January 15, 2021

Entering into the sixth year of the cash rebate implementation Serbia continues to encourage international productions shooting in the country. The most significant change in the new Decree on support to film incentives is that it will be under the auspices of Ministry of Culture and Information as of 2021, though the process for applicants largely stays the same with Film Center Serbia as administering body.

Cash rebate remains open for feature, TV, animation and commercials both shooting on location or using post-production services in Serbia. For TV series to qualify the investor will have to provide minimum expenditure per episode of 150.000 EUR, instead of 100.000 EUR that were previously required.

Detailed fact list and new legal framework for 2021 is available on the INCENTIVES page in our website.

Serbian cash rebate programme has been welcoming international TV commercials and advertising projects with 20% incentive, which makes it an outstanding production opportunity among European destinations. The number of projects that benefited in the previous five years cumulated to 150, with 2020 alone awarding 1,6 million EUR through the incentive programme to 40 advertising projects. The largest number of clients and production companies benefiting from Serbian locations and film infrastructure came from Germany, but the list of notable brand names and campaigns included Lexus, Mersedes, L’Oreal and Addidas, to name a few.

Facilitating productions from Stink Films and Buscuit Film with notable creative names has been a special collaborative and creative treat for growing community of professionals accross all departments that more and more take over creative roles and work side by side in delivering ambitious artistic visions. The challenge of delivering expectations in the pandemic year has been met with succesful results. After release of iShares film directed by Isaiah Seret producers from Buscuit Films have all the praise for their Serbian counterparts.  

“Despite the intensity of these projects, we felt very much cared for by everyone in such genuine and sincere ways. The films will so much of what we wanted them to be and we all feel that coming to Serbia was the best decision we could have made.  And now that we’ve developed a relationship, we really do look forward to coming back again.”  – said Jeff McDougall, producer at Biscuit Films.

Read interview with Ivana Antić from Tuna+Icon on the experience of shooting iShares campaign with Biscuit Filmworks.

The budget allocated for cash rebate programme in 2021 remains the same as previous year, 700 million dinars (approx. 5.8M EUR) and it is open for applications. Incentives provide a 25% cash rebate on qualified Serbian spend for feature films, TV series, animation films, documentaries and visual effects, while TV commercials are eligible for 20% of the cost incurred in Serbia. The 30% cash rebate is available for feature films with budget spend in Serbia above 5.000.000 EUR.

November 19, 2020

Registrations for CGA Belgrade online event on December 1st are now open, so save the link to your Calendar and get yourself a comfortable spot for a virtual CGA experience. This year we will be joined by some amazing industry names during afternoon sessions that are set to start at 4PM CET.

We’ve been witnessing extensive changes amidst global pandemic this year that have made us rethink and reimagine our lives and work. 2020 has challenged us to slow down and respond to uncontrollable situations with great care in order to hopefully move forward and turn difficulties into opportunities.

As one of the results, virtual production has been the focus of industry attention with Unreal Engine blazing the trail of game-engine technology application in Film, Animation and TV. If you want to keep a close eye on all things virtual production, make sure you join in on our session Virtual production and Unreal Engine led by Mark Flanagan from Epic Games with an intent to examine the uses of game-engine technology in Film, Animation, TV and New media.

SPIN VFX has also joined the chat and we couldn’t be more delighted to welcome their Executive Producer Neishaw Ali, Visual Effects Supervisor Jeff Campbell and CG Supervisor Simon Milner for a round of CG insights.

Although 2020 has been weird enough, there’s still room for Weird animation with Nick denBoer. Nick will take you on an online tour through some of his commercial work in Maxon’s Cinema 4D including music videos for deadmau5, work for Old Spice, KFC, Conan O’Brien and other projects.

Divided into segments CGAcademy, CGArts, CGAlliance and CGAfterHours, we’ve prepared an afternoon programme that will meet your needs whether you’re looking to get more concrete knowledge, creative inspiration, better understanding of industry business or just plain fun with your peers. No matter your level of industry savvy. We’ve also prepared a present or two, since it’s important to take extra care of each other now more than ever.

With that in mind, we’re very grateful and appreciative of all the help and support we received from our long-term partners and sponsors Autodesk, 3lateral, Nordeus, Maxon, Foundry and Embassy of Canada in Belgrade. Without their help, we wouldn’t be able to create quality content you’re used to enjoying at CGA Belgrade.

