Euro Balkan Film Festival 2025: Authors' Rights, Platforms and AI - What Writers Need to Know
The eighth Euro Balkan Film Festival in Rome (30 October-6 November 2025) closed with a clear message: authors come first. After three workshops on storytelling, platforms and AI, filmmakers, producers and collecting-society leaders from across the Balkans issued a declaration urging the EU to protect cultural diversity, keep platform investment obligations, and set ethical rules for AI.
The core tension is simple: streaming platforms and algorithms are setting the rules, while AI tools are edging into creative work. The festival doubles down on the primacy of the author and the survival of independent, personal cinema - even when market logic pushes the other way.
The declaration at a glance
- Reaffirm the cultural exception. European policies must prioritize culture in audiovisual regulation and support, building a European market and audience around it.
- Put creation back on the political agenda. The future of European audiovisual storytelling is underrepresented in current EU policymaking.
- Update rules for platforms. Global platforms now shape distribution and production with algorithms designed outside the EU, which can flatten local narratives. Clear rules are needed for their production activities in Europe.
- Define "European independent producer." Access to public support should require a truly independent European producer, not a subsidiary of a platform.
- Keep investment obligations. Platforms and broadcasters operating in Europe must invest in European production; these obligations grow industry capacity and audience trust.
- Set ethical AI frameworks. AI should help authors, not replace them. Its use must respect authors' rights.
- Enforce what already exists. Member states should fully implement EU rules; the European Commission should consult creators before finalizing new regulations.
- Adopt the EU Copyright Directive across all countries. Full and consistent adoption is urged.
- Build a stronger audience. Broader dissemination of European works is essential to grow a competent, self-aware, active viewership.
Why this matters to writers
If you write for film, TV or streaming, the ground under your feet shifts when algorithms drive commissioning and discovery. The risk is homogenized stories and weaker bargaining power for independent voices.
Clear platform rules, a firm definition of independent production and AI frameworks give you leverage: better terms, fairer credit, and protection for how your work is used and trained on. This is about creative freedom and long-term earning potential.
Practical moves you can make now
- Protect your contracts. Add clauses that ban training on your scripts without explicit, paid consent. Example: "No part of the Work, nor production materials, may be used to develop or train AI systems without the Author's prior written consent and separate compensation."
- Secure attribution and moral rights. Require on-screen credit and approval on edits that materially change intent.
- Push for EU-standard terms. Include guaranteed minimums, transparent reporting, and passthrough of platform bonuses or incentives.
- Register and collect. Join your national CMO (and relevant author associations) to register works, claim rights and track usage.
- Pitch to true independents. Favor producers who meet independence criteria and access public funds. It improves your bargaining position and long-term share.
- Mark your assets. Keep dated drafts, watermarks, and logs of submissions. Maintain clean metadata across versions.
- Create your AI policy. Decide what you will and won't use AI for (e.g., research, outlines, transcriptions), and document disclosure standards with collaborators.
- Know the rules. Follow platform investment obligations and local funding schemes - these can directly affect commissioning windows and budgets.
- Strengthen your network. Engage with guilds and European bodies (e.g., FERA, SAA) to stay informed and add your voice to consultations.
- Invest in audience literacy. Support screenings, Q&As and local festivals. A stronger audience is leverage at the negotiating table.
Selected signatories
Bill Anderson, Mario Bova, Adele Budina, Mimmo Calopresti, Lirak Celaj, Evien Dako, Cécile Despringre, Klemen Dvornik, Sergio Giorcelli, Kiril Gjozev, Hrvoje Hribar, Andrea Marzulli, Alberto Pasquale, Jožko Rutar, Chiara Sambuchi, Maurizio Sciarra, Elisabeth Sjaastad, Gregor Štibernik.
Want to go deeper?
Read the Audiovisual Media Services Directive for context on platform obligations: AVMSD overview. For author remuneration and platform transparency, see the EU Copyright Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/790): Official text on EUR-Lex.
If you're leveling up your AI skills in a way that respects authors' rights, explore practical courses here: Prompt engineering for creators.
Bottom line
The festival's stance is clear: Europe needs rules that keep authors at the center, ensure real investment in independent production and set guardrails for AI. As a writer, you can act right now - in your contracts, your collaborations and your advocacy - to protect the work and the voice that make your stories yours.
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