Terms of Use

Draft to be validated by legal counsel before final publication.

Version: draft of 1 October 2026. Effective date: [À COMPLÉTER / TO BE COMPLETED: final publication date].

ARTICLE 1 — PURPOSE AND SCOPE

These terms of use (the “Terms”) govern access to and use of the Festime platform, available in particular at https://festime.pro and through its application programming interfaces (the “Platform”), published by [À COMPLÉTER / TO BE COMPLETED: corporate name of the publisher], a company incorporated under Tunisian law whose details appear in the Legal Notice (“Festime”, “we”).

Festime is an online service that enables filmmakers, producers and rights holders to submit their films to festivals, enables festivals to publish their competitions and manage submissions, juries and selections, and enables the community to discover films, festivals and professionals.

These Terms apply to any person who browses the Platform or creates an account on it (the “User”). Paid services are additionally governed by the Terms of Sale. The processing of personal data is described in the Privacy Policy, and the use of trackers in the Cookie Policy. The Community Guidelines and the Intellectual Property Policy form an integral part of these Terms.

ARTICLE 2 — DEFINITIONS

“Account”: the personal space created by a User. “Creator”: a User who uploads films or projects (filmmaker, producer, distributor, rights holder). “Festival” or “Organizer”: a User who publishes a festival, its editions and its competitions. “Juror”: a person invited by a Festival to evaluate Submissions. “Submission”: the entry of a film into a competition. “Content”: any text, image, video, file, message, comment or data published or transmitted through the Platform. “Festime+”: a film distribution space governed by specific distribution agreements.

ARTICLE 3 — ACCEPTANCE AND AMENDMENT OF THE TERMS

Creating an Account requires the express acceptance of these Terms, given by ticking a checkbox. Festime records the date of acceptance and the fingerprint of the accepted version.

Festime may amend these Terms, in particular to reflect changes in the law or in the services. The new version is published on the Platform and brought to the attention of logged-in Users. Continued free use constitutes acknowledgement of the new version; a new express acceptance is required before any paid transaction. Orders already paid remain governed by the version in force at the time of payment.

ARTICLE 4 — ACCESS TO THE PLATFORM AND ACCOUNT CREATION

The User must be of legal age under the law of their country of residence and have the capacity to enter into contracts, or act with the authorization of their legal representative. Where the User acts on behalf of a legal entity (production company, association, festival), they represent that they have the authority to bind it.

The User provides accurate and up-to-date information. The User chooses a password of at least 12 characters and keeps it confidential; enabling two-factor authentication is recommended and may be required for certain roles. Any use of the Account is deemed to be made by its holder until fraudulent access is reported to [À COMPLÉTER / TO BE COMPLETED: support e-mail address].

A demonstration area allows the Platform to be explored with fictitious data. No real payment is collected and no commitment is made there; such content may be reset at any time.

ARTICLE 5 — DESCRIPTION OF THE SERVICES

For Creators: film and project pages, portfolio, festival search, deadline alerts, submissions, results tracking, messaging, the “My Selection” list, film promotion and, for eligible subscribers, Festime+.

For Festivals: public page, editions and competitions, versioned rules, submission forms and fees, promotional codes, jury management, criteria and scoring, selection, results, laurels, audience statistics, advertising and e-mail campaigns.

For everyone: community, groups, comments, reactions, public profiles, the Friends & Ambassadors programme, help centre and privacy tools (data export and erasure).

Certain features are optional or depend on third-party providers (payment, e-mail, artificial-intelligence assistance, video streaming) and may not be available in every country or at all times.

ARTICLE 6 — ROLE OF FESTIME AND RESPONSIBILITY OF FESTIVALS

Festime is a technical intermediary. Each Festival is solely responsible for its existence, the organization of its event, its rules, its eligibility criteria, the decisions of its jury, the selection, the awarding of prizes and compliance with its commitments towards Creators. Festime does not guarantee the selection of a film, the holding of a festival, or the obtaining of a prize, an invitation or a screening.

Festime may verify certain Festivals (“verified” badge) on the basis of supporting documents. This verification is a limited documentary check and does not constitute a guarantee of the Organizer.

The Creator reads the rules of each competition before submitting; the version of the rules accepted is stored with the Submission.

ARTICLE 7 — USER CONTENT

The User remains the owner of their Content. The User warrants that they hold all rights necessary (copyright, neighbouring rights, image rights, music, excerpts, trademarks) to publish and transmit it, and shall indemnify Festime against any claim in this respect. The rights granted to Festime and to Festivals are set out in the Intellectual Property Policy.