The sessions are set to start at 4 PM CET and the full programme will be available in the coming days. We will send you the event link with all necessary info after you’ve registered.

CGA is one of the SFC staple projects founded in collaboration with Crater VFX Trainig Center and VFX Serbia.

Register for CGA Belgrade moving forward HERE.

October 16, 2020

The female-driven action story The Ledge started principal photography in special nature reserve Jelašnička gorge in Serbia beginning of October. Directed by Howard J Ford (Never Let Go) film stars an enticing young cast of actors including Brittany Ashworth (The Crucifixion, Hostile, Accident Man), Ben Lamb (Divergent, Now You See Me 2), Louis Boyer, Nathan Welsh, David Wayman and Anais Parello (Offensive, I-Art). Commenting from the set, director Howard Ford stated that every mountain is a challenge but with enormous help from Red Production and their amazing team in Serbia this team effort is going to be a winner!

Climbing thriller features never seen on screen locations around Suva planina in southern Serbia that are doubling for Dolomites, in combination with settings in and around Belgrade including some studio built décor. Niš City Government provided huge support on the set showing that film friendly concept is well working throughout the country. The Ledge is produced by Kate Hoffman and Fred Hedman of Evolution Pictures, company dedicated to genre movies, and Miloš Đukelić of Red Production Belgrade, prolific production service company able not just to provide services but also to develop project as a producer. Worldwide rights are being handled by GFM Film Sales.

Described as a female cliffhanger, Evolution Pictures managed, with the help of Red Production, to make COVID-proof arrangements in Serbia to allow shooting to commence. Cast & crew, among whom many are passionate climbers, are monitored daily to comply with Serbian regulations.  

“The Ledge is exactly the type of movie that Evolution was formed to make. A great piece of writing with a dynamic director capable of creating something unique and commercial, with an exciting young cast, all of whom are emerging talent. COVID was an enormous obstacle to overcome but with the help and support of Sheila Fraser Milne from Paterson James, Miloš Đukelić from Red Production and Phil Hunt of Headgear, we are now in production”, said Fred Hedman.

Producer Miloš Đukelić said: “The story of The Ledge is an interesting parallel with the effort it takes to make a movie of this scale in the middle of the pandemic!  When I met Fred and Howard I was impressed by not only their professional approach but by their real passion for this piece.  It was an easy decision to join the film as a producer.  It’s a roller coaster ride, full of adrenaline.  Red Production is very experienced in filming in Serbia and also working with producers in order to benefit from the Serbian incentives which are very advantageous.  We’re all living on the ledge these days and the only way is up!”

 August 24, 2020

Digitalkraft is looking forward to its new exciting challenge. The final preps for the new project a feature length animation “The Peasants”, that will mark first co-production of this kind with Polish Breakthru Films Studio. The Polish team is well known for its previous project “Loving Vincent”, awarded and praised in festivals, including nominations for Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe. Breakthru developed specific artistic technique and animation pipeline that will be once again applied in production of the upcoming film, involving Belgrade team in the opportunity to master innovative techniques and be part of an ambitious European animation work.

“In November 2019, producers of the “Loving Vincent”, Sean Bobbitt and Oscar winner Hugh Welchman, contacted us with the idea to work together on a new project called “The Peasants”. Screenplay is actually an adaptation of the novel written by Polish Nobel laureate Wladyslaw Reymont. The film, written and directed by Dorota Kobjela and Hugh Welchman, will be created using the same oil painting animation technique. I believe while working together, both studios will improve existing technique with an even more fluid and organic painting process and cause an evolution in oil painting animation, innovating animated film at the same time”, says Jelena Angelovski, producer from Digitalkraft.

The creative spark between Polish and Serbian team clicked even more after visiting the National Museum in Belgrade, where they selected works from the period of academic realism of notable Serbian painters Uroš Predić, “Landscape in Bavaria”, by Milan Popović and “Flower Seller” by Miloš Tenković to be incorporate in the film. Artists in Belgrade, Sopot and Kiev will revive part of the common Slavic cultural heritage making it visible through the project and giving Serbia the opportunity to position its artwork within the cinematic world.

