Industry Session: Where are my fees?

Moderated by filmmaker Jordi Wijnalda, the Industry Session: Where are my fees? was joined by Ukrainian producer Darya Bassel (Moon Man) and Belgian director-producer Kristof Bilsen (Limerick Films).

Wijnalda (this is (not) your ocean at IDFA 2024) opened the discussion with a quick show of hands to identify the attendees’ roles and who among them could sustain themselves through filmmaking. He then pulled some sobering figures from the 2019 report, commissioned by the Federation of European Screen Directors (FERA) and the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE) on the remuneration of ‘European authors.’ According to the figures, 25 percent of the surveyed professionals indicated they had difficulties of “making ends meet” with their income (with 74 percent being “financially insecure”), while 22 percent stated they “never [got] space to negotiate a contract or an agreement.” Although this report dates back six years, Wijnalda noted, these figures still offer a useful insight into the prevailing conditions in the industry, at least in the European context, and this may look even more dire in the documentary sector alone.

Bassel (Olha Zhurba’s Songs of Slow Burning Earth at IDFA 2024), of the Kyiv-based, women-led independent production company Moon Man, has balanced her roles, first as a programmer and later as head of industry at the Docudays UA festival, alongside producing films. This has proven to be a demanding path that reflects the reality of working in the field, she noted. Speaking about the producer-director relationship in regard to budgets and fees, she stressed the need for transparency to ensure that “everybody is being paid fairly” and to sustain the project and the welfare of all the members of the team. “What I learned, and what we now include in our company’s practice, is that at a certain point [of the development of a project], we prepare the budget, invite the filmmaker, and go through it together.” Describing it as a “really effective practice,” she noted that after such a session, “lots of questions disappear, and a lot of trust appears in the relationship,” adding that “just as the director explains their creative vision, you [as the producer] need to explain your vision for strategy, financing, budgeting, and so on.”

Setting expectations early, particularly when working with first-time director-producer teams—to clarify “who does what, and where one wants to take the project”—helps build trust. This is crucial in countries and contexts where “a culture of transparency” is yet to be established, which would allow for “fair and healthy” discussions about the working conditions, Bassel remarked. In Ukraine, for example, she detailed, there is still a certain wariness toward producers, even among younger directors, stemming from the Soviet legacy and two decades when film funding was virtually absent and acquired from questionable sources.

Echoing Bassel’s sentiments, Bilsen (Elephant’s Dream at IDFA 2014) pointed out the value of going “into that very uncomfortable place” and handling contractual issues. Drawing on the experience with his debut film when a contract was signed far along in the process, he noted, “I think it’s something embedded in the dynamics between producers and directors. It’s a very difficult topic. We don’t want to talk about it, we don’t like the legal lingo, nobody has money, we all have to wait, the funding applications are massive, and we are all working. There are a lot of arguments not to go into that very uncomfortable place, but there are also a lot of reasons to do it. It’s about finding a way, [an accessible] language, and space.”

Wijnalda argued that this dynamic may be rooted in deeply entrenched practices, at least in the European setting, which often create a binary between writers and directors as a creative force on the one hand, and producers “who make it happen” on the other. To this end, Bilsen championed being “thinkers and makers together” and shouldering some responsibilities. He also noted that given “the longitudinal nature” of these processes, nurturing a deep working relationship must go “beyond the codes and etiquette,” and require “a continuum of checking in with each other.”

As the session drew to a close, Wijnalda touched on the discussion of actual numbers, wondering if greater “openness” could help filmmakers be better advocates “for their worth” and ensure “fairness across the board.” “There could be more conversation about it, not necessarily sharing exact figures, but at least, revealing budgets and a sense of fair percentage shares within our communities,” Bilsen concluded.