Just a few weeks before the AVACI International Congress 2023, which will be held from May 2nd to May 5th in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the Brazilian Ministry of Culture publicly expressed its support for audiovisual authors, screenwriters, and directors in their fight to obtain a remuneration law that allows them to charge for the public exhibition of their audiovisual works. The support statement was made during a panel at the Rio2C Creativity Encounter 2023, which was attended by Márcio Tavares dos Santos, Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, and Marcos Souza, Secretary of Author's Rights and Intellectual Property.
"Among our priorities for this year is to guarantee the right of public exhibition to the owners of audiovisual works," announced Marcos Souza. And he added, "today, when a movie, a series, a soap opera, any audiovisual work is exhibited on a platform, the music part receives a percentage (financial) for the musical works that are inserted there. However, the owners of the audiovisual work themselves - director, screenwriter, actors and actresses, producers - do not have that same right guaranteed today."
The Ministry of Culture of Brazil supports audiovisual authors, screenwriters, and directors in their fight to obtain a remuneration right law.
It is worth noting that these statements of support from the Ministry of Culture come at a time when Brazilian film and television directors and screenwriters represented by DBCA (Brazilian Directors of Cinema and Audiovisual) and GEDAR (Authors’ Rights Management of Screenwriters) are fighting for equality with composers, who already receive their authors' rights on public communication of audiovisual works.
According to Souza, "the law contains an imbalance in this field of exploitation of the work and a dissonance with the legislation of other countries that have the same legal tradition as Brazil."
At the same time, the official stated that "there are a lot of Brazilian audiovisual works exhibited abroad and countries charge for those rights, but many times they do not transfer them because here in Brazil we do not have that guaranteed by law. This is a fight that we are going to take. It will be complex and will require the union of the entire sector. But we are already talking to associations to move forward with a proposal in the National Congress."
Finally, the Secretary also mentioned the remuneration for content protected by law on platforms, social networks, and everything related to the internet, mainly for the owners of these works in the fields of music, audiovisual, and journalism.
Meanwhile, Márcio Tavares dos Santos said that it is "time to strengthen Brazilian culture, the creative economy, audiovisuals, and the arts to have a positive agenda after four years of destruction."
The Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Culture highlighted the investment of R$ 1 billion in public calls for the Audiovisual Sector Fund, with R$ 450 million already selected for hiring; R$ 163 million with planned calls; R$ 25 million for international alliances (co-productions with Argentina, Uruguay, and Portugal for film co-financing); R$ 6 million for the preservation of smaller movie theaters and R$ 387 million for innovation and infrastructure.
"We have immense challenges on the political agenda starting next month. The government's priority is to do everything in permanent dialogue with entities and civil society. Public policies are central to getting back on the path of development. Let's take advantage of what we have: diversity, talent, our people. That means investing in culture and the creative economy," the official said.
In this context, a hundred filmmakers, screenwriters, authors' rights managers, and lawyers (in cinema, TV, documentaries, and animation) from five continents will gather in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to participate in the Annual Congress of AVACI in order to advance fundamental aspects for authors' rights and express their explicit support for Brazilian creators to receive the corresponding remuneration for their respective works.
