SARAJEVO: The documentary Under the Cover by Nejra Latić Hulusić and Sabrina Begović Ćorić investigates the attitude towards headscarves in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Georgia faced two important events in 2015 - it joined the Creative Europe Programme at the end of February 2015 and introduced its first tax rebate law, which will start functioning in 2016. International coproductions also took off, especially documentaries. This is due to the fact that Georgia launched a new call for documentary coproductions in March 2014.

TBILISI: Georgian National Film Center will allot project development grants totaling 28,583 EUR / 75,000 GEL to five features films. They include new projects by George Ovashvili, Rusudan Chkonia and Tinatin Kajrishvili.

This month we speak with Yanaki Dermendzhiev, the co-owner and manager of "Lucky" Home of Cinema from Plovdiv, Bulgaria. For a long time a city as big and important as Plovdiv did not have a cinema with regular art house programming. Establishing “Lucky” Home of Cinema aimed at bringing to the citizens and the visitors of the city quality film, titles that did not find a place in commercial multiplexes.

It was a good year for Croatian cinema with domestic films like The High Sun by Dalibor Matanić and the short film Belladona by Dubravka Turić awarded at many festivals. International productions spent double the amount of 2014 shooting in Croatia. The Croatian Independent Cinema Network launched in 2015 aims at helping independent cinemas. Admissions and box office were on the rise.

TBILISI: Georgian National Film Centre will grant 46,229 EUR /120,000 GEL for the script development of eight feature films dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Democratic Republic of Georgia.

“It was a busy year with many domestic productions as well as servicing for foreign productions, but with not very optimistic expectations regarding the number and the financing of new domestic productions.

Bosnia and Herzegovina saw four important events in 2015: it hosted the 21st edition of Sarajevo Film Festival, it joined the Film New Europe Association and European Film Promotion and it also witnessed the opening of the Creative Europe Desk in Sarajevo and Banja Luka in November 2015.

BUCHAREST: Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu has published an open letter about the recent closure of Romanian cinemas due to earthquake risk and calling on the Romanian government to make national cinema a cultural priority.