On Tuesday, 30 July, the SFP Distribution Council met. Below is a summary of the topics and decisions made at the meeting.
Firstly, it should be noted that there has been a change in the composition of the SFP Distribution Board. A new secretary was also elected. The director Julia Ruszkiewicz was appointed as a new member of the Distribution Council by decision of the Main Board of the SFP. She took the place of the dismissed President of the SFP, Jacek Bromski. The current President of the Association, Grzegorz Łoszewski, was elected Secretary of the Council by the members' votes.
Another important point on the agenda was the decision to establish a round table on royalties, which will address the expectations of individual creative communities applying to the SFP. A series of discussions will be held under this heading to update the rules for the distribution of creative remuneration. The idea behind these discussions is to reach an agreement between all groups of creators on the issues that raise the most doubts. The topics to be discussed are those that have long been present in the industry debate, such as which professions should participate in the distribution of copyright royalties and to what extent? Do the current rules need to be updated? How can the interests of such diverse groups of filmmakers be reconciled? Of course, the starting point for industry discussions can be the tables in force in SFP-ZAPA defining the proportions of the distribution of royalties between co-creators in individual genres of works, but it will be important to reach an inter-industry agreement in this respect. All agreements made between the groups of co-authors participating in the round-table discussions will form the basis for the Council to adopt appropriate changes to the co-author proportion tables. The Council members decided on a maximally open formula and to invite representatives of those professional groups that have not been included in the distribution of royalties so far, but which, according to their representatives, make a creative contribution to the films.
Subsequently, a request from the representatives of the dubbing artists' union to participate in the round-table discussions was considered and approved.
The board members also approved the proposed tables with the updated distribution of percentages among the co-creators in the individual genres. The proposed new distribution of tables is to come into force from the new year and will be subject to discussion and possible modification during the work of the round table on royalties.
Finally, the SFP Distribution Council also passed a resolution to introduce uniform distribution rules for all fields of exploitation in which the distribution of remuneration for creators is based on broadcast reports sent to SFP-ZAPA by broadcasters. The previous rules in retransmission, which were intended to promote the first broadcasts of programmes (within a day or week) due to their highest audience figures, have thus been abolished. The resolution was adopted in response to a request from a group of screenwriters to revise the rules governing the distribution of cable and satellite retransmissions (retransmission). It shall enter into force on the date of its adoption and shall apply to payments for periods from 1 January 2024.