During the Cannes Film Festival, 32 EFAD members reunited in a General Assembly to discuss several common challenges and priorities. Members shared the latest national developments and updates on their joint initiatives:

• European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films (ESFUF), an initiative proposed by the CNC to the other EFAD members during the Cannes General Assembly in May 2022, and launched in Berlin in 2023;
• New Dawn, an initiative of 9 European public funds and Telefilm Canada, aiming at opening up the film industry to the many voices representing the true diversity of perspectives, and launched in Cannes 2022.

“The General Assembly meeting was very productive and paved the way for further activities in the policy arena as the new EU landscape takes shape”, said Chris Marcich, EFAD President. 

Amongst the points, EFAD members adopted papers on Artificial Intelligence and the priorities of the association at EU level.

EU Priorities

EFAD members adopted a paper highlighting 5 main priorities for the audiovisual and cinema sector at the EU level ahead of the 10th legislative term 2024-2029.

1. Putting culture and cultural diversity back at the heart of the European project;
2. Making the EU a space to promote European independent creation and authors’ rights;
3. Boosting the MEDIA programme, a true European success story;
4. Consolidating the AI framework to make it conducive to human creation and cultural diversity;
5. Improving online access and promotion of European works in all their diversity, in respect of territorial licenses.

The full paper is available here.

Artificial Intelligence

EFAD members also adopted a first common approach on artificial intelligence.

• EFAD members recognize AI as a tool to serve human creation and cultural diversity, core value of audiovisual and cinema agencies;
• EFAD recommends the film and audiovisual agencies to collect information on the use of AI technologies by projects and works receiving public funding;
• EFAD welcomes the adoption of the EU AI Act, making the EU the first in the world to regulate AI underlining the need that its implementation closely associate representatives of the cultural and creative sectors;
• EFAD highlights the importance of ensuring full respect of authors’ rights, sharing the call of authors and performers for an analysis of the TDM application to Generative AI.

Read the paper here.

About EFAD

EFAD (European Film Agency Directors association) is the voice of national European Film Agencies, bringing together national film and audiovisual centres from European countries. EFAD membership covers the European Union countries as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Norway, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

EFAD Family picture © Erlend Staub