Objave
Building Stories. Protecting Authorship.
Across 19 and 20 August, CineLink Talks turns to the creative choices, economic pressures and rights frameworks that shape European drama series
Across 19 and 20 August, CineLink Talks turns to the creative choices, economic pressures and rights frameworks that shape European drama series, from the first stages of development to the continuing use and value of the finished work.
After the Original: Expanding Screen Universes for Old and New Audiences considers how established fictional worlds can be reopened for another format, generation and social context. Through The Shadow of Guilt and Absolute 100, the panel brings together two distinct approaches to expanding known intellectual property: one rooted in literature and previous adaptations, the other returning to the world of an earlier feature film. How Much Development Is Enough? Time, Money and Creative Risk in European Drama moves from existing universes to the development of new series, asking how creative ambition can be protected as producers, broadcasters and public funds seek shorter timelines, wider international appeal and reduced financial uncertainty.
These questions of ownership and creative control continue on 20 August. Authors’ Rights, Copyright Law and Collective Management: The Road to a Fair Ecosystem, presented in partnership with the Society of Audiovisual Authors, addresses whether writers and directors receive a fair share of the value their work continues to generate across broadcasters, platforms and territories. It also considers the legal, administrative and institutional structures required to turn formally recognised rights into enforceable remuneration.
AI in the Film and Audiovisual Sector: A Threat or a Tool? places authorship within a rapidly changing technological environment. Rather than treating artificial intelligence as either an inevitable advance or a singular threat, the panel focuses on the practical conditions of responsible use: consent, attribution, transparency, remuneration and the decisions that must remain under the control of authors and creative teams.
Together, the four conversations follow audiovisual creation from the building and development of story worlds to the protection of the people who make them. Creative ambition depends on time and space to develop, but also on rights and professional safeguards that ensure authors remain connected to the artistic and economic value of their work.
August 19th, 2026, 10:00-11:00 – After the Original: Expanding Screen Universes for Old and New Audiences
Presented in partnership with the Swedish Institute, the Embassy of Sweden in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Swedish Film Institute, Göteborg Film Festival and Film i Väst.
Across Europe, familiar stories are returning in forms that go beyond straightforward remakes. Authors, filmmakers, and producers are reopening established worlds through new characters, expanded narratives, and changed social contexts. The advantage is clear: known stories carry recognition, emotional memory, and an existing relationship with audiences. The creative risk is equally clear: familiarity can become repetition, and loyalty to the original can leave new viewers outside the universe altogether. Presented within Spotlight on Sweden, the session brings together two distinct models of expansion. The Shadow of Guilt extends Camilla Läckberg’s Fjällbacka universe, already known through bestselling novels and earlier screen adaptations, into a contemporary television series. Absolute 100 returns to the world of Srđan Golubović’s 2001 feature more than two decades later, rebuilding a compact film as a serial narrative with new characters and contemporary stakes. Placing these cases side by side, the conversation examines how creators decide what must remain recognizable and what can be reinvented. How do literary authors, original filmmakers, commissioners, producers, and directors negotiate ownership of a fictional world? What makes an established universe durable across generations and formats? And how can known IP become a living structure rather than a shortcut to market safety?
Across Europe, familiar stories are returning in forms that go beyond straightforward remakes. Authors, filmmakers, and producers are reopening established worlds through new characters, expanded narratives, and changed social contexts. The advantage is clear: known stories carry recognition, emotional memory, and an existing relationship with audiences. The creative risk is equally clear: familiarity can become repetition, and loyalty to the original can leave new viewers outside the universe altogether. Presented within Spotlight on Sweden, the session brings together two distinct models of expansion. The Shadow of Guilt extends Camilla Läckberg’s Fjällbacka universe, already known through bestselling novels and earlier screen adaptations, into a contemporary television series. Absolute 100 returns to the world of Srđan Golubović’s 2001 feature more than two decades later, rebuilding a compact film as a serial narrative with new characters and contemporary stakes. Placing these cases side by side, the conversation examines how creators decide what must remain recognizable and what can be reinvented. How do literary authors, original filmmakers, commissioners, producers, and directors negotiate ownership of a fictional world? What makes an established universe durable across generations and formats? And how can known IP become a living structure rather than a shortcut to market safety?
