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Which films can be subtitled

Subtitles translate a film's dialogue, and translation is one of the rights the law reserves for a film's authors. So the project accepts subtitles for three kinds of film only.

In short

  • Films in the public domain: in Georgia, those whose authors all died more than 70 years ago.1
  • Films under an open licence that allows translation: CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA.2,3
  • Films whose rights holder has agreed in writing. A letter to copy is below.

Last checked: 17 October 2026

Check a film

Does the film have an open licence?
Did all of the film's authors die in 1955 or earlier?

The authors are the director, the scriptwriter, the author of the dialogue, and the composer of music written for the film.1

Has the rights holder agreed in writing?

Why permission matters

Under Georgian law, the author of a work has the exclusive right to translate it.1 The same right is in the Berne Convention, the international copyright treaty.4 A subtitle file is a translation of the film's dialogue, so publishing one needs the right to translate.

The authors of a film are its director, its scriptwriter, the author of its dialogue, and the composer of music written for it.1

The public domain

In Georgia, copyright lasts for the author's lifetime and 70 years after their death. For a film, the 70 years run from the death of the last surviving author, counted from 1 January of the following year. After that, anyone may use the work without paying royalties.1

In 2026 this means: a film is in the public domain in Georgia if all of its authors died in 1955 or earlier. Each new year adds one more year of deaths.

The rules differ between countries. In the USA, for example, films published in 1930 or earlier are now in the public domain, whenever their authors died.5 The project follows the Georgian rule.

Open licences

With a Creative Commons licence, creators allow certain uses in advance. Under CC BY and CC BY-SA, translations are allowed, with credit to the creator.2,3 The CC BY-SA licence counts a translation as “adapted material”.3

  • Accepted: CC0, CC BY and CC BY-SA.
  • Not accepted: licences with ND (NoDerivatives), which do not allow sharing modified material,6 and licences with NC (NonCommercial), which conflict with the project's CC BY-SA licence.

The short films of the Blender Foundation are good examples: Tears of Steel and Sintel are under CC BY 3.0, and Elephants Dream under CC BY 2.5.7,8,9 Open projects

Asking for permission

For most films, including most Georgian films, the rights holder has to agree first. It may be a studio, a distributor, the Georgian National Film Center, or the director's heirs. Write in plain terms and keep the answer.

Subject: Permission to publish subtitles for [film title]

Dear [name],

I am a volunteer with Translation Foundation (translation.foundation.ge), an open project that makes subtitles in Georgian and English. I would like to translate [film title] ([year]) into [English / Georgian] and publish the subtitles on translation.foundation.ge.

The subtitles would be:

  • a separate text file, with no part of the film itself;
  • free for anyone to use and share under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence, with credit to the film and its authors;
  • linked to the official place to watch the film: [link].

May I have your written permission to translate the film's dialogue and intertitles and to publish the subtitles on these terms? If you would prefer other terms, please tell me.

Kind regards,
[your name]
[email or phone]

The same letter in Georgian is on the Georgian version of this page.

If you hold the rights

If subtitles on this site concern a film whose rights you hold, and you did not agree to them, write to translation@foundation.ge. How removal requests work

This page explains the rules the project follows. It is not legal advice.

Where this information comes from

  1. Parliament of Georgia (1999). Law of Georgia on Copyright and Related Rights, Articles 15, 18, 31, 32 and 34 (consolidated text).
  2. Creative Commons. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
  3. Creative Commons. Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0); legal code, Section 1: "Adapted Material" includes translations.
  4. World Intellectual Property Organization. Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, Article 8: Right of Translation.
  5. Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain. "Public Domain Day 2026."
  6. Creative Commons. Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0).
  7. Blender Foundation. "Tears of Steel: About" (2012).
  8. Blender Foundation. "Sintel: About" (2010).
  9. Blender Foundation. "Elephants Dream" (Orange Open Movie Project, 2006).