News

Incentives, tax rebates, versatile locations and experienced crews — there's never been a better time to shoot in Eastern Europe (even if your movie is set on Mars). 

When a group of Lithuanian and Polish film producers set out to sail from one Baltic seaport to another in September, it was not simply a nautical jaunt. The two-day voyage, aboard the 120-foot-long twin-mast schooner Brabander, brought together a dozen film professionals with a raft of potential joint projects to discuss.

The voyage from Klaipeda in Lithuania to Gdynia in Poland, the brainchild of Liana Ruokyte-Jonsson, head of film promotion, information and heritage at the Lithuanian Film Center, was designed to focus attention on a small filmmaking nation that is competing with others in Eastern Europe to attract international co-productions.

Where once Hollywood and international producers could pick low-cost territories to shoot in the region based on currency value, location and crew availability, the expansion of the European Union, economic growth and globalization have now combined to create a more level playing field.

Attempts to gain an advantage by introducing tax incentives prompted a race to offer 20 percent to 30 percent cash or tax rebates that rapidly produced near-identical offers. Even tiny Estonia, with a population of about 1.3 million, offers rebates worth up to 30 percent.

LITHUANIA

CASE STUDY: WAR AND PEACE
The BBC’s six-part adaptation of War and Peace, which premiered in January, used Lithuania as its main base as well as Russia and Latvia. A co-production among BBC Cymru Wales, The Weinstein Co. and BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point, it is the first British TV adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy epic since the BBC’s 17-part series starring Anthony Hopkins screened in 1972-73.

The new production, unlike the previous one that was filmed in Yugoslavia, was able to take advantage of genuine locations that then were part of the Soviet Union and off-limits to Western filmmakers. Producer Julia Stanndard said during production that filming had gone “extremely well in Vilnius. Everyone was really helpful and supportive, and we were made to feel so welcome in this beautiful city.” Added local producer Lineta Miseikyte of Baltic Film Service, “The scale and length of the production was challenging, but we were able to provide the necessary resources locally and met the demands of the show.”

And director Tom Harper, speaking when the series screened in Vilnius for the Lithuanian cast and crew, said “There were a number of reasons [we filmed here]. It was the tax credit, it was the [locations]. It was the combined effect of it all.” Jurate Pazikaite, head of the Vilnius Film Office, says the project was the biggest shot in the capital city last year.

INCENTIVES
Under a plan introduced in January 2014, productions that spend up to one-fifth of their budget in Lithuania can quality for a 20 percent tax rebate via a local production partner, which may use the rebate to reduce local corporate income tax liability. The incentive is available to feature films, telefilms, documentaries and animated movies. Domestic films, co-produced or commissioned films can take advantage of the incentive, which is managed by the Lithuanian Film Center. Ruokyte-Jonsson says that in the current European environment, standing out from the crowd is what matters. “It’s a very tough competition to attract foreign productions when it comes to tax incentives,” she says. “Twenty percent today maybe is not a sky-high benefit, but combining this with a super effective, highly professional multilingual local crew makes the whole package attractive and valu- able. Everything is possible in Lithuania.” Last year, in addition to the two-day co-production networking event on the schooner, Ruokyte-Jonsson promoted Lithuanian film by setting up a 50-seat theater in the departure lounge of Vilnius International Airport.

TALENT TO WATCH
Director Mantas Kvedaravicius brings an intellectualism and philosophical angle to his newest documentary, Mariupolis, which examines the stress of living in a frontline town during the civil war in Ukraine. An academic who teaches visual culture and critical theory at Vilnius University, he holds a masters from Oxford and a Ph.D. from Cambridge

IN BERLIN
Mariupolis has its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama Documentary section. At the EFM, Wide is repping Mikko Kuparinen’s 2 Nights Till Morning, about a French woman architect and Finnish DJ who meet while on business trips in Vilnius and end up spending the night together. When a volcanic ash cloud grounds their flights, their one-night stand is extended.

Full article in The Hollywood Reporter