DGU: “Author’s rights must be actively defended”

In conversation with AV Creators News, Diego “Parker” Fernández, President of DGU (Directores y Guionistas del Uruguay), and Manuel Nieto, member of its Board, analyzed the current state of Uruguay’s audiovisual sector, the challenges surrounding exhibition, the relationship between new generations and author’s rights, and the role the organization must assume in strengthening authors’ awareness.

The conversation took place during their visit to the headquarters of DAC – Directores Argentinos Cinematográficos, where they met with Inés de Oliveira Cézar, Deputy Secretary General, and Mariana Gugliotti, Director of Works Registration. The exchange unfolded in a context of sustained growth in the Uruguayan audiovisual field—from the “New Uruguayan Cinema” of the 2000s to the consolidation of public funding schemes and coordination with AGADU. Nevertheless, structural challenges remain, particularly in exhibition and authorship education.

DGU, AGADU and the strengthening of collective management

In Uruguay, audiovisual authors’ rights are managed by AGADU, a historic multi-repertoire collective management organization with which DGU maintains a representation agreement. While collective management continues to advance, Fernández and Nieto agree that there is still a long way to go for new authors to fully understand the moral and economic value of their work. Coordination with AGADU places Uruguayan audiovisual authors in a stronger legal position in the face of the growth of global platforms. Today, directors and screenwriters in Uruguay operate under a formalized collective management scheme—an essential condition for ensuring that author’s rights effectively reach their rightful holders.

“DGU was founded three years ago,” explains Fernández, “after a long struggle to have the author’s rights of screenwriters and directors recognized. Following a change in Uruguayan law, we achieved recognition of author’s rights for screenwriters and directors, who previously did not enjoy these rights—only musicians did. That is when directors and screenwriters came together in a single association.”

Manolo Nieto thinks that “the change in the law has two stages: one is the inclusion of directors and screenwriters among those entitled to collect author’s rights, and the other is the establishment of the obligation to pay—or for us to collect—those rights.”

For Fernández, “this is a moment of maturity, of being able to dispose of rights not only individually, but also collectively, as the association itself generates income to work on behalf of all its members.” He also highlights that “once a collective management organization achieves the first step of collecting remuneration rights for authors from platforms such as Netflix, it becomes easier to collect from other platforms, movie theaters, and television channels as well.”

In a country where audiovisual production is limited in volume, author’s rights become a key source of income for sustaining long-term creative careers.

An urgent challenge: raising awareness of author’s rights

When asked about the relationship between students and young filmmakers and their rights as audiovisual authors, the response was unanimous: “They have no idea what it’s about.” The interviewees state that, at best, young creators focus on their film or whatever feels most urgent to them and fail to consider the rights they hold as authors.

“It’s something you come across along the way, once you’ve made your first work,” says Nieto. The director emphasizes the need for proactive action on the part of the association: “We have to do grassroots advocacy. We need to go to the spaces where this new generation is and encourage them to get closer.”

Fernández agrees, while adding a layer of uncertainty: “They face bigger challenges than we did. They study things without knowing whether they will still have the same value by the time they graduate.” Still, he notes that technology can also play a positive role: “Just as it enables circulation, it also makes it easier to enforce author’s rights. With digital tracking systems, you can now know where a work is being exhibited. Technology also needs to be supported through education and outreach.”

As in most emerging countries, exhibition remains one of the main obstacles for filmmakers in Uruguay. Nieto summarizes it clearly: “People don’t automatically support Uruguayan cinema; they do so when there are actions that promote attendance. When the Film Agency, during Audiovisual Week, sets out to bring national cinema to every corner of the country, it makes a major effort—and it works. You see people in front of the screens, and films are shown all over the country, in cultural centers everywhere. And you start wondering how great it would be if this could be sustained over time, throughout the year. What would happen if we were a bit more protectionist and limited international exhibition in favor of national production?”

The voices of Diego Fernández and Manuel Nieto portray an audiovisual Uruguay in full transition: marked by creative, institutional, and educational growth, but also facing deep challenges in exhibition, authorship awareness, and young creators’ access to their own author’s rights. The task of DGU, they agree, is clear: to advocate, support, educate, and bring new generations closer to the full exercise of their rights as audiovisual authors.

Through AGADU and joint work with regional organizations grouped within AVACI and FESAAL, Uruguayan directors and screenwriters see their presence in the global author’s rights circuit reinforced. At the same time, this system ensures that authors from around the world receive in Uruguay the remuneration to which they are entitled for the public exhibition of their works.