SAA - Society of Audiovisual Authors

On a hot summer’s day, I sat down with our newest member VAPIK. I connected from Brussels, Lirak Celaj from Pristina and Blerim Gjoci from Los Angeles. Although no longer in the same city, it’s no coincidence that Lirak is the Operational Manager, and Blerim the Board President of VAPIK. They are long-time friends who studied film together at the University of Prishtina and later went on acting in the same films. Today Blerim is an award-winning writer and director based in Los Angeles, and Lirak is heading the collective management organisation for Kosovo’s audiovisual authors.

‘The government was never against us, it’s just that Kosovo is moving both fast and slow at the same time.’

To tell the story of VAPIK, one first must recall that Kosovo turned 18 only this year. Being the youngest European country, with the youngest population, it’s a country that’s eager to develop and attentively listens to what the EU says and does. This is why, explained Blerim, the Ministry of Culture in Kosovo took the initiative in 2011 to invite all its authors for an exchange about how to best support them for the prosperity of Kosovo’s future.

‘The road to distribution of authors’ remuneration was challenging and long, and many colleagues dropped out along the way. However, Lirak and I persisted’, said Blerim, and 14 years later, authors are finally receiving their first payment.

The heavy blocking stone has always been the rich cable operators. VAPIK turned to lawyers for advice and mobilized artists for media attention. The process was delayed for many reasons: failing government coalitions, lack of political backing, national re-elections and repeated arguments from Ministers that they had more urgent priorities. However, VAPIK did not budge. They consistently kept calling, meeting, emailing and sending letters of support from the SAA. They put pressure not only on the culture minister, but on the government too. Eventually, it worked.

VAPIK remembers three Ministers of culture who played a significant role in the organisation’s journey toward becoming fully operational; one minister licensed them, a different one (three governments later!) approved the tariffs, and yet another courageously mediated between the cable operators and VAPIK. Political hurdles like these are familiar to many SAA members; what’s unique in Kosovo is that the ministry was supportive all along, just too slow to move fast.

That sense of a country eagerly moving fast and slow at the same time is one I recognised when travelling through Kosovo myself two years ago - beautiful cultural heritage sitting next to freshly painted street art, and a young population that greeted me with curiosity, in perfect English. Blerim agreed, ‘Things don't get stuck completely, like I've seen in neighbouring countries. They move forward in some way.’ ‘You’re right, the population is young and therefore dynamic, and often ahead of politicians’, added Lirak.

To mark the importance of VAPIK’s milestone, it celebrated its first bank transfer, on 5 August, with authors, performers, producers, representatives of cable operators and TV stations. The three previous Culture Ministers, who made it happen were also present, all belonging to different political groups.

‘It’s a no-brainer: Together we are stronger and smarter.’

VAPIK joined the SAA in 2024. ‘We’re new as we just started distributing remuneration, so we are learning a lot by being a member of the SAA. We read the reports and analysis by the SAA team, and we listen to the experiences by other members’, said Lirak, explaining that thanks to Kosovo being so EU-oriented, the government is also keen on implementing EU directives. So VAPIK brings its experience from the SAA to the governmental meetings and working groups it participates in, feeding into the drafting of national legislations to protect rightsholders. 

Collecting from cable operators is only the starting point for VAPIK. Next, they are aiming for transmission rights, private copying and public performance, though once again, the quick turnover of governments slows the pace of progress.

Cable operators are one thing; the big streaming platforms are another battle entirely, and not one VAPIK can fight alone. The Balkan countries are too small a market for platforms such as Netflix to pay much attention to. Which is why CMO colleagues from the region met in December in Pristina to discuss coming together and negotiating as one.

‘The US is organised completely differently. In Europe there is much bigger, and organised, opposition to AI.’

Before ending our call, I had to ask Blerim about his impressions of AI from his base in Hollywood. He pointed to the Paramount+/Warner Bros. merger as the story dominating the industry right now – less a business deal, in his reading, than an attempt by conservative interests to gain control of, and silence, liberal media. It’s also a moment when AI is quietly reshaping how films get made: the superhero genre still dominates cinema, and it’s also where a lot of AI is being used for animation, while Netflix’s recent acquisition of the AI post-production company InterPositive, founded by Ben Affleck, has already put jobs at risk.

‘I live in Hollywood, and just walking down the street, you see all these pop-ups and invitations to new AI tools for filmmaking, and people are going. Even if I’m opposed to it, I too was thinking of doing the same. If not, you feel like you’re left behind’, said Blerim.

Lirak saw a different side of the same story from Kosovo: thanks to its young population, the country is very active in producing new technology, and Albanian American Mira Murati, former CTO of OpenAI and co-founder of Thinking Machines Lab, is one of the role models for a growing generation of IT-entrepreneurs there. But he concluded that Kosovo is still looking to the EU for direction on this, and the real political debate hasn’t started yet.

On that note, we finished our talk. I wished Blerim a good day and Lirak a good evening and thanked them for their time. As always, it was a pleasure learning about our members work.

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Annica Ryng

Public Affairs and Communication Director, SAA