Speakers:
• Camilla Lackberg | Writer (SE)
• Lilli Assefa | CEO, Assefa Communication (SE)
• Kristina Borjeson | Head of Production, Film i Väst (SE)
• Johanna Gardare | Head of Drama and Film, SVT (SE)
• Srdan Golubović | Film Director, Film House Baš Čelik (RS)
• Boban Jevtić | Creative Director, Firefly Production (RS)
Moderator: Asja Krsmanović | Head of CineLink, Sarajevo Film Festival (BA)
August 19th, 2026, 11:00-12:00 – How Much Development Is Enough? Time, Money and Creative Risk in European Drama
In an increasingly competitive drama landscape, development is expected to achieve more than ever before. It must transform promising ideas into compelling series, help writers find distinctive voices, build projects capable of travelling internationally, and reduce creative and financial risks before production begins. At the same time, producers, broadcasters, and public funds face growing pressure to shorten development cycles, control costs, and bring projects to market more quickly. How is the development process evolving in response to these competing demands? How much time does great writing really require? Can projects become overdeveloped, or are they more often rushed into production before they are ready? As international co-productions increasingly shape the financing of premium drama, how do creative partnerships influence the development process itself? Do they strengthen projects by bringing broader perspectives and editorial expertise, or do they encourage creative compromise in pursuit of wider market appeal? Bringing together perspectives from editorial development, writing, production, and international curation, this discussion explores development as the creative engine of premium drama. At a moment when speed, efficiency, and commercial expectations increasingly shape decision-making, the panel asks whether Europe can continue to produce bold, distinctive, and internationally successful series without losing the time and creative ambition on which they are built.
Speakers:
• Marina Williams | Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Asacha Media Group (Fremantle) (UK)
• Frederic Lavigne | Artistic Director, Series Mania Festival (FR)
• Ava Jodar Payet | Creative Executive, ARTE France (FR)
• Marc Lorber | Executive Producer, The Art of Coproduction (UK)
Moderator: Alex Traila | Programme Manager Series Co-Productions, Council of Europe (FR)
August 20th, 2026, 11:00 -12:00 - Authors’ Rights, Copyright Law and Collective Management: the Road to a Fair Ecosystem
Audiovisual works generate value across cinemas, broadcasters, platforms and territories, yet many writers and directors receive little or no continuing share of the revenues created by their work across Europe. The gap is especially pronounced in parts of Southeast Europe, where legal recognition may exist on paper but enforcement, licensing and royalty collection remain weak or inconsistent.
This session examines the infrastructure required for fair remuneration. Effective copyright systems depend on more than legislation: collective management organisations need clear mandates, operational independence, access to licences and workable tariffs before they can collect and distribute royalties. In several territories, delayed administrative decisions, fragmented regulation and unequal bargaining power continue to prevent audiovisual authors from achieving the protections long established in other creative sectors.
Legal and institutional representatives from across the region will compare obstacles, working models and priorities for reform. What provisions are needed to recognise and enforce authors’ rights? How can collective management organisations build trust with both creators and users? And what role should public authorities play in ensuring that rights are practical rather than symbolic? The session places remuneration within a wider question of sustainability: an audiovisual sector cannot depend on original creation while leaving its authors structurally excluded from the value their work continues to generate.
Speakers:
• Lidia Radlinska-Gutek | Head of Legal & Public Affairs Department, Union of Audiovisual Authors and Producers (PL)
• Melina Alagić | General Secretary, Association of Filmmakers BiH (BA)
• Kiril Gjozev | Secretary General/President, AZAS/UMPAKI (MK)
• Gregor Štibernik | Managing director, AIPA (SI)
Moderator: Cecile Despringre | General Secretary, Society of Audiovisual Authors (BE)
August 20th, 2026, 12:00-13:00 – AI in the Film and Audiovisual Sector: a Threat or a Tool?
Authorship sits at the centre of the debate over artificial intelligence in film and audiovisual production. Film professionals, producers and rights organisations will examine where these tools can support creative work and where safeguards are required to preserve consent, attribution, remuneration and control. The discussion will also address the uneven conditions of adoption across Europe. Producers and authors in Southeast Europe may gain access to capabilities previously beyond their budgets, but they often operate with fewer institutional protections and less bargaining power than colleagues in larger markets.
Rather than framing AI as either inevitable progress or a singular threat, the session asks what responsible use should look like in practice. Which decisions must remain with authors and creative teams? What forms of transparency should be required from technology providers and employers? And how can Europe encourage useful innovation without allowing efficiency to erode the rights, skills and professional ecosystems on which original screen work depends?
Speakers:
• Sonja Prosenc | Writer/Director, Monoo (SI)
• Jana Vozarova | CEO, LITA (SK)
• Sashko Potter Micevski | Film Editor/Director of Film Fund, North Macedonian Film Agency (MK)
• Joanna Szymanska | Producer/CEO, Shipsboy (PL)
Moderator: Emma Openshaw | Senior Researcher, Olsberg SPI (UK)