Today, at the Venice Film Festival, the Giornate degli Autori brought together directors and representatives of directors’ guilds from France, Spain and Italy, alongside the Federation of European Screen Directors (FERA), to place a fundamental principle firmly at the centre of the debate: independence is a precondition for artistic freedom. The "From Declaration to Action - Defending Creative Freedom: European Authors and the Future of Independent Cinema" meeting, organised as a follow-up to the "Déclaration des cinéastes" first launched at Cannes in 2023 and subsequently echoed at major festivals across Europe, marks a continuation of this collective mobilisation.

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In the words of the signatories (ANAC - Associazione Nazionale Autori Cinematografici, 100autori – Associazione dell’autorialità cinetelevisiva, L’ARP - Société civile des Auteurs-Réalisateurs-Producteurs, SRF - Société des réalisatrices et réalisateurs de films, ACCION - Asociación de Directores y Directoras de Cine de España and FERA), "Today, we are turning declaration into action. At a time of profound geopolitical uncertainty, when Europe’s cultural sovereignty and diversity are under increasing pressure, the ability of directors and other authors to create freely, independently and with control over their work must be protected. This freedom also depends on a strong and diverse ecosystem of independent production, capable of developing and financing original works. The enforcement of the AI Act and the rapid development of generative AI make this more urgent than ever, while authors across Europe continue to fight for the fair and appropriate remuneration of their work."

The full statement continues below:

As the European Parliament prepares to finalise its position on AgoraEU - a proposal that will have a major impact on the stability, funding and development of European cinema, and on Europe’s ability to shape its cultural future - European directors unanimously call on European and national policymakers to:

• Safeguard the independence of authors as a necessary condition for artistic freedom and freedom of expression, including directors’ ability to retain meaningful artistic control over their work.
• Provide authors with the conditions to develop and create their works freely, through the support of a diverse and independent production sector.
• Protect European cultural sovereignty, diversity and plurality by ensuring that artists can create in a climate of freedom and independence.
• Enforce existing copyright rules and ensure full respect for authors’ rights throughout the audiovisual value chain.
• Guarantee appropriate and fair remuneration for authors and ensure that their contribution to European culture is properly valued.
• Put authors’ rights, artistic freedom and freedom of expression at the heart of European cultural policy.

AI must not come at the expense of authors.

As European countries develop and implement AI legislation, the framework governing AI and culture must be grounded in three fundamental principles:

• Transparency — authors must know which works and content are used to train AI systems.
• Consent and authors’ rights — authors must have the right to authorise or refuse the use of their works, with their rights fully respected.
• Fair remuneration — when authors’ works contribute to the development or training of AI systems, authors must receive fair and appropriate remuneration.

Like the current Creative Europe - MEDIA, AgoraEU must become a tool for concrete action.

The European Parliament’s draft position on AgoraEU already provides a strong foundation. We now call on decision makers at European and national levels to support and strengthen these provisions and use AgoraEU as the political tool it is intended to be, including by:

• protecting the independence and artistic freedom of authors;
• ensuring that access to European audiovisual production funding under MEDIA+ remains conditional on independence,
• ensuring respect for authors’ rights;
• guaranteeing appropriate remuneration for authors participating in EU-funded projects;
• ensuring authors’ rights are respected in relation to AI;
• preventing certain AI-generated projects from benefiting from EU funding;
• supporting mobility, residencies, mentoring and exchange programmes for screen directors and screenwriters;
• strengthening support for European networks of audiovisual organisations ; and
• ensuring a clearly identifiable and adequate allocation for cinema and audiovisual creation within the programme.

The future of European cinema depends on the independence of its authors and on a sustainable ecosystem of independent production. Without independence, there can be no genuine artistic freedom; without artistic freedom, there can be no diverse, plural and sovereign European cinema. We call on European and national policymakers to turn these principles into concrete policy and action.

European directors will follow the development of AgoraEU closely and remain ready to engage constructively with policymakers to ensure that Europe’s audiovisual future remains free, diverse and author-driven.