BUCHAREST: Andrei Crețulescu's debut feature Charleston aka Charlton Heston was picked up by Paris-based sales agent Versatile. This Romanian/French coproduction is currently in postproduction and set to be finished end of April 2017.

This month we speak with Maris Prombergs, the director and programmer of Kino Bize from Riga, Latvia. Kino Bize was founded in 2012 as a small, cozy art house movie theater in the center of Latvia’s capital city. The programming embraces challenging, vibrant and independent films and videos as well as theme retrospectives, educational programmes and special events.

This month we speak with Maris Prombergs, the director and programmer of Kino Bize from Riga, Latvia. Kino Bize was founded in 2012 as a small, cozy art house movie theater in the center of Latvia’s capital city. The programming embraces challenging, vibrant and independent films and videos as well as theme retrospectives, educational programmes and special events.

TBILISI: National Archives of Georgia plans to build a cinema to host the screening of documentaries and reels from its collection, but also premieres and graduation films.

BUCHAREST: Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada and Bogdan Mirică’s debut feature Dogs received 16 and 13 nominations respectively in the 11th edition of Gopo Awards. The awards ceremony will take place at the National Theatre in Bucharest on 21 March 2017.

With a new all-inclusive cash rebate, Georgia is sure to become a top location among international filmmakers. In March 2016 the Government of Georgia introduced Film in Georgia, a cash rebate programme offering 20-25% cash rebate on qualified spend in Georgia.

BUCHAREST: The second season of the HBO Europe series Shadows / Umbre, produced and shot in Romania in autumn-winter 2016, is currently in postproduction with the premiere set for 2017.

After two lawsuits and two Ministers of Culture, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre is back to normal operations, HAVC director Hrvoje Hribar told FNE in November 2016. “We survived a seven-month onslaught.”

It was a very good year for Romania, with a record number of films selected and awarded in Cannes and new European additions to the Cinema Law approved at the end of 2016. New initiatives have been launched under the ministers of Culture Vlad Alexandrescu and Corina Șuteu, and the new minister of Culture, Ionuț Vulpescu, who was re-approved in January 2017 after the parlamentary elections, is expected to continue the reforms.

BUCHAREST: Romanian film director Radu Gabrea passed away at age 79 on 9 February 2017. He was the founder of the Mediaș Central European Film Festival (MECEFF) in 2012.