CLUJ-NAPOCA: Japanese director Sion Sono is currently shooting an untitled fantasy series in Cluj-Napoca, a town he fell in love with after visiting it as a guest of the 15th edition of Transilvania IFF. The project should propel the Transilvania Film Fund, established in 2010 but in need of a boost from the local authorities.

PRAGUE: Czech production company i/o post is developing its third coproduction with Iranian partners. Drama The One of the Whale is the debut feature by Iranian filmmaker Kaveh Daneshmand, who was very recently awarded by Iranian film critics for his short film Occasional Showers.

VILNIUS: Director Emilis Vėlyvis started shooting the third part of his famous trilogy Zero III with Kino Kultas producing. The previous film in the trilogy, Zero 2 (2010) is the most popular film of all time in Lithuania.

PRAGUE: Indian documentary Czech Mate – In Search of Jiri Menzel (working title) by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur is currently being edited in the Prague studio MagicLab after six years of shooting.

BUCHAREST: Obscur, the debut feature of Romanian writer/director Andrei Stefanescu, is currently in the financing and preproduction stage. The film is an independent project set for shooting in November 2016.

VILNIUS: Nikita Mikhalkov‘s Russian production company Three T Production and local coproducer Artbox are currently shooting the feature film Going Vertical by Anton Megerdichev in Lithuania. The film tells the story of the USSR basketball team, that won against the American team for the first time in history, in 1972.

SKOPJE: Goce Cvetanovski`s hand-drawn animated film John Vardar vs. the Galaxy, which is Macedonia’s first long animated feature project, is currently in preproduction.

SOFIA: Escobar, a Spanish/Bulgarian European coproduction starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, and directed by Fernando Leon de Aranoa, will start shooting in Columbia on 24 October 2016.

VALLETTA: Malta has played host to two series in recent weeks, with the Wachowski’s high-profile Sense8 and the Smithsonian Channel-backed Warrior Women, serviced by Parker Film & TV Productions, both filming on the island.

BUCHAREST: Tudor Giurgiu is in the casting process with his new feature film At the Side of the Moon, set for shooting in Spain and Romania in spring 2017. This Romanian/Spanish coproduction is his first project shot abroad.

BELGRADE: Serbian director Milan Karadzic is in production with Biser Bojane, a contemporary romantic comedy. The film is a coproduction between Montenegro and Serbia and is set to open in 2017.

TBILISI: Anthony Lucero’s feature film The Clown starring Lily Collins, Pål Sverre Hagen and Jean-Marc Barr is currently shooting in Tbilisi until October 2016. The Georgian company Misty Dawn is servicing. Romanian Marius Panduru (Aferim! by Radu Jude, Hi Film) is the DoP, while South African/American rock star Dave Matthews will create the soundtrack.

PRAGUE: Musicians / Muzikanti directed by Slovak director Dušan Rapoš, the author of the cult musical of the 80’s The Fountain for Zuzana, wraps shooting at Těšínské Slezko, on the Czech-Polish-Slovak border, on 9 September 2016.

PRAGUE: Bollywood romantic road movie The Ring, starring Shah Rukh Khan, is currently shooting in Prague and set to spend almost 2 m EUR there. The film directed by Imtiaz Ali is produced by the prominent Bollywood production and distribution company Red Chillies Entertainment. Czech company Punk Film is providing services.

SOFIA: Action/Adventure Category 5 by Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious, Mummy 3) started shooting on location in Bulgaria on 29 August 2016. Shooting will wrap in 11 weeks-time and will be followed by another week in the UK.

BELGRADE: Serbian helmer Predrag Antonijević is in production with the TV series My Father’s Killers / Ubice moga oca, a 10-episode crime drama about a young inspector on his first big case. The local media labeled it as the “Serbian True Detective” and a second season is already being planned.