BELGRADE: Serbian director Dragan Marinković is in postproduction with his fifth feature film, Leeches / Pijavice, set for release in 2018. The film is a Serbian/Croatian/Macedonian coproduction and is based on a book under the same title by David Albahari, who also penned the screenplay together with Marinković.

SKOPJE: The Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE has acquired TV rights to the Russian/Lithuanian/Macedonian coproduction Kharms / Хармс by Ivan Bolotnikov from ANT!PODE Sales & Distribution. The film will have its Finish premiere in 2018.

SKOPJE: Skopje based researcher, cultural manager and culture critic Robert Alagjozovski was appointed as the Minister of Culture under new Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. He succeeds Elizabeta Kanceska-Milevska, who ran the Ministry of Culture since 2008.

SKOPJE: The action thriller Vijay 61 by 33-year-old director Atlee Kumar is the first Bollywood film that will benefit from the film incentive programme available in the form of a cash rebate of 20% on qualifying Macedonian spend.

STRUMICA: The 13th annual edition of International Film Festival ASTERFEST will open on 26 June 2017, running through 30 June in the city of Strumica in southeastern Macedonia. The festival will screen short films and documentaries, mostly European films, as well as run workshops.

SKOPJE: Teona Struga Mitevska's When the Day Had No Name / Koga denot nemase ime was sold by Dubai based Cercamon to eight countries in Asia. This Macedonian/Belgian/Slovenian coproduction premiered at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama programme.

SKOPJE: Teona Strugar Mitevska will represent Macedonia at European Film Promotion’s young event taking place at the Sydney Film Festival 7-28 June 2017, Europe! Voices of Women in Film.

SKOPJE: Teona Strugar Mitevska is in development with God Exists, Her Name is Petrunija / Gospod postoi, nejzinoto ime e Petrunija, a simple, almost comical story that shows the absurdities of the world we live in, focusing on a day in the life of Petrunija, a single, unemployed, 31-year-old woman, who decides to do the unthinkable and intervene in the world of men. The principal photography is scheduled to start in November 2017.

PRESPA: Serbian actor and director Dragan Bjelogrić is in production with the TV series Shadows over the Balkans / Senke nad Balkanom, a three-season political thriller drama set in the 1930s in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Production started on 1 October 2016 in Serbia where 30 percent of the shooting was completed. Scenes from the TV series are currently shooting on locations in Prespa and Bitola surroundings.

OHRID: Screenwriter and director Ilija Piperkoski is shooting his debut feature film Grandpa and Grandson, produced by Pandora`s box production, in cooperation with Dream Factory and Romania’s Alien film.