BUCHAREST: A new culture minister, Kelemen Hunor, has pledged his support for increasing the number of cinemas in Romania, a perennial issue for the film industry after many were taken off line following the fall of the Iron Curtain.

BUCHAREST: Closer to the Moon, Nae Caranfil's first English-language film starring Vera Farmiga and Mark Strong, will hold its national premiere 7 March, following a successful opening at the Making Waves Romanian Film Festival in New York in December.

PRAGUE: Regional TV web Central European Media Enterprises has announced a $545 million credit agreement with its largest shareholder, Time Warner. The pact, reported by co-CEO Michael Del Nin in a conference call 28 February, means the loss-making company will get relief for its extensive debt obligations.

BUCHAREST: The Romanian government has approved the starting price of 300,000 EUR for each of the five digital television licenses to be given via competitive selection by the National Authority for Management and Regulation of Communications for 10 years.

BUCHAREST: Mihnea Costoiu has been appointed the Acting Romanian Minister of Culture and National Heritage after the departure of Gigel Sorinel Ştirbu from the post.  Ştirbu left the post together with other six ministers as their party, the National Liberal Party (PNL) has left the governing coalition USL (Social Liberal Union).

BUCHAREST: Three feature films have received more nominations for Romania's national film fest than Călin Peter Netzer’s Child's Pose, which won attention and prizes abroad over the last year.

BUCHAREST: Marian Crişan (Morgen, Rocker) plans to shoot the first feature he will produce himself in 2015.

FNE spoke with Laurentiu Damian about the changes that he intends to make at the Romanian Filmmakers Union and his vision for a new Romanian National Film Institute.

ZAGREB: After the acclaimed Family Meals, Dana Budisavljević is working on a documentary with live action elements about Diana Budisavljević, a distant kin who was the greatest unhearalded rescuer of children during WWII.

ZAGREB: The total amount of the expenditure for the four projects which were part of  the  cash  rebate  scheme  in  2013  was  around  9.4mEUR.  The  amount  was approximately 3.3m EUR in 2012.