VILNIUS: Leningrad Symphony, a docudrama by director Christian Frey for Beetz Filmproduktion Hamburg, begins principle photography in Lithuania on 29 November 2016. Shooting wil wrap on 4 December.

BRATISLAVA: The Slovak/Czech/Slovenian/Macedonian historical drama Piargy is moving into production after three years in development which resulted in a change of director. Czech director Ivo Trajkov began the first days of shooting on the four-seasons film in May 2016 and will continue throughout 2017.

PRAGUE: Mia Film is handling production services on Heaven and Hell, a two part TV film which is the latest of several German productions shot in the Czech Republic in recent years.

PRAGUE: After nine years of preparations and financing, US based Czech director, screenwriter and producer David Mrnka started shooting his new film titled Milada about Milada Horakova on 5 November 2016.

BELGRADE: After taking a break to serve on the programming team of the Belgrade International Film Festival – FEST, Serbian helmer Mladen Đorđević is back in the director’s chair with Gastarbeiter Stories / Sumrak u bečkom haustoru. The film has wrapped production and is currently in postproduction.

RIGA: Writer/director Michael Idov is developing Humorist, a feature film about the Soviet stand-up comedian Boris Arkadiev. The film is a Latvian/Russian/British coproduction set for shooting in 2017.

PRAGUE: Czech production company i/o post is developing its third coproduction with Iranian partners. Drama The One of the Whale is the debut feature by Iranian filmmaker Kaveh Daneshmand, who was very recently awarded by Iranian film critics for his short film Occasional Showers.

VILNIUS: Director Emilis Vėlyvis started shooting the third part of his famous trilogy Zero III with Kino Kultas producing. The previous film in the trilogy, Zero 2 (2010) is the most popular film of all time in Lithuania.

PRAGUE: Indian documentary Czech Mate – In Search of Jiri Menzel (working title) by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur is currently being edited in the Prague studio MagicLab after six years of shooting.

VILNIUS: Nikita Mikhalkov‘s Russian production company Three T Production and local coproducer Artbox are currently shooting the feature film Going Vertical by Anton Megerdichev in Lithuania. The film tells the story of the USSR basketball team, that won against the American team for the first time in history, in 1972.

SKOPJE: Goce Cvetanovski`s hand-drawn animated film John Vardar vs. the Galaxy, which is Macedonia’s first long animated feature project, is currently in preproduction.

SOFIA: Escobar, a Spanish/Bulgarian European coproduction starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, and directed by Fernando Leon de Aranoa, will start shooting in Columbia on 24 October 2016.

VALLETTA: Malta has played host to two series in recent weeks, with the Wachowski’s high-profile Sense8 and the Smithsonian Channel-backed Warrior Women, serviced by Parker Film & TV Productions, both filming on the island.

BELGRADE: Serbian director Milan Karadzic is in production with Biser Bojane, a contemporary romantic comedy. The film is a coproduction between Montenegro and Serbia and is set to open in 2017.

PRAGUE: Musicians / Muzikanti directed by Slovak director Dušan Rapoš, the author of the cult musical of the 80’s The Fountain for Zuzana, wraps shooting at Těšínské Slezko, on the Czech-Polish-Slovak border, on 9 September 2016.

PRAGUE: Bollywood romantic road movie The Ring, starring Shah Rukh Khan, is currently shooting in Prague and set to spend almost 2 m EUR there. The film directed by Imtiaz Ali is produced by the prominent Bollywood production and distribution company Red Chillies Entertainment. Czech company Punk Film is providing services.