June 5th, 2018 – Serbia Stuntmen Agency (SKA) took part in the European Open Championship for Stuntmen in Moscow, organized by The International Stunt Academy. In addition to European countries, the Championship was attended by representatives of China, Colombia and Iran, which our stuntmen have already worked with. After winning first place in Russia, four years ago, this year our SKA team won two gold medals in disciplines – Group Burning with Explosion and Martial Arts, which put them in the second place of general standing. The championing team was led by Slaviša Ivanović, stunt coordinator and founder of SKA, stuntmen Dalibor Kostić and Borislav Bogodavac and stunt safety & rigger Milan Alavanja. On this occasion, Serbian most prominent  stuntman Slaviša Ivanović received special academic title by the International Stunt Academy. The same title was also awarded to Jackie Chan, Dolph Lundgren, Steven Seagal , Mark Dacascos, Arnold Schwarzenegger, which puts Serbian stuntmen in the top league of the world.

The list of projects Slaviša participated as a stunt and coordinated as choreographer of stunt-fighting includes over 100 domestic and international projects. In the last two years solely the forty members of SKA team have been involved in 24 projects, whose world premiers are just expecting – “Anna”, directed by Luc Besson, remake of “Papillon” by director Michael Noer, as well as the “Intrigo” trilogy of the celebrated Swedish director of Scandinavian noir Daniel Alfredson.

SKA team became irreplaceable part of international projects shooting in Serbia, whether it is US, European or Indian action sequence required. In portfolio of projects that Slavisa Ivanović holds under his stunt belt you will find A list names of Serbian and international film, such as Kevin Costner, Pierce Brosnan, John Cusack, Gerard Butler, Ralph Fiennes, Monica Bellucci, Salma Hayek, Franco Nero, Paz Vega, Olga Kurylenko and many others. 

April 25, 2018

Serbia Film Commission is starting the Film Skills Academy – a training programme aimed at providing training for technical (on-set) film skills and post-production. The total of 6 trainings are modular and structured to appeal to beginners, intermediates and advanced level participants. Tutors are selected among industry experts with established international portfolio. With this project SFC is working on creating a year-long training programme that will be a platform for quality and continuous education in film production and expanding the spectre of people trained to work in film industry.

Film Skills Academy 2018 will be delivered from May to August, starting with most popular courses such as Scheduling and Budgeting in Movie Magic and Location Management. Production Management and Production Accounting will be focusing on experienced producers and people working in the financial side of the film production, while Grips, Gaffers and Lightning Assistants will be assisted with brand new training as well as growing demand for VFX Technical Directors. The methodology will combine lecture, practical demonstrations using project simulation, group work and one-to-one tuition, incorporating valuable advice from experienced producer’s point of view.

Serbia Film Skills Academy project came as an initiative of both, SFC and its partner organisations, following the needs and demands of members of SFC and growing international filming in Serbia that had doubled since the introduction of 25% cash rebate. This project is  extremely important as it allows us to coordinate a number of very different courses and disciplines crucial for skillful film crews. This approach allows us to develop a single entry point for different courses and to design and deliver those courses in partnership with different  service providers, education partners and university whilst raising awareness of the career paths inside broad filmmaking industry addressing both graduates and already working professionals.

The project aims to introduce newly-skilled crew into the Serbian film industry. To assist in the process of moving course graduates into employment, SFC will work with members to develop internship or hands-on experience on film and television productions.

Complete list of trainings and call for registrations will be published in Training and Events section respectively. Early registration and detailed information regarding upcoming trainings are also available via trening@filminserbia.com.

This project is supported by UNDP.

April 1, 2018

From January to March Serbia Film Commission participated in the Project Digital Cities lead by British Council.

Aim of the project was to help developing the capacity of creative hubs, start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises from the Western Balkans working in the field of creative industries, technology and education, and to foster their cooperation with colleagues from Great Britain. It included series of events organized to enable networking and strengthen capacities of organization leading the digital communities in all countries from Western Balkans.

SFC was selected as leading film industry network with the growing potential of the VFX sector to enhance its networking possibilities with other 50 digital hubs and 24 cities from both Western Balkans and UK.

Study tour in London, Birmingham and Bournemouth included visits and meetings with targeted organizations and companies that are involved in professional development of animation and visual effects (VFX) community in UK. SFC team visited Escape Studios, Bournemouth University, Birmingham Custard factory and number of leading London studios such as Framestore, Double Negative and Blue Zoo and familiarization with models and collaboration initiatives such as NextGen and Creative Skillset that propel rise of creative industry in UK.

More information about Digital Cities.

March 1, 2018

India International Film Tourism Conclave establishes JW Marriott Juhu Mumbai as a hotspot that brings together Indian producers and worldwide locations in an networking exhibition and conference. Serbia joined the floor March 1st-3rd together with a handful of EUFCN members and international locations that have been attracting productions across all regional film industries. Award in promotion of film tourism has been given to producers of Vivegam Sathya Jyothi Films starring Ajith Kumar that was shot in Serbia for 60 days. The award was presented by Serbian ambassador in India Vladimir Maric.

