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Royalties: how are the actors paid for the continuous use of their work? It was the theme of one of the conferences that centered the afternoon sessions of the theoretical meeting of the 40th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, which takes place in the Taganana Room of the National Hotel of Cuba.

The conference was given by Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, legal director of the Union of Film Actors and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (Sag-Aftra), and Francisco Giménez Marchante, manager of Performing Artists, Management Society (Aisge) .

Sag-Aftra is an American union that represents more than one hundred and sixty thousand actors, broadcasters, radio and television journalists, dancers, disc jockeys, news editors and publishing supervisor, television presenters, puppeteers, record artists, singers, action doubles , voice actors and other media professionals in the United States.

Aisge is a Spanish private entity that is responsible for managing the intellectual property rights of actors, dancers, dubbing actors and stage directors.

The dissertation was able to answer the following questions: What happens when an audiovisual project is launched? What happens with the income it generates? Are these revenues shared with the artists? If so, how?

«Royalties are a type of payment -Duncan says- as a result of a collective contract with the producer or by other types of professional associations by sector. There are some things that the union needs to do to collect and distribute the royalties: it needs a process to collect them, another to distribute them correctly among the actors. There are cases in which those who must pay, do not want to pay, and for that reason we need an instrumentation process to make sure they do. As the actors are not working every day, the specifics to fix their retirement are very different from those that perform another type of work, so they need special accounts where they are depositing the amounts of those royalties they receive for their participation in films, television, radio and any medium that disseminates the works where they intervene. Our institution is the institution that is responsible for asserting their rights».

Sag-Aftra was formed on March 30, 2012 after the merger of the Film Actors Guild (founded in 1933) and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (1937).

«There is much ignorance about royalties -says Giménez Marchante-. When the lights of the recording set turn off, when the film is already produced, the actors and actresses will find how in many cases it happens that the economic results of the film are economically very good and exceed the expectations of when it was making the film. We then ensure that the principle of material justice is fulfilled, so that they can have an economic participation in the result and the success of the work, and that the creative collective that accompanies them also receives those benefits. There are two types of system: collective agreements (Sag-Aftra is the example to follow in this matter) and there is another model, which is what we have in continental Europe and in some Latin American countries, in which royalties, the rights of remuneration, are recognized in law».

Aisge is governed by a board of directors of which twenty-five directors are members, who are specialized by areas and work areas. The entity, through the Aisge Foundation, also carries out assistance and promotional activities among its members.