A week after President Donald Trump announced his plan to impose tariffs on “foreign” movies, over 100 film and TV organisations have jointly called on governments to stand firm and safeguard the systems that support the indie sector.
Signatories from across the audiovisual sector worldwide have signed a collective statement, titled “Our Stories, Our Voices: Declaration for Artistic Freedom, Cultural Diversity and Cultural Sovereignty.”
The statement warns that public funding, cultural policy and regulation to foster independent productions and local stories are under growing threat.
“We are witnessing increasingly aggressive attempts by powerful political and corporate actors to dismantle the regulatory protections that ensure the diversity and accessibility of cultural expression,” reads the statement.
Among the more than 100 signatories are CEPI (European Audiovisual Production Association), the European Film Academy, European Producers Club, Locarno Film Festival, South Africa’s Independent Directors Association, Directors UK, Canada’s producers’ association CMPA, the Australian Directors Guild and Italy’s producers’ body APA.
The letter singles out “direct challenges to essential protections” such as the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), proposed local content obligations in Australia, screen quotas in Asia, and requirements that streaming services contribute to domestic production in Canada.
The White House, the Motion Pictures Association (MPA), the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) have all hit out at regulatory support for independent film in recent weeks.
The joint statement says: “These actions take place alongside wider attacks on pluralism and freedom of expression. If they succeed, it will become increasingly difficult for diverse voices to be heard, for the whole eco-system to create, produce, distribute, promote and exhibit films and audiovisual works successfully, and for local cultures to thrive.”
The signatories say they “firmly oppose any political, legal, or economic initiative that seeks to undermine national or international rules designed to uphold artistic freedom and cultural diversity in the film and audiovisual sector.
“This includes the right of countries to create and maintain their own cultural policies and regulatory systems, which recognise the importance to own, control, and monetize our works’ intellectual property.”
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