Trieste - December 19, 2023 – 21 film projects from 18 countries will be showcased at the 14th  edition of When East Meets West, the Italian Co-Production Forum taking place from January 21-24, 2024 in the frame of the Trieste Film Festival. The selected projects in development - comprising 9 feature documentaries, 9 fiction features, and 3 short animations - emerged from a pool of 486 submissions and will be presented, most of them for the very first time, to more than 500 decision makers and professionals from all over the world.

BELGRADE: Earlier this autumn, the leading regional and multiple award-winning production company Firefly, based in Belgrade and which operates as a part of the WMG company, has officially opened a complex of state-of-the-art film studios "Firefly Studios". It is the most modern studio complex in the region of 12,500 m2, with 3 studios, a swimming pool for underwater filming and accompanying rooms. The opening of Firefly Studio represents a step forward on the international stage, not only for the company WMG and Firefly, but also for the entire film industry in Serbia and the region.

BUDAPEST: Hungarian media reports that Arnold Schwarzenegger will return to Budapest for the shoot of Breakout directed by Scott Waugh, whose filming stopped due to the SAG – AFTRA strike in August 2023.

PARIS: Dvorana Kulturnog Centra Beograda (Serbia) has won Best Programming, while Andres Kauts of Tartu Elektrikteater (Estonia) has received the Entrepreneur of the Year prize at the Europa Cinemas awards for 2023.

WARSAW: Get one to one advice on how to fund your film.

BELGRADE: Serbian film critics Zoran Janković and Đorđe Bajić are the authors of a new book with critical texts about all Serbian feature films shown in regular cinema distribution or at festivals over the past five years. Critical Guide to Serbian Film 2018-2022 is a continuation and somehow a sequel to the Critical Guide to Serbian Film 2000-2017 published in 2018. This film review book was published by Film Center Serbia.

Eurocinema, Europa Distribution, Europa International and ADEF, representing film production, distribution and international sales, all welcome the plenary votes which took place on 13 December 2023, regarding the IMCO report proposing the revision of the 2018 regulation on geo-blocking in the digital single market (2023/2019(INI)). These votes overall represented a positive stance from the European Parliament to keep the exemption for the audiovisual sector in the Geo-blocking Regulation.

PODGORICA: The Film Centre of Montenegro has distributed 1,384,000 EUR for the production of four feature films, two long documentaries, one short documentary, four short fiction films, one animated film, nine minority coproductions and four feature films in production.

The following grants were announced by the Film Centre of Montenegro on 24 November 2023.

‘Maria’s Silence’, a co-production between Latvia (Mistrus Media) and Lithuania (Broom Films), directed by Dāvis Sīmanis to premiere at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, Forum programme.