TALLINN: The End of the Chain by director Priit Pääsuke will have its world premiere at the 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the East of the West Competition. The film, produced by Marianne Ostrat from Alexandra Film, is the feature debut for both the director and the producer. The script is based on Paavo Piik’s stage play of the same name. KVIFF will run this year from 30 June to 8 July 2017.

TALLINN: Moonika Siimets finished shooting her debut feature The Little Comrade on 1 June 2017. The film is produced by Riina Sildos, the head of the production company Amrion. The script is written by Moonika Siimets, it is based on autobiographic novels Comrade Kid and Grown-Ups and Velvet and Sawdust by the beloved Estonian author Leelo Tungal.

TALLINN: Acclaimed Estonian director Veiko Õunpuu will start shooting his new film The Last Ones in August 2017 in Lapland. The film is produced by Homeless Bob Production and Bufo from Finland.

PRAGUE: The Prague based post-production house Magiclab continues its foray into coproduction with the Latvian/Czech/Lithuanian/Polish family drama Bille directed by Inara Kolmane and based on the novel by acclaimed Latvian author Vizma Belševica.

VILNIUS: A partially animated feature documentary The L-Team / L-Komanda by director Andrius Lekavicius is in production. Principle photography in Lithuania began on 15 May 2017 and will wrap at the end of the summer, but production will continue with animated parts of the film.

VILNIUS: The Jump / Šuolis, a creative documentary by director Giedrė Žickytė, is nearing the end of its production phase. Principle photography began in December 2015 in the USA and will wrap on 1 July 2017 in Lithuania.

LJUBLJANA: Awakenings / Prebujanja, Peter Bratuša’s drama about midlife crisis with Slovenian actress Katarina Čas, has completed shooting and is moving into postproduction.

PRAGUE: Internationally acclaimed Czech animator Michaela Pavlátová is preparing a new feature length animated film titled My Sunny Maad.

TBILISI: Ana Urushadze, the daughter of the acclaimed Georgian helmer Zaza Urushadze, is currently in postproduction with her first feature film, Scary Mother. The film is set to be released in 2017.

BUCHAREST: Director/scriptwriter Răzvan Savescu is currently developing his sophomore feature The First Client (working title), inspired by his wife’s death. The premiere is set for spring 2018.

WARSAW: Israeli director and screenwriter Hagar Ben-Ashar has begun the process of casting young actors for her new drama The War Has Ended. Production is planned to begin in the spring of 2018.

TBILISI: Gigisha Abashidze is in postproduction with his debut feature Neighbors, set for release in autumn 2017. The film is the first Georgian/Macedonian coproduction.

BUCHAREST: Cristian Comeagă is in preproduction with the historical docu-drama series Romanians - The Story of a Nation / Românii – povestea unui neam, set to start shooting in June 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.

PRAGUE: Karel Vachek, the head of the documentary department at FAMU and one of the most original Czech filmmakers known for his experimental, enormously lengthy film essays, is shooting the decades-leaping documentary Communism.

BUCHAREST: Acclaimed Romanian helmer Radu Jude is set to start shooting his new feature film Is This What You Were Born For? with his regular producer Ada Solomon at Hi Film Productions in summer 2017. This Romanian/Czech/French/Bulgarian coproduction will tackle a delicate subject in Romanian history, the massacre of approximately 20,000 Jewish people by the Romanian army in Odessa in 1941.