Film in Serbia Goes Live
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| Rising Serbian film director, Milos Djukelic, speaks at the launch of the portal that he helped design. |
Not too long ago, Serbia was a leading destination for foreign film productions because it offered professional support, diversity, and good value. Some of the best known producers and actors from around the world filmed here. When Around the World in 80 Days starring Pierce Brosnan was filmed in 1989, the former Yugoslavia represented a total of 18 countries, with Belgrade serving as 7 world cities—just one example of the diversity of locations in Serbia.
After a long hiatus, Serbia’s film industry is at the beginning of a revival. Foreign productions are looking at Serbia once again as a promising filming location. In the last few years, stars like Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody and Christopher Walken have filmed in Serbia. More recently, Ralph Fiennes and River Road Entertainment decided to shoot a modern day version of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus in Belgrade and its surroundings. The buzz about the benefits of filming in Serbia increases with each successful production.
“When USAID’s Competitiveness Project began identifying sectors where U.S. assistance could have real and positive impact, the enormous potential of Serbia’s film industry to bring income and jobs to Serbia immediately became clear. Now, through this project, our experts are working with the Serbian film industry to attract more foreign productions and to help them to provide better services to international productions – in everything from site scouting to permitting to post-production.” said USAID Mission Director Michael Harvey.
Serbia has all of the key components of a successful industry – excellent locations, great crews, competitive cost. Co-productions cost an estimated 15-20 percent less than in other countries in the region. Serbia’s crews are recognized as exceptionally skilled, creative, reliable and hardworking, and have accumulated extensive international experience. In fact, movie buffs around the world would probably be surprised to learn that Serbian film professionals have played their part in everything from costume design for period pieces like Marie Antoinette to visual effects for Star Wars and special effects for the Oscar wining film The Reader.
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| Rising Serbian film director, Milos Djukelic, speaks at the launch of the portal that he helped design. |
What Serbia doesn’t have yet is a systematic way of promoting its advantages to the world. Renewed international demand for information on filming in Serbia has produced an initiative to establish a Serbia Film Commission, and several industry leaders have been working together for the past several month to create a vision of the Film Commission’s structure, services, and promotional activities. USAID is working with Serbian film producers and with the support from the Government ministries – including Culture, Economy, and Trade – to establish such a Commission in Serbia.
The launch of the USAID-supported Film in Serbia website (www.filminserbia.com) is a big step in the right direction and has created a tool to promote Serbia as a prime location for foreign productions and a destination for foreign investments. Each film shot in Serbia translates to millions of dollars in investments in the Serbian economy, and in limitless free advertising for the Serbian tourism industry. “The Serbian government will create a legislative environment that gives tax incentives for the film industry, apart from financing modern productions; but we are also looking to find a strategic partner to resolve the status quo of the Avala film studio, the biggest studio in the Balkans,” said Nebojsa Bradic, the Serbian Minister of Culture.
The portal provides information on production and post-production service providers, logistics of operating in Serbia, sample locations, past productions, crews and equipment suppliers. Rising Serbian film director Milos Djukelic helped design the portal and called upon all Serbian film professionals to join forces. At the Film in Serbia website launch ceremony at Belgrade’s SuperSpace, Djukelic reminded the crowd of industry professionals about “the weakness of the individual and the power of the group” and urged his colleagues to band together to rebuild Serbia’s film industry.
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