As part of the Agora of the 64th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, a discussion titled "From Script to Screen: Does IP matter?", co-curated with the European Producers Club, was carried out on Saturday 4 November at MOMus - Thessaloniki Museum of Photography. The panel speakers were Amanda Livanou, Producer at Neda Film and Treasurer of the Audiovisual Producers Association (GR), Alex Traila, Programme manager at the Council of Europe – Eurimages (FR), Elli Filippopoulou, Lawyer and IP Expert (GR), Julien Leroux, Producer and CEO of Paper Entertainment (UK) and Ferdinand Dohna, Producer Beta Film (DEU). Alexandra Lebret, Managing Director of the European Producers Club, was moderating the panel.
Alexandra Lebret first took the floor stressing out that the European Producers Club is an organization of 185 independent production companies out of 32 European countries, pushing and struggling for a future where the producers' IP protection would not be a challenge. She, then, gave the floor to Julien Leroux, who referred to the two copyright categories, those belonging to the creator of the idea and those related to the producer promoting the idea. In addition, he pointed out that there must be a balance between the creator and the producer, for the creator takes risks too and must be also rewarded.
Amanda Livanou took the baton by pointing out the importance of co-production and its contribution to Greek films' huge success over the last 20 years. She referred in particular to Eurimages, the European support fund for cinema, which encourages cooperation between professionals from different countries and helps producers retain part of the copyright of the projects they undertake. Moreover, she highlighted the case of Greece, where producers assume a great risk, invest money, hire personnel, carry out an idea, but most of the time have no return at all. “It would be great to take more risks, but it not that easy,” she concluded.
Elli Filippopoulou stressed out that producers in Greece do not enjoy the copyright of the projects they undertake, as the process gets bogged down in a complex legal system. "They take the risk, which is big, but ultimately they are not the ones who really control the final product of the work and are not protected in any way. "Greek legislation introduces the principle of equal remuneration for creators and producers," she said, pointing out that this regulation also raises many questions. In addition, she pointed out that the law does not resolve all the problems with regard to the holder of copyright; sometimes it even triggers more problems and obstacles.”
Ferdinand Dohna talked about the streaming industry and the way a producer can be tempted to sell all the copyrights of a project to a streamer. However, he stressed that this gain will not last. "We, at Beta Film, fight for producers' copyright, invest in shows, and when we see them hand it all over to third parties, we are understandably disappointed." He stressed that it's all about a copyright battle and that all players in the game need to find new ways to earn and reap the success.
Alex Traila followed by focusing on how important the role of a producer is in spreading a project, an initial idea, noting that "you may own something, but if you can't use it, it’s not worth it." He then added that this is where the role of producers lies, supporting them with funding, helping them get better deals in copyright negotiations.
Julien Leroux went on to say that it is particularly important that the "small players" join forces to be able to stand up to the "big players", such as Netflix and Apple, and get better deals. As Ferdinand Dohna said, "you make a show, then you see it become a big hit by the big platforms, and you are nowhere around". Julien Leroux continued by giving a relevant example, La Casa de Papel, one of Netflix's super hits. As he noted, Álex Pina was the producer as well as the screenwriter of the above and then Netflix made it a big hit. So everyone involved should be a part of this success. Amanda Livanou also referred to this idea, noting that cost and success should also be given out to all involved.
Afterwards, Alex Traila spoke about the great idea that all involved should aim at, mentioning that the common goal of all would be to give complete and solid work to the public. Therefore, he added, everyone should have corresponding rights. The discussion ended up with a positive reference to big platforms, leading a small production to great success. worldwide.
