Women's Day- the 29th Festival de Málaga features the round table discussion 'Creation as an act and as a right (authorship, remuneration and content)', organised by ACCIÓN (Spanish Directors' Association), at the Thyssen Museum in Malaga.

A series of two talks, the first of which featured Julie Belgrado, CEO of the Federation of European Screen Directors (FERA) and Martijn Winkler, FERA board member, Dutch director, writer and digital creative; and was moderated by Giovanna Ribes, director, producer and delegate of ACCIÓN at FERA. 

In it, filmmaking was treated as an act of expression, where ideas, emotions and visions are transformed into an audiovisual story that reaches society. They argue that it is a process that involves certain risks and cultural responsibility in accordance with the rights of those who promote it, such as the importance of the recognition of a film's authorship or creative origin. In this line, Julie Belgrado, considered that there are countries such as the US that have a "different copyright culture", stressing the importance of raising awareness of the real effort that exists behind the screen. "Cinema is culture and we have to promote it," concluded the CEO of FERA.

It is professional work that demands fair remuneration, allowing for creative freedom and diversity of voices. "All countries have their particularities, but it is very important to get that fair remuneration in Europe and to be able to reach viable agreements," said Winkler.
 
This was followed by another talk on the same subject, with the participation of Manuel Martín Cuenca, director and producer; Elena Cid , producer and director; José Antonio Hergueta , director and producer, and Pilar Pérez Solano , director, producer and President of ACCIÓN.

"We directors are essential because of the level of responsibility we have in making any film", Martín Cuenca began, but he stressed that, unfortunately, the salaries of this figure are usually the last link in the chain. Along these lines, Elena Cid stated that "once so many projects have passed through your hands and you see the data, you realise that things are not going well".

As Cid assessed, this is a situation that leads directors to become producers in order to "survive", or as Cuenca confirmed, who has had to become a scriptwriter to combine his work as a director. Only when creation, rights and material conditions advance together is independent cinema with true cultural value. Saturating the market in exhibition and saturation," Hergueta says, "prevents it from being a profitable sector”.

It was a panel that revealed bleak data such as the fact that only 10% of European directors complete a second project, and most of them end their careers with their first projects, and are replaced by new filmmakers. This is why Solano expressed his intention for ACCIÓN to become a union that will defend the rights of directors.