The Turkish comedy Pak Panther, a parody of the Pink Panther films, completed filming on August 26. 

VENICE: Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski's Essential Killing staring Vincent Gallo and Emmanuelle Seigner will screen in the main competition at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.  The film is produced by Skopia Film of Poland (www.skopiafilm.com) with backing from the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl) and Canal+Cyfrowy and coproduced by Hungary's Mythberg Films (www.mythbergfilms.hu) together with Ireland's Element Pictures and Cylinger Productions of Norway and backing from Eurimages. Hanway Films is handling international sales.

The Romanian Government has cancelled a tender for the first two digital multiplexes and postponed the crossover to the digital terestrial TV by three years, from January 1, 2012 to January 1, 2015.

The Bulgarian telecom company Vivacom will begin digital transmission on September 1, the company announced.

Croatian distributor Martin Milinkovic has been chosen to participate in European Film Promotion's (www.efp-online.com) Up Next! presentation on September 20 and 21 at the San Sebastian film festival. 

"Riga Virus: Training for Emerging Cinema Professionals" will be launched in September 2010, gathering 20 participants (10 film projects) from the Baltic States, Armenia and Georgia. The participants of the training will be offered an intensive four-day programme consisting of script development and film marketing workshops, lectures, case studies and a pitch session.

Bulgarian animation director, writer, art director and VFX artist Velislava Gospodinova started working on the animated film The Blood  Gospodinova is the director of animation film The Lighthouse currently making the rounds of the festival circuit.

The National Audiovisual Council of Romania (www.cna.ro) has granted a satellite license to Valtec Media Broadcasting SRL for a new Agro Channel to be broadcast in Romania and possibly in Moldova. The channel will begin broadcasting at the end of 2010.