Stefan Gelineo: “Only through coordinated action will we protect the rights of audiovisual authors”

In Serbia, UFUS AFA Protection has established itself as one of the most active audiovisual organizations in Eastern Europe. Its director, Stefan Gelineo, analyzes for AV Creators News the challenges of collective management, the fight for fair remuneration, and the strategic value of international cooperation in protecting audiovisual authors.

By Ulises Román Rodríguez

Serbia has an internationally recognized film tradition. Films such as Who’s Singin’ Over There? (Ko to tamo peva?), directed by Slobodan Šijan, are part of Europe’s cultural heritage and continue to inspire generations of filmmakers. However, behind this artistic richness, Serbian audiovisual authors endured for decades a reality marked by labor instability and the absence of effective rights protection mechanisms.

That scenario began to change thanks to the work of UFUS AFA Protection, Serbia’s only collective management organization for film and television authors. Founded in 2014, the organization has become a regional benchmark in defending directors, screenwriters, and cinematographers. Its director, Stefan Gelineo, summarizes the scale of this transformation with a striking fact: “Serbian filmmakers received royalties for the first time in 2020, 125 years after the creation of cinema.”

Today, UFUS AFA represents more than 650 authors, including Emir Kusturica, Srđan Dragojević, Želimir Žilnik, and Goran Marković, while also administering the rights of deceased authors such as Dušan Makavejev and Goran Paskaljević. In conversation with AVACI, Gelineo discussed the organization’s progress, legislative tensions in Serbia, the impact of artificial intelligence, and the importance of international cooperation in confronting major global platforms.

Photo: Vojislav Gelevski

An ecosystem in transformation

According to Gelineo, just a decade ago the concept of audiovisual collective management was virtually unknown in Serbia. “When UFUS AFA Protection began its work, the concept of collective management in the Serbian audiovisual sector was still relatively unknown, both to authors and rights users,” he explains.

Over time, the situation began to change. Membership has doubled over the last two years, and authors are increasingly active in the institution’s internal life. “Audiovisual authors in Serbia are now much better informed about their rights and about the work of UFUS AFA,” he says.

One of the organization’s main achievements was securing full coverage of Serbia’s cable market after signing an agreement with SBB, the operator that accounts for more than 30% of the country’s subscriptions. The agreement came after years of litigation against the company, whose former owners had refused to pay retransmission royalties. According to UFUS AFA, this situation deprived authors of more than €16 million in royalties.

“Collective management organizations must act as a bridge between authors and the industry,” says Gelineo, emphasizing that audiovisual organizations must remain autonomous from music societies — something UFUS AFA achieved after initially operating under the umbrella of SOKOJ, Serbia’s music organization.

The fight for updated legislation

Serbia is currently undergoing a reform process of its law on author's rights and related rights. However, UFUS AFA publicly denounced that neither the organization nor audiovisual authors’ associations were included in the working group responsible for drafting the bill. The organization’s main concern is that the proposed text is based on European directives from 2012 and 2014, leaving out the European Directive 2019/790 on author's rights in the Digital Single Market.

For Gelineo, this omission has direct consequences on authors’ professional lives. “Serbian authors have spent years waiting to obtain the rights already enjoyed by their European colleagues,” he warns.

General Assembly of UFUS AFA (Photo: Vojislav Gelevski)

One of the central issues is the right to fair remuneration. The European directive establishes that authors must receive appropriate compensation for the exploitation of their works, even when rights have been transferred through previous contracts.

“The absence of this European Union directive from the new law would mean that Serbian authors will continue creating and working under rules that are fourteen years old,” he explains. He adds: “This is already a recognized European standard, and there is no justified reason for Serbian authors to be placed in an inferior position.”

Artificial intelligence and new threats

The rise of artificial intelligence is another major challenge facing the organization. Serbia’s draft legislation contains no specific regulation regarding generative AI or the use of protected works to train algorithmic models. Gelineo describes a scenario of growing concern for audiovisual authors: “Artificial intelligence can now write scripts, generate images, and create content using enormous databases and works by real authors, without their permission or any compensation.”

For UFUS AFA, the central problem is the lack of transparency regarding how platforms use protected works. That is why the organization believes AI companies must obtain prior authorization and guarantee appropriate remuneration. “We recognize that technological development cannot and should not be stopped. What is needed is a balanced regulatory framework that protects authors’ interests while also allowing innovation to continue responsibly,” he says.

International cooperation and joining AVACI

In a globalized context, UFUS AFA believes no organization can act alone. That is why the entity has strengthened its international participation in recent years through SAA and, more recently, AVACI. Only through coordinated action will we be able to ensure that audiovisual authors’ rights are effectively protected in an increasingly complex and interconnected market,” says Gelineo.

From the Serbian perspective, the experience of working in a country outside the European Union brings particular challenges as well as innovative tools for rights protection. Over the past year, UFUS AFA signed reciprocal representation agreements with organizations from different countries and participated in regional and European conferences. For Gelineo, the international dimension is now indispensable in the face of the growing power of major technology corporations and global platforms. “The problems we face are global, and our response — as well as our message to everyone involved — must also be global,” he concludes.