Cécile Rap-Veber (Sacem): “AI is the heist of the century”

In Los Angeles, where TAFFF is celebrating its 30th edition, the general director of Sacem defends original film music… and sets out her resolute point of view on Artificial Intelligence.

The TAFFF is celebrating its 30th edition. What has changed the most since its creation?
Cécile Rap-Veber: The public, first of all. More and more spectators are coming to discover French works. Initially, we only showed cinema, which remains the heart of the festival. Then, with the arrival of platforms, we opened the programming to documentaries, animation, series and short films. Today, TAFFF represents French audiovisual in all its diversity.

And has the way Americans view our films also changed?
Of course ! We always say that cinema was invented in France, and the Americans say that it was invented here! This crossed gaze has always existed. When you interview great American directors, they often tell you about their youth and their cinematographic education, influenced by very great French filmmakers. But interest among the general public has also grown. And in particular thanks to the platforms, present in all American homes. A series like Lupine or certain French films have found new spectators there.

One of the main changes is that the festival is now held in the fall, at the height of the awards season. Does this mean that TAFFF is intended to become a springboard for the Oscars?
It became an issue pretty quickly. We have a real history with this ceremony. immense French creators, for years, have been recognized at the Oscars. Well… Not every year, let’s not lie to ourselves! But with the increasingly international dimension of certain French productions, we said to ourselves that it would be great if the race for the Oscars started here. And as general director of Sacem, I am thinking in particular of the great French composers who have won statuettes for their original soundtracks.

Sacem is indeed very involved in the festival. Naive question: why does film music mean so much to you?
There’s nothing naive about it! But the answer is simple: a huge film is always accompanied by huge music. Some films can do without it, when their story doesn’t require it, but I’ve seen relatively few of them. Music increases emotion tenfold. It has this power to move and unite. It is an essential ingredient for a film to become a masterpiece.

And yet, you suggest that it is not considered enough.
Unfortunately, very often it is the last line in the budget. We fight for at least 2.5% of a film’s budget to be dedicated to it. And there is something fundamental: the relationship between the director and the composer. In Cannes, we organize music lessons to get them into dialogue. We see it every time: the earlier this dialogue begins, the greater the success.

You also organize this dialogue in Los Angeles, with American filmmakers. Does this lead to collaborations?

The great thing about Los Angeles is that you have time. For five days, professionals come and go, meeting each other. I don’t yet have a specific example of a meeting at TAFFF that would have directly resulted in an original soundtrack. But our composers are better and better known, and some have even settled here. Guillaume Roussel, an immense composer, lives in Los Angeles. Victor Le Masne, who composed the music for the Olympic Games, also settled in the United States.

FROM COLCOA TO TAFFF: 30 YEARS OF FRENCH CINEMA IN HOLLYWOOD

AI worries the entire sector. Do you fear her?
It’s not even a fear anymore, it’s a certainty. AI platforms have plundered all cultural content accessible to the public. We have confused what is available and what is royalty-free. Cinema, literature, music, visual arts: everything has been absorbed to train models which today produce synthetic content in direct competition with human creations. Copyright is simple. It is the right for a creator to authorize or prohibit his work from being used to drive a machine, and, if it is used, to be remunerated. It’s completely crazy that we allowed this looting to happen. This is what I call the heist of the century! These companies used works without authorization and were not convicted. Today, they refuse to pay creators what they owe them. And meanwhile, we’re seeing a tsunami of AI-generated content.

To the point of replacing human creations?
Yes, because our listening time is limited. In music, 50% of the titles uploaded each day to streaming platforms are already from AI. They compete directly with human creations, without the slightest compensation for the artists whose works were used to train these systems.

And the law in all this?
A bill aimed at restoring the balance between creators, copyright and AI platforms was voted unanimously in the Senate (the text from Senator Laure Darcos, adopted on April 8, 2026 Editor’s note). We are desperately trying to get it considered in the National Assembly. But we encountered massive obstruction from the Ensemble pour la République group, which tabled more than a hundred amendments to block a four-line text. All this to preserve the interests of Mistral. However, protecting Mistral also means indirectly protecting the large American and Chinese platforms, which dominate the sector. We are at risk of erasure of our culture. And when we suppress a local culture, it is the identity of a country, therefore its sovereignty, which is at stake. We do not only defend the creators, we also defend France. I don’t understand how someone who aspires to become President of the Republic can act like this towards the culture of his country.

Is the press in the same boat?
Absolutely. And since I am addressing FirstI would like to point out: the press is in exactly the same situation. Every day, robots suck up media content to produce summaries generated by foreign AI. However, the way this information is selected, summarized and oriented can be extremely dangerous. It gives a fragmented and biased vision of current events. This is a democratic problem. Regulation is needed before the press and culture are profoundly weakened.

What do you hope for the festival for its next editions?
May there still be many! And above all that we continue to defend French cinema which has real originality, an identity. We must not try to do like the Americans. They are the best at what they know how to do, but we too have extraordinary strength in our particularities and in the diversity of our aesthetics. This festival will exist as long as we can produce original, diverse films that make you want to go to the cinema.