That’s why a dedicated open call for 15 academic and non-academic painters, experts in art of reproductions, will become a part of this major project. The application deadline is extended to September 18 for which you can apply via LINK. The project is scheduled to be released in 2022, and besides painters, the team will include 20 VFX artists and 2 supervisors Biserka Petrović and Vladimir Vinkić who previously worked on “Loving Vincent”. Belgrade team will be led by Ana Pakljanac from the Digitalkraft studio.

The shooting has already started in Poland and will last 36 days, while the total production budget is enclosed to be 4.5 million EUR.

May 21, 2020

Film productions are ready to resume with adoption of safety protocols by the Government of Serbia. Safety measures and guidelines for Film Productions in Serbia are introduced through work of Serbia Film Commission and Film Center Serbia. As elsewhere measures include standard sanitisation and PPE for the crew members, temperature measuring, social distancing whenever possible, limited number of people on set and as much online work in pre-production as possible. As of May 22nd public gatherings are limited to 100 people and there is no requirement on PCR test for entering the country but testing on request is becoming available with a fee of 50 EUR.

Production companies are actively prepping for the filming season and a number of them officially announced principal photography for last week of May. The first ones to be back to their daily routine are domestic TV series and projects that were interrupted by CoVid19 outbreak and state of emergency declaration on March 15th. Only this time their daily routine will be slightly different.

Vision Team are the first ones to be testing the new protocols for their upcoming historic TV drama „The King“ with a smaller show based in their new studio facility.

„The exercise has shown us that it is possible but requires a lot of changes in planning and shifts in between teams. We shot 4 seasons of Survivor in remote jungle locations where risk of malaria was present, so some of the health measures and attitude we are practicing now is drawn from that experience. Real locations will follow after we are done with studio. Even in quarantine we filmed the empty streets for plate shots that will be altered with VFX“, says Dragan Đurković, CEO of Vision Team and Board Chair of Serbia Film Commission.

Balkanic Media team who are shooting on the backlot in PFI studio is ready to go back to the set and diverse medieval locations around the country.

„We are working on travel arrangements for „Outpost“ cast from US and UK while Serbian crew is preparing extensively with respect to health guidelines. We are ready to restart shooting first week of June with teams split in groups so that overlap is avoided as much as possible“, says Ivana Vasić English, costume designer and partner in Balkanic Media.

Alongside TV series the advertising clients are getting ready to return to Belgrade and finalize contracted shootings. Production companies are introducing different systems for remote shooting to enable presence of only essential crew members on set. Local advertising projects are already in production.

Direct airlines to London, Vienna, Frankfurt and Zurich were resumed from May 18th, and further lifting of restrictions is expected to follow soon with global  measures. Hotel industry is open for business and in close communications with production teams our preferred hotel partners are ready to introduce additional measures specific to film industry.

The Outpost set at PFI Studios – Courtesy of Electric Entertainment – Arrowstorm – Photo by Aleksandar Letić

April 24th, 2020 – London-based financier Head Gear Films announced today the largest investment in productions aiming to shoot in Serbia. Head Gear is known as one of the most prolific providers of production services and debt finance to independent media projects. The facility will be operated in partnership with Belgrade-based production outfit Balkanic Media, which has been founded by Ironclad filmmaker Jonathan English with Los Angeles-based producer James Gibb.

The fund will cash flow the government rebate in Serbia, which proved as one of the most efficient cash rebate programmes around Europe offering 25% for qualifying film and TV productions and rising to 30% for qualified Serbian spend on features with a budget €5M and above. Head Gear’s experience on locations in Serbia will be further advanced with Balkanic’s experience in successfully handling two seasons of CW’s The Outpost and the third season of CBS’s Seal Team that both benefited from Serbian cash rebate.

Head Gear Films, founded by Phil Hunt and Compton Ross, said the fund would focus on TV series but would also be available for single picture financing. This marks the largest commitment by a single film financier to Serbia and further advancement of international filming portfolio in post CoVid19 period. The fund is designed as revolving credit facility without sunset date offering debt and gap financing for Balkanic’s service productions but also its own original content.

“I’ve always been keen on expanding into other areas and this partnership with Balkanic will build on our growing television slate as well as continuing to lay foundations in other territories. I’ve known Balkanic partners Jonathan and James since the mid 90’s so this is a perfect fit for a new venture in Serbia”, said Hunt.

“Serbia offers producers incredible value for money, we are thrilled to partner with Phil and Head Gear Films, this deal enables Balkanic to provide third party producers, studios and TV networks a suite of financing options which includes funding the state rebate”, added Gibb.