The following are prohibited: Content that is unlawful, infringing, defamatory, hateful, violent without a clearly indicated artistic or documentary justification, pornographic, or that violates privacy or dignity, as well as malware, spam and unauthorized advertising. The Community Guidelines set out the rules of conduct.

Festime does not carry out any general prior review of Content. It may nevertheless moderate, hide, archive or remove Content that is manifestly unlawful or that has been reported, in accordance with the procedures described in the Community Guidelines and the Intellectual Property Policy. Uploaded files may be checked automatically (type, size, integrity) and placed in quarantine.

ARTICLE 8 — USER OBLIGATIONS

The User undertakes not to: circumvent security or video-protection measures (tokens, watermarks, restricted access); download, record or distribute a film to which they have access as a Juror or member of a Festival outside the intended evaluation; extract data on a large scale; impersonate a third party; create multiple Accounts to distort a referral programme or a vote; use the application programming interfaces beyond the limits and rights granted.

Jurors undertake to keep the works, deliberations and scores confidential, to declare any conflict of interest and, where applicable, to respect the anonymization of Submissions (blind viewing).

ARTICLE 9 — OPTIONAL ARTIFICIAL-INTELLIGENCE-BASED SERVICES

When a Festival enables artificial-intelligence assistance for a competition, suggestions (summaries, indicative rankings, consistency checks) may be generated from the information contained in the Submissions. These suggestions are indicative only: no selection decision is taken solely by automated means and the Festival remains responsible for its choices. The processing arrangements are described in the Privacy Policy.

ARTICLE 10 — FRIENDS & AMBASSADORS PROGRAMME

The referral and ambassador programme is subject to specific terms accepted upon joining. Benefits are granted only after validation; Festime may refuse or withdraw a benefit in the event of fraud, duplication or invalid referral, in particular on the basis of the technical anti-abuse signals described in the Privacy Policy.

ARTICLE 11 — AVAILABILITY AND SECURITY

Festime uses reasonable means to ensure access to the Platform, its security and the backup of data, under an obligation of means and not of result. Interruptions may occur for maintenance, updates or in cases of force majeure. The User keeps their own copies of their films and documents; the Platform is not an archiving service.

ARTICLE 12 — LIABILITY

Festime is liable only for direct and foreseeable damage resulting from a proven breach of its obligations. It is not liable for Content published by Users, for the decisions and commitments of Festivals, or for the services of third-party providers. Subject to applicable mandatory provisions, in particular those protecting consumers, Festime’s total liability is limited to the amounts paid by the User to Festime during the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, excluding amounts passed on to Festivals. [À COMPLÉTER / TO BE COMPLETED: liability cap to be validated by legal counsel.]

ARTICLE 13 — SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION

The User may stop using the Platform at any time and request the deletion of their Account from the “Privacy & Data” area. The request may be cancelled within 14 days; it is then carried out in accordance with the Privacy Policy. Records that must be retained by law are kept in pseudonymized form.

Festime may suspend or close an Account, after a reasoned notice save in cases of urgency, in the event of a serious breach of these Terms, fraud, repeated infringement, a security risk or a request from a competent authority. The User may challenge the decision by writing to [À COMPLÉTER / TO BE COMPLETED: support e-mail address].

ARTICLE 14 — PERSONAL DATA

Festime processes personal data in accordance with Tunisian Organic Law No. 2004-63 of 27 July 2004 and, for persons located in the European Union, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR). Details are set out in the Privacy Policy.

ARTICLE 15 — GOVERNING LAW AND DISPUTES

These Terms are governed by Tunisian law, subject to any more protective mandatory provisions of the law of the consumer’s country of habitual residence. In the event of a dispute, the User is invited first to contact [À COMPLÉTER / TO BE COMPLETED: complaints e-mail address] in order to seek an amicable solution. Failing agreement within 30 days, the dispute shall be brought before [À COMPLÉTER / TO BE COMPLETED: competent court, for example the courts of Tunis], unless a mandatory rule of jurisdiction provides otherwise. [À COMPLÉTER / TO BE COMPLETED: consumer mediator, if any, for consumers in the European Union.]

ARTICLE 16 — MISCELLANEOUS

If any clause is held to be void, the remaining clauses shall continue to apply. Failure to invoke a breach does not constitute a waiver. These Terms are available in French, English and Arabic; [À COMPLÉTER / TO BE COMPLETED: language version that prevails in the event of discrepancy].

Contact: [À COMPLÉTER / TO BE COMPLETED: contact e-mail address] — [À COMPLÉTER / TO BE COMPLETED: postal address of the registered office].