Branded under Film in Serbia the team representing Serbia Film Commission, Film Center Serbia and Clockwork Film Production specialized in Indian market is promoting newly lifted visa regime for Indians that allow filmmakers to stay in Serbia without visa for a period of 30 days. Further boost to 25% cash rebate was warmly welcomed by IIFTC participants from both feature film producers as well as TVC content creators. Clockwork Film has already successfully serviced 5 Indian projects on locations in Serbia while Crater Studio worked on VFX for Bahubali: The conclusion.

BELGRADE, February 13, 2018 – After two successful years of running the film incentive programme Serbian Government adopted new Decree on Incentivising Investments in Production of Audiovisual Works (Film Incentives) last week. The new Decree is offering 25% of direct cash rebate for shooting on locations in Serbia and is coming into effect on February 15. The increase in incentive offer for filming is aimed to push for Serbia’s higher ranking on the list of European destinations offering incentives.

After supporting the total of 28 projects in 2017 the Ministry of Economy decided to double the annual budget to 6,7 million EUR available in 2018 for incentivising investments in audiovisual production, while minimum threshold and relevant entry criteria stay the same for most categories with exception of TV series that are required to have minimum spending per episode of 100.000 EUR. 

Ministry of Economy reports that in 2016 total amount of production in Serbia cumulated to 20,8 million eur (2,5 billion dinars) and in 2017 the total ammount of investments made in film production was 31,9 million EUR (3,8 billion dinnars) whiched proved the effectiveness 1: 9,6 of the programme. With these successes in mind, the government has committed to building on these successes and ensuring that Serbia remains an attractive destination for filming of all kinds of entertainment media content.  

Former Serbia Film Commissioner Ana Ilic, now Adviser to the Prime Minister for Digital and Creative Industries has been long standing supporter of the legislation.

“Figures from the previous period show that incentives have attracted 9,6 EUR of production for every euro paid in incentives and created over 2,000 project jobs in first 16 months of implementation. Feature film production alone increased over previous year total productions by 54%. This is a significant boost to the local economy and we are proud of the fact that Serbian incentives are not only supporting feature films and television but are open with opportunities to projects post-production, TVCs and even VR works.” – said Ilic.

The programme has been unique for its strand in support of TV commercials that only a handful of countries in the world offer. In 2017 total of 17 international advertising projects benefited from the scheme. Post-production and VFX works are highly welcome to apply with the Shallows and Bahubali 2 being just two examples of the 5 projects granted the incentives, all supported through work with Crater Studio.

This has been a record year for Serbia incoming productions with almost 30 million in expenditure across all categories envisaged by the programme from over 15 territories and markets. The list of features successfully completed in 2017 includes McMafia (BBC premieres on February 28th, serviced by Work in Progress), Intrigo trilogy by Daniel Alfredson and Extinction (Universal Pictures, serviced by Work in Progress) and Incoming (Bennatar/Thomas, Serviced by Red Production) together with South Indian blockbuster Vivegam (Serviced by Clockwork Film production).

Visit INCENTIVES section for full details and updates of the programme. 

September 4, 2017

Increasing popularity of Houdini software and its high quality performances in creating 3D simulations are bringing Andrew Lowell to Belgrade this November. Andrew is FX Department Head and Lead Instructor at Lost Boys School in Vancouver credited for visual effects on Thor, Transformers and Suckerpunch, to name a few. Intensive 5 day course in Belgrade from November 13th through 17th will offer 30 hours of training with special focus on challenges in creating fluids. This is an excellent opportunity for all freelance VFX artists and studios, within both film and gaming industries, to advance their skills in Houdini, that has been named best software package available in the market, especially praised for it’s tools in dynamic effects. Through partnership with SideFX, Serbia Film Commission and Crater VFX Training Center have created together a program for this course aiming to bring advanced tools and necessary skills effectively deployed in software environment that has become an industry standard. Trainees will be able to learn about aspects, protocols, work processes and experiment with realtime examples.

Detailed course programme is available in our Training and Event section, or simply send an email with your question.

Registrations deadline is November 5th, and  earlybird rate is applicable for registration before September 15th.

June 2, 2017

The up and coming Tamil-language Indian spy thriller Vivegam had fans in a frenzy early May with the official release of its teaser trailer. The film, a big budget feature directed and co-written by Siva and starring the extremely popular Ajith Kumar as well as Kajal Aggarwal, Akshara Haasan, and Vivek Oberoi, has already amassed a large, eager fanbase.

Vivegam was filmed on location around Serbia, Bulgaria, Austria, and India. More than 50 days of recording have taken place in areas around Serbia including in Bor, Belgrade, and Old Mountain, where a variety of fast-paced action sequences and daring stunts have taken place. 