“Serbia has positioned itself not just as a shooting location but as a reliable production partner. The government rebate combined with low production costs, world class studios at PFI and highly experienced crew, makes Serbia the unbeatable deal in Europe”, concluded English. Balkanic is currently shooting the third season of series The Outpost at PFI Studios in Belgrade for Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment and Arrowstorm Entertainment. The company has also produced indie films The Deal and A.I. Rising.

On the 31st of March 2020, the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Serbia has presented the set of measures for mitigation of crises caused by COVID-19 pandemic in the total amount of EUR 5.1 billion. The measures refer to the area of fiscal policy, maintaining the liquidity of the economy and direct support to companies. The adoption of these documents, enabling the implementation of the measures, is planned for the first half of April. Measures are intended to support film production companies and freelancers, too, so it is expected to be one of the Serbia`s first steps in helping film crews and industry. Serbia Film Commission member, Crowe RS has made an overview of all the measures that will be adopted and you can find them below.

Fiscal policy measures are:

• The payment of taxes and social security contributions for private sector during the state of emergency will be postponed – the payment will begin in 2021;
• Deferral of payment of corporate income tax in advance in the second quarter of 2020;
• Donors are exempted from paying VAT.

Measures dedicated to private sector, to be precise to all freelancers, micro, small and medium entities, imply minimum wage payments, while assistance for large legal entities is 50% of the net minimum wage for employees who got fired.

Measures to maintain the liquidity of the economy will be implemented through: 

• The Development Fund (for freelancers, micro, small and medium-sized legal entities) – EUR 200 million is foreseen;
• A Guarantee Scheme for loans that should maintain liquidity and working capital for freelancers, micro, small and medium-sized legal entities. This type of support will be realized through commercial banks, and the total value of the guarantee scheme is about RSD 240 billion.

Speaking about large legal entities, introducing of regulation regarding corporate taxpayers was announced too, as one of the ways of financing economic entities. The aim of this measure is to enable large legal entities to borrow on more favorable terms.

However, entities that have reduced their staff numbers by more than 10% during a state of the emergency (not counting part-time employees whose contracts expired during the state of emergency) and those who have temporarily closed their businesses before the declaration of the state of emergency on March 15th, will not be able to use these measures.

January 16, 2020

Serbia Film Commission together with the Faculty of Economics conducted an Analysis of the Economic Effects of the Incentives for Investment in Audiovisual Production under the auspices of the Ministry of Economy in support to production of film, TV series and commercials. The analysis, done in common global methodology framework, was first in Serbian practice, giving an overview of the full effectiveness of incentives from their introduction in 2016 till present.

The aim of this research was to measure the specific economic effects of the service-oriented production sector and the incentive program beneficiaries, to improve its further incentive and monitoring mechanisms, to highlight the contributions that the audiovisual sectors have to the country’s economy, being a major pillar of the creative industries. The detailed data focused also on the comparison within the sector measuring the contribution of each sub-sector that is supported. The figures on the TV commercial performance made outstanding arguments in support to sustainability and effectiveness to the sector economic rational. The Incentive Regulation, from April 2016 up to now, with a total of 17 million EUR supported the realization of 24 films and 22 series, out of this sum 20% was spent on attracting 88 TV advertising project shot in Serbia, generating total of income of 67,7 million EUR to the economy till August 1st 2019.

The results showed that the utilization of the Incentives` budget is between 92% and 95%, while the total return on investment that the state receives from subsidies is 5.38. In 2019, the number of employees in the industry has increased by an average of 57% compared to 2016, and over the previous four years the number of full-time equivalent employees, the FTE index, reached 11.110. The analysis also estimated that the variety of formats supported by the incentive program was a great way to deepen the destination portfolio, encompassing better market and geo-targeting of foreign clients.

Proving of self-sustainability of incentive programme, 11.567.613 EUR of the total tax was paid on the basis of VAT, contribution tax and annual profit tax of the companies that participated in the survey.

Especially significant is the effect that the industry has on tourism, since foreign productions had 44.889 hotel overnights from 2016 to 2019, and generated a total tourism contribution of 3.680.898 EUR only on account of accommodation costs.

Long term goal of the Analysis was to lay grounds for specific methodology which will in future provide annual monitoring of the incentive effects and performance of the entire sector.

The full findings and Analysis are available in Serbia on the link HERE.