International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG)

Overview

The International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG) is the federation connecting national screenwriters' guilds across 12 countries. Founded in 1986, the IAWG represents over 50,000 professional film and television writers through its 14 full member guilds and 1 associate member. The federation coordinates collective action on issues that no single national guild can address alone: international co-production terms, residual rights in global streaming distribution, artificial intelligence and generative tools, and credit standards in international productions.

For screenwriters working internationally, the IAWG's most practical function is the "honor the contract" principle: when a production that has been struck by one member guild moves production to another country, the other IAWG guilds commit to not providing writing services that undermine the striking guild's action. This mutual solidarity provision was tested during the 2023 WGA strike, when IAWG guilds declined to accept US production work that was moved offshore to circumvent the strike. The current chair is Jennifer Davidson, an Irish screenwriter and member of the Writers Guild of Ireland.

Membership in the IAWG is not open to individual screenwriters. Writers are represented through their home guild. The IAWG facilitates membership in multiple guilds and waives initiation fees when a member of one affiliated guild joins another. Visit iawg.org for the full member list and links to each guild's website.

Member Guilds

The IAWG includes 14 full member guilds from 12 countries, plus 1 associate member:

Full Members:

• Writers Guild of America East (WGAE)
• Writers Guild of America West (WGAW)
• Writers Guild of Canada (WGC)
• Writers Guild of Great Britain (WGGB)
• Australian Writers' Guild (AWG)
• Writers Guild of Ireland (WGI)
• New Zealand Writers Guild (NZWG)
• Scriptwriters Guild of Israel
• Autores Literarios de Medios Audiovisuales (ALMA, Spain)
• La Guilde Francaise des Scenaristes (France)
• Societe des auteurs de radio, television et cinema (SARC, Quebec)
• Screenwriters Association (SWA, India)
• Deutscher Drehbuchverband (DDV, Germany)
• Writers Guild of South Africa (WGSA)

Associate Member:

• Screenwriters Guild of Korea (SGK, joined 2019)

The IAWG works closely with the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE), which represents 32 organizations from 26 European countries. Together, the IAWG and FSE cover guilds representing 67,000 professional screenwriters globally.

AI and Writers' Rights

The 2023 WGA strike placed AI use in screenwriting at the center of a major collective bargaining dispute for the first time, producing the first negotiated provisions limiting how studios and streaming platforms can use AI-generated content in connection with guild-covered work. The IAWG and FSE jointly adopted a five-principle resolution on AI at their annual general meetings in 2023, binding on all member guilds:

1. Only writers create literary material: Large language models (LLMs) or any other present or future forms of AI cannot be used in place of writers
2. Transparency and accountability: Writers must be informed if AI-generated material is used to write, rewrite, polish, or perform any additional writing services
3. Licensing and consent: Explicit and informed consent is required for the use of writers' intellectual property in AI training data
4. Human authorship only: Only human beings are entitled to authors' rights and copyright recognition in the context of machine-generated material
5. Fair remuneration: Writers must receive fair payment for the use of their intellectual property in LLMs or any other AI programs

In 2026, the IAWG Secretary General Kevin Fitzgerald delivered an intervention at the launch of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Interchange, extending the AI advocacy position to the international policy level. The IAWG continues to push for enforceable AI clauses in guild contracts globally, with specific provisions covering consent, disclosure, credit, compensation, indemnity, and data security.

International Residuals and Streaming

Traditional residual structures were designed for a distribution world organized around national broadcast territories, home entertainment formats, and theatrical exhibition. Streaming platforms' global distribution models, where a single platform license can cover 190 countries simultaneously, have disrupted residual structures that no national guild can address alone.

The IAWG facilitates the sharing of negotiating approaches and collective bargaining strategies across member guilds. Guilds with less bargaining power benefit from the research, modeling, and negotiating experience of larger guilds that have directly negotiated streaming terms with major platforms. The WGA's 2023 streaming residual gains are being used as a template by other IAWG member guilds in their domestic negotiations.

The "Honor the Contract" Principle in Practice

During the 2023 WGA strike, the IAWG's mutual solidarity provision was activated. Member guilds in the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and other countries declined to accept US production work that was relocated offshore to circumvent the strike. This prevented studios from simply moving writing assignments to non-US writers during the work stoppage. The practical effect was to strengthen the WGA's bargaining position by closing the offshore workaround loophole.

For producers, this means that structuring a production to move writing work from one IAWG member country to another during a labor dispute is likely to fail. Productions that involve writers from WGA, WGGB, AWG, WGC, and other IAWG guilds need to understand how each guild's agreements interact in the context of a single production.

Recent Activities

The IAWG held its most recent annual general meeting in Mumbai, hosted by the Screenwriters Association of India. This was the first time India hosted the IAWG AGM. The meeting focused on fair contracts, fair pay, and enforceable rights, with specific sessions on broken royalty systems, predatory contracts, and AI policy. The panel featured Laura Blum-Smith (WGA West), Jennifer Davidson (IAWG and WGI), Anjum Rajabali (SWA), and Peter Matessi (AWG).

The 6th World Conference of Screenwriters was held in Galway, Ireland. The IAWG has also engaged at UNESCO and, in 2026, at WIPO, bringing the screenwriters' AI position to international policy forums.

What Filmmakers Should Know

For international productions: When engaging writers from multiple IAWG member guild countries, understand the "honor the contract" provisions and how each guild's agreements interact. A production using writers from WGA, WGGB, AWG, and WGC simultaneously needs to navigate each guild's minimums, credit procedures, and residual structures. Attempting to route writing work through a different country's guild to avoid another guild's jurisdiction or strike action will likely fail under IAWG solidarity provisions.

For writers working internationally: IAWG membership through your national guild provides the assurance of international solidarity that extends your national guild's coverage into international production contexts. If you are a member of one IAWG guild and wish to join another, initiation fees are waived. Check with your home guild about cross-guild membership procedures.

For AI policy in contracts: Use the IAWG's five AI principles as a baseline for contract negotiations. Key clauses to include: consent for training on scripts, disclosure and credit for AI use, compensation guardrails, indemnity for IP issues from producer-supplied AI material, and data security provisions preventing drafts from being uploaded to third-party AI models without approval.

See Also

For the primary IAWG member guilds, see WGA West, Writers Guild of Great Britain, Writers Guild of Canada, Australian Writers' Guild, and Writers Guild of Ireland in this directory. For understanding how writers' guild minimums affect production budgets, use the Indie Film Budget Calculator.