Global Independent Manufacturers Express IP Retention Concerns When Working With Streamers – Industry KVIFF Panels

Several independent producers from around the world who attended the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival have raised concerns about intellectual property retention when working with streamers in their local territories and calling for more acceptable partnership terms.

“You can’t deduct a producer’s compensation from a company, you have to manage it based on the exploitation of intellectual property,” said Czech producer Filip Bobinski, co-founder of Dramedy Productions and board member of the European Producers’ Association. .

In a panel hosted by Deadline and Ace Producers during KVIFF’s Industry Days, Bobinski joined Bobinski bird man Produced by John Lesher from the USA, Rome Mexican producer Nicolás Celis and Polish producer Joanna Szymańska will talk about production opportunities and challenges with streamers in the post-pandemic ecosystem.

While streamers have gradually increased their investment in international projects in recent years, independent producers continue to deal with financing, production and distribution issues and there are often cases, especially in smaller territories, where the increase in streaming deals it forces independent producers to give up intellectual property. and lose long-term residual profits.

“In the Czech Republic we have a lot of streamer-produced content here, but the added value and creative value comes from elsewhere,” said Bobinski, adding that the territory also faces an incentive problem, as the government has said. . It will stop promoting film production this year.

Lescher pointed out that the IP problem is not specific to European territories: “They are trying to do it in the US as well. If you have one or two companies that dominate the market, prices go up because they compete with each other and once they start to dominate the market, they begin to exert downward pressure on some of these things.I would argue that all companies, including those in the US, are trying to enter into deals in which they own 100% of the intellectual property rights globally.

According to Bobinski, the challenge will be to ensure that small local areas are not in the line of fire or risk being contracted to become smaller local producers, hampering the growth trajectory of local industry. According to him, in the case of the Czech Republic, the government needs to show its muscles and take advantage of the AVMS directive, which “gives us the opportunity to convince the state that this is good for industry and that it is legally possible. [to leave producers with secondary rights]. “

Szymanska said the content boom also poses a difficult challenge for local producers in the current climate.

“There’s not enough industry response to form a quality new crew because everyone has an ambition to be a producer these days and all those producers are fighting for streamer money,” he says.

However, he emphasized his project Operation Hyacinthwhat he did with Netflix as one of his “best experiences” as a producer.

“It was an LGBTQ story and no one wanted to separate it, I think, because there was something ‘conflicted’ about it,” Szymanska said. “But Netflix was the partner who said, ‘We love the script, we love the package idea and we want to do it.’ They ordered it as a Netflix Original in 2019.

He continued: “They have been a super reliable partner, helping us not only develop the story further, but also insuring us against the effects of Covid and giving us the cash flow we really needed. Professionally, it was the best experience I’ve had so far. “

For Celis, who worked for Netflix Rome, his experience with the streamer has been a huge learning curve for him. Alfonso Cuarón’s project, which he described as “an absolutely unique experience”, was bolstered by the streamer’s praise, winning the Oscar for Best International Film.

“The big lesson for me from this movie is that if you go with, say, a first-time director, second director, or internationally renowned director, you’ll likely lose the platform if you don’t.” go I don’t have much presence in festivals or marketing, ”she said.

He added: “Since then RomeI realized that Netflix was the best partner for this film, but you really have to have as many elements as possible and the film has to be as strong as possible to go further. “