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.

November 8, 2016

After the General Assembly Meeting and re-election of the Board Members in June the new-old Board of Directors appointed Marko Jocic as the new President of the Board and the Serbia Film Commission. Jocic is a well-established film producer known for some of the iconic Serbian comedies and dramas who recently line produced international features such as Korean biopic The Tenor and Ironclad 2: Battle for Blood. Jocic’s Viktorija Film is a prolific production company focusing on development of genre projects and new audiences. During a one year mandate his vice president will be Bogdan Petkovic from Emote Production, who serviced numerous Scandinavian and Russian advertising projects, Cannes Lions award winning campaign for Red Cross in 2015 and number of feature films such as Belgrade Phantom, The Newcomer with Anthony LaPaglia and James Floyd, and most recent documentary Juvenile.

Jocic and Petkovic are succeeding Barbara Sandic Stetic from PFI Studios and Tea Korolija from LeSpot. At the same time the executive office of Serbia Film Commission is announcing the change with Milica Bozanic taking over the Executive Director role. Milica served as operations manager since the very establishment of SFC and is representing Serbia in the European Film Commissions Network Board of Directors. Ana Ilic, first certified film commissioner in the SEE region is moving into a new position as chief of staff to the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government within Serbian Government and will remain strategic advisor to the work of the SFC. The changes in the leadership of SFC will secure the continuation of private public partnership between film industry and governmental institutions that SFC has been pioneering for the past 7 years resulting in adoption of the incentives programme and implementation of Film Friendly policies with the local government.

August 4, 2016

Film New Europe will be regularly reporting on news and events happening in Serbian film industry. In one of the first interviews their correspondent Tara Karajica talked to Serbia Film Commissioner Ana Ilic about challenges but also future of film industry in Serbia and Film in Serbia brand. 

FNE: What was the biggest challenge in creating the Serbia Film Commission?

Ana Ilić: Creating the brand Film in Serbia and developing a strategy for positioning Serbia internationally as a viable filming destination has been a very exciting adventure. In the beginning, we knew how much Serbia had to offer in terms of production expertise, talent, infrastructure and locations, but there was absolutely no place where you could find information on any of that. So, we began with a simple idea to gather all the information and start the promotion, but we soon realised we needed an organisation behind the brand.

So, we built the Serbia Film Commission from scratch and with very little support from the government, but with great enthusiasm from the industry. There were 16 founding members – film and TV producers. Within five years the SFC grew to 80 members, many new partners and support from various sponsors and donors. We also joined two major international associations of film commissions – the global Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) and the European Film Commission Network (EUFCN), and have become members of their boards.

Serbia is the only country from southeastern Europe to be on the Board of Directors of the AFCI, but by far the biggest challenge was getting an incentive programme adopted by the Serbian government. There was no understanding of film and TV production as a business and economic endeavor that can be hugely impactful on the overall economy of a country, generating revenues, jobs, tourism promotion…

It took a lot of hard work, many studies and analyses, numerous media appearances and interviews and a great number of meetings with different Prime Ministers, ministers and government officials before the momentum was built and in August 2015 the government finally passed the incentive regulation.

Continue reading…

February 18, 2016

Changes to the EUFCN Board of Directors were announced at the General Assembly of the European Film Commissions network during Berlin Film Festival. After a year as a stand in member Milica Božanić, Business Development Manager of Serbia Film Commission will be replacing Valerie Lepine-Karik from Film France. Milica will contribute to the Board with her experience in finance management of NGO by holding the role of Network’s Treasurer. Former Treasurer Andrea Rocco (Genova-Liguria Film Commission) will step up as a Secretary General and the two will continue working together as a funding and lobbying working group in EUFCN mission to engage more with European institutions and build partnerships with other European associations in film and audio visual sector.

EUFCN Board under the leadership of Truls Kontny (Norway Film Commission) is taking actions toward marketing expansion of the Filming Europe on international markets.

SFC has been an EUFCN member since 2010 and is actively supporting initiatives and collaboration among member countries.

November 26, 2015

Serbian team is attending first European Location event, Focus, in Design Business Center in London’s Islington December 14th and 15th. Film Commission team will be supported by  experienced film, TV and advertising producers who produced projects for Survivor, Vice, telecomunications, banks and FMCG and are able to turn any project from paper to screen with astonishing production value.

Moreover we will be presenting Serbian film incentive program that kicks of in 2016. Cash rebate worth of 20% of Serbian expenditure will be available not only for features and TV drama but equally to high end commercials and post production that wish to benefit from Serbian talent.

So join us for Q&A on Serbian production offer and find out more why you should be considering Serbia for your next project. We are happy to meet you at our stand #55.

You can schedule a meeting with SFC team via info@filminserbia.com, or get directly in touch with

LeSpot

Ms Tea Korolija, producer

Tea.korolija@lespot.rs

Samaljot Production

Mr. Marko Popovic, director/producer

Marko.popovic.reditelj@gmail.com

Vision Team 

Mr. Dragan Djurkovic, producer

ddjurkovic@visionteam.rs

May 26, 2015

Bring your project to the workshop and make the best strategy for your film with Oscar winning and twice BAFTA nominated creative producer.
When: June, 7 – 9th, 2015
Where: Serbia Film Commission, Vlajkoviceva 18, Belgrade, Serbia
Lecturer: Mia Bays
Working language: English
Number of participants limited.

WORKSHOP WILL HELP YOU LEARN
– Box office, trends, events
What does the world look like now for film?
– Defining your audience
– How international works
Sales, Festivals, Deals
– Marketing and PR essentials
For before and during production
– Distribution strategies
Dealing with exhibitors, release strategy and marketing/PR essentials, reading box office numbers
– Essential PR and social media strategies in film
– Case study screening
– Work on your project

ABOUT LECTURER
Mia Bays is an Oscar winning, twice BAFTA nominated creative producer working across fiction and docs, with a proven track record of launching careers with over 24 years experience in film on over 50 features. Mia works in both production as well as sales marketing and distribution strategist roles for her company Missing In Action Films. From 2007 – 14 Mia has made 8 micro budget features as Creative Producer for the acclaimed Film London BBC Films Microwave scheme. She is also very popular lecturer in London Film School and Binger Filmlab.

APPLY AND MAKE YOUR STRATEGY!
To apply for the workshop participants need to send short personal/company biography and one page info on the project including budget, finance, distribution/sales potential and audience.
Deadline: May 27th, 2015
Price: 200EUR + PDV
Members of Serbia Film Commission enjoy a special rate: 140 EUR + PDV
Registration and additional assistance: jelena@filminserbia.com
Training and Development Coordinator: Jelena Samardzic