VILNIUS: Lithuanian director Romas Zabarauskas has completed postproduction on his third feature film, the gay romantic drama The Lawyer / Advokatas, which was shot on location in Vilnius and Belgrade. Wide Management is handling the sales and will showcase the film at the European Film Market (20-27 February 2020) in Berlin.

VILNIUS: It was another great year for Lithuanian cinema, which continued to garner international attention. World premieres of Lithuanian films took place at internationally acclaimed festivals, including Cannes, Busan, Hot Docs Toronto, Shanghai, Karlovy Vary, Leipzig, Venice, Tallinn, with the support of the Lithuanian Film Centre. Works from almost all genres – feature films, documentaries, animated films, short films - were presented to global audiences and contended in competition programmes.

VILNIUS: The comedy Fake Millionaire / Pats Sau Milijonierius from Lithuanian writer/director Tadas Vidmantas was the most profitable Lithuanian film at the box office in Lithuania in 2019. The film, which was released on 18 October 2019, had 204,860 admissions and 1,259,262 EUR gross, and it outperformed Joker, The Lion King and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Another two domestic films are in the general top ten.

VILNIUS: The fourth season of the Netflix drama Stranger Things starring Winona Ryder will be shot in Vilnius with Baltic Film Services servicing.

VILNIUS: Lithuanian director Andrius Blaževičius is in postproduction with his second feature film Paralysis / Paralyžius. Principle photography in Lithuania started on 15 July 2019 and wrapped on 25 August 2019.

VILNIUS: This year the European Film Forum Scanorama, which took place in Vilnius 7 - 17 November 2019, extended its competition programme to cover the whole Baltic sea region. A total of 19 films from 9 countries, including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Germany, competed in the New Baltic Cinema competition.

VILNIUS: Giedrė Burokaitė from Meno Avilys has been selected to participate in the 2020 Emerging Producers programme for documentary film producers, which kicks off at the 23rd edition of the Ji.hlava IDFF, taking place 24-29 October 2019. FNE spoke with Giedrė Burokaitė about the issues facing documentary film producers.

VILNIUS: The miniseries Catherine the Great / Jekaterina didžioji is one of the most high profile examples of productions filmed in Lituania partly because of its film incentives. The film incentives in Lithuania were increased to 30 percent at the beginning of 2019.

VILNIUS: Aistė Žegulytė's first feature-length documentary Animus Animalis (a Story about People, Animals and Things) / Animus Animalis (istorija apie žmones, žvėris ir daiktus), which has recently opened in cinemas in Lithuania, will be presented in the Baltic Sea Region competition at the Riga IFF, which runs 17 – 27 October 2019.

VILNIUS: One of the most famous Lithuanian film directors, Algimantas Puipa will show his new drama Other Side of Silence / Kita tylos pusė in the Baltic Sea Region competition at the Riga IFF, which runs 17 – 27 October 2019.