Working alongside Siva and his crew is the Serbian production team Clockwork Productions. Along with the crew of 30 Indian production workers are something between 60 and 120 Serbian crew members, some of which even accompanied the Indian production crew with stunts shot in India. The renowned cinematographer, Vetri, remarked that it was his first time shooting in Serbia and he was delighted with the natural beauty as well as the abilities of the Serbian team. According to Vetri, Indian filmmaking is done very swiftly, and he voiced concerns that the Serbian team may not be able to keep up. Needless to say, he was exceptionally pleased by how in sync the Serbian team was, which enabled quick and efficient work to be done. This isn’t the first time Clockwork Productions has been highly praised by Indian productions– director Mani Ratnam also applauded Clockwork for their excellent professionalism and compatibility with his own crew when filming the 2017 romance Kaatru Veliyidai late last year.

The film already has a massive following which is no surprise considering the starring role of Ajith Kumar, one of Bollywood’s biggest stars who has an enormous following of his own. Director Siva remarked that the expectations are high with this film, especially in India where most of its following comes from. Only a day after its release, the trailer had a whopping 7 million views.

With the appeal of excellent crews and beautiful natural locations becoming increasingly recognized, Serbia has been attracting more and more big budget Indian productions. Vivegam is the latest large Indian production following Vamsi Paidipally’s 2016 comedy-drama Oopiri and Mani Ratnam’s 2016 romance Kaatru Veliyidai shot on location in Serbia– and it surely doesn’t look to be the last.

Vivegam is set for release in early August of this year.

February 10, 2017

British Council Belgrade and Serbia Film Commission are partnering for the third time in hosting the New British Film Festival industry program from February 17^th to 19^th. Under the new brand PLAYUK INDUSTRY SIDEBAR this is one of a kind series of panels, presentations and networking opportunities for independent British professionals and Serbian filmmakers. Located in Cultural Center Belgrade this edition of the industry program will feature script development workshop with Paul Fraser, presentations and panel discussions on producing in UK and co-productions in Europe, marketing and distribution of independent and low budget films with industry expert Mia Bays and international sales agent Yana Georgieva from Bankside Films. The final day of the program will take a look into the tech influences in storytelling and development of VR projects and immersive technologies. Gallery PodRoom will house VR arena with some of the most inspiring and latest VR projects including Notes on Blindness and BBC’s No Small Talk and Easter Rising: A Voice of a Rebel.

All panel sessions are open to film professionals and students to register. More information on program agenda and guest speakers is available here

February 3, 2017

After great success in Italy, the movie “Questi Giorni”, which was in competition for Golden Lion at 73rd Venice Film Festival, will be premiered at 45th FEST in Belgrade. Directed by Italian art house director Giuseppe Piccioni the film was shot around Belgrade central landmarks Kalemegdan and Knez Mihailova and and Italy with entire production support serviced by Clockwork Films. Although the original story was set up in Hamburg Piccioni, who juried FEST 2015, decided after his visit to rewrite the script and set the story in Belgrade to match his personal fasination with the city’s soul and its inhabitants. 

 Questi Giorni (These Days) follows the story of 4 young girls played by upcoming Italian stars Laura Adriani, Giulio Corso and Maria Roveran, supported by Margherita Buy on their adventurous life journey. Their  trip becomes the moment in which the expectations and fears of the four girls are confronted; a trip that does not have to be epic, where there are no meetings or extraordinary adventures and landscapes that take your breath away. The journey is just an opportunity to look closely at these girls, to keep them there, close at hand, all together, and perceive their inner earthquakes and their desire for life. Choices made without calculation because they are at a time in their lives when calculations cannot be made easily. They are facing themselves and an idea of the future that, as the story unfolds, is inadequate, far from what life really holds for them. There is something different around the corner, not a coherent eventuality, but something that is never how you imagine it.

Clockwork CEO, Alek Conic, also attended premiere in Venice, together with entire crew and the production team behind this project are very honored to announce FEST premiere scheduled for March 3rd, finally in our city! 

November 28, 2016

Feature film Missing in Europe finished shooting on locations in downtown Belgrade with the team from Red Production. The thriller dealing with the topic of human trafficking was directed by Tamar Halpern and stars UK cast Miranda Raison, Emmett J. Scanlan and Sophie Robertson along with Serbian upcoming talent Jovana Stojiljkovic (Panama). This interesting co-operation is the fruit of a long standing partnership between Red Production and their US production partners. Missing in Europe is produced by Kaila York of Headlong Entertainment and Nigel Thomas of Benattar/Thomas Productions together with Milos Djukelic of Red Production as executive producer while Ivana Panic was in charge of line producing.

12 days of shooting included central Belgrade locations and Danube quay with car stunts and boat fight scenes. Notable Serbian filmmakers took part in making the film such as cinematographer Vladimir Vladica Ilic and Vladimir Djukelic as assistant director.

“This complex production would not have been possible without the professionalism and expertise of the Red Production team and the excellent crew they assembled. We very much enjoyed our time in Belgrade and we will be back.” – said Thomas about his experience working in Serbia.

At the same time Milos Djukelic from Red is taking on another crime feature shooting in Bulgaria. Unchained by director/writer Paul Solet is starring John Malkovich, Antonio Banderas and Adrien Brody who is no stranger to working in the region having already shot 2 films in Serbia, Brothers Bloom and Giallo.