. Or maybe we’ve already lost it. 

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Do you feel that European legislation is strong enough to respond to the challenges posed by the digital world and artificial intelligence?
European legislation on audiovisual works is a crucial benchmark and, often, as is the case in Italy, it’s far more advanced. The concept of “cultural exception” gives rise to a cultural, economic and political model of support for a kind of cinema which is independent in terms of its ideas and production lines. That model has resulted in diverse and competitive films, which Trump is now trying to challenge by way of his proposal for tariffs on audiovisual products. Reinvestment obligations on parties who do business with the audiovisual industry have resulted in significant capital for European industries, and now they’re under attack. Netflix is signing massive deals in Switzerland, investing at least 4% of the total revenue it generates in that country, but it’s rejecting the same rules in Italy, resulting in a huge fall in investment in independent Italian productions. Europe has introduced a vital copyright directive which Italy is struggling to implement. And now they’re talking about fair remuneration for directors and screenwriters. Europe is drafting an important AI directive, drawing out ethical and production-based boundaries. But there’s a risk that the new commission will backtrack on audiovisual products. The workshops which will be held in Rome will allow us to examine all that and offer up solutions.

How are collective copyright management companies positioning themselves in this context?
Ultimately, the copyright directive sets out the common ground for collective management organisations operating in Europe. There’s always the danger of a rise in private management organisations, which are born solely out of a desire to make money and to speculate rather than aiming to meet authors’ needs. It’s a trend we should definitely resist. In Rome, we’ll be talking with Balkan authors’ associations about how to create collective management organisations linked to the people who make films. We’ll also welcome Directors UK, who’ll explain how the copyright strike at the BBC resulted in the creation of one of the biggest CMOs ever founded and directed by UK authors. We’ll also have SIAE, who have very strong ties with Italian authors. We need to recreate a European model for CMOs too, born out of fair remuneration for authors.

The Euro Balkan Film Festival is organising two international conferences. The opening day will host an international workshop dedicated to modern-day creative challenges. The second day will see the festival continuing with new sessions dedicated to authors. Guests include Bill Anderson, Elisabeth Sjaastad and Hrvoje Hribar from FERA – the European Federation of Film Directors; Francesco Ranieri Martinotti representing ANAC, in conversation with director Chiara Sambuci; journalist Marco Mele and academic Alberto Pasquale (of Lazio Innova); producer Adele Budina and directors Mimmo Calopresti, Robert Budina, Klemen Dvornik, Elma Tataragić and Giacomo Durzi; and the director of the SIAE’s film department Andrea Marzulli. The leaders of the main National Film Centres in the Balkan region will also take part in the event, namely Blerta Zeqiri (Kosovo), Jozko Ruttar (Slovenia), Jonid Jorgji (Albania), and Hrvoje Hribar for Croatia. Cécile Despringre, the general secretary of the SAA, will join us from Brussels, alongside the presidents of the Balkan region’s CMOs: Evien Dako (FAAD – Albania), Lirak Celaj (VAPIK – Kosovo), Kiril Gjozev (AZAS – North Macedonia) and Gregor Štibernik (AIPA – Slovenia).