Serbia has introduced a brand new film incentive programme which will cover commercials alongside film and television productions, making it the first country in Eastern Europe to offer an official incentive for commercials. The country now offers a 20% cash rebate for productions filming on location.
Under the new scheme, the required minimum spend for commercials is EUR100,000. This increases to EUR300,000 and EUR150,000 for film and TV respectively. While there is no cap on the amount that can be claimed per project, the scheme does has an annual budget of EUR3.2 million.
In 2015, Jason Zada used the Tara National Forest to double for Japan's Aokigahara Forest in his horror feature, The Forest.
The Serbia Film Commission has also developed a partnership programme with public institutions and local government to create a more film friendly environment for international productions.
The Serbian capital offers diverse filming locations, from Ottoman-style architecture and the Austro- Hungarian buildings all the way to socialist architecture and ‘blocks’ of buildings in New Belgrade that I consider unique and interesting for filmmaking.”
Juan Carlos Loza, Location Scout
Serbia has a mild continental four-season climate with cold winters and warm summers. The north of Serbia and the upland regions have a continental climate, with colder winters and hotter summers.
The summer months of June to August experience little rain and precipitation is moderate throughout the year with snow during the winter months. The mountains and inland regions get heavy snowfall and the ski season is generally from December to March. Average temperatures range from -3C to 3C in January and 17C to 28C in July.
