VAMA, ROMANIA: An all-Romanian team and a Polish director-led team were the split decision winners of the five-week-long 7th Aristoteles documentary workshop (www.aworkshop.org) ended which concluded on 23 September 2012.

BUCHAREST: Dragoş Lumpan expects to complete an ambitious 90-minute documentary shot along a 45,000 km route in Albania, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Wales and Romania by early 2013.

BUCHAREST: Cristian Mungiu’s Beyond the Hills/După dealuri (www.dupadealuri.ro) will open in Hungary on 11 October before its domestic release in Romania on 26 October, when its makers hope it will break the record of Tudor Giurgiu’s Of Snails and Men/Despre oameni şi melci (www.despreoamenisimelci.ro).

BUCHAREST: Two major TV players plan fall 2012 launches of theme channels Digi World, Digi Life and Megamax TV.

BUCHAREST: Of Snails and Men / Despre oameni şi melci (www.despreoamenisimelci.ro), the second film from Tudor Giurgiu, netted 13,929 admissions in its opening weekend, setting a ten-year record for a Romanian film.

BUCHAREST: Director Pearry Reginald Teo (Necromentia) begins filming The Dark Prince, a medieval vampire movie starring Jon Voight on 18 September 2012. 

SARAJEVO: Director Šahin Šišić is in very early development with Hotel Drina, a cinematic adaptation of the play I Left My Heart in Zvornik, by the writer, scriptwriter and poet Abdulah Sidran (Do You Remember Dolly Bell?, When Father Was Away on Business).

BUCHAREST: The Romanian box office rose by 4.1 percent in the first seven months of 2012, while admissions grew by 6.4 percent.

BUCHAREST: Romanian producer/director Tudor Giurgiu is trying to lure Romanian audiences back to local films with a unique new promotional campaign for his second film, Of Snails and Men. Unprecedented for a Romanian film, Giurgiu has invested 100,000 EUR and is preparing to open on 39 screens in 22 towns on 14 September 2012.

BUCHAREST: Realitatea TV (www.realitatea.net) announced it will cut half of its personnel, following the appointment of a new General Manager, Gabrial Bugnar, who took over the position on 3 September 2012.