Gazprom-Media invites Serbia to shoot a historical movie in Russian Hollywood

An extended working meeting between the Gazprom-Media Holding delegation, led by CEO Aleksandr Zharov, and leading Serbian filmmakers took place at the Ministry of Culture of Serbia. The parties agreed to move from one-time distribution to systematic co-production partnership. The Russian holding proposed co-producing a historical movie, using the MosKino production base (“Russian Hollywood”) and a blogger network with over 2 billion subscribers to promote projects.

During the meeting, Aleksandr Zharov also emphasized the potential that Russian content has for Serbian viewers. He mentioned that, in a previous conversation with the Nikola Selaković, Serbian Minister of Culture, he learned that over the past 15 years, only three Russian series have been highly popular among Serbian viewers: Law of the Lawless (Brigada) Kitchen (Kukhnya) and Catherine the Great (Ekaterina Velikaya). Meanwhile, Gazprom-Media annually produces 8 to 10 of the best series in Russia, and he expressed confidence that the holding’s content library shall resonate widely with the local audience, considering how close Serbian and Russian values are.

Vadim Vereshchagin, CEO of the Central Partnership film company, spoke on the practical results of distribution: “We have implemented over 300 projects in 170 territories. In Serbia, 30 movies were released, 9 of which were shown in theaters, but the full potential of Russian cinema has not yet been unlocked here. We need support in finding Serbian companies that are interested.” At the same time, he thanked Andjelija Vlaisavljevic, CEO of the Work in Progress film company, who was present at the meeting, and her colleagues for their coordinated work on the Race to Monte Carlo (Bitva motorov) movie last year.

Artem Mikhalkov, director and general producer 1-2-3 Production, shared his personal experience, kind words about Serbia, and his desire to expand cooperation: “The last time I was here was 15 years ago when my father held the world premiere of Sunstroke (Solnechnyy udar). The incredible feedback from Serbian viewers was very important for our country and for Nikita Sergeyevich personally. Recently, I learned that Drvengrad, Emir Kusturica’s ethno-village, has Nikita Mikhalkov Square and Andrei Konchalovsky Street, and this has further bonded our family with Serbia. We already have over 130 projects, which is about 120 hours per year. Last year, the screening of Peter I: The Last Tsar and the First Emperor (Petr I: Posledny tsar i pervy imperator) during the Hermitage Days in Serbia was attended by over 3,200 people. The more such projects we have, the stronger the relations between our countries will become. We will make every effort for this.”

An equally important aspect, project promotion, was highlighted by Alina Zinnatullina, CEO of the Insight People production center: “Often, box office revenues of movies are limited by weak marketing rather than by the quality of content. Modern marketing through bloggers can change the game. We have 2,800 bloggers, popular actors, and musicians under exclusive contract, who are in demand not only in Russia but also abroad. The total reach of our network is over two billion subscribers. We are already successfully promoting projects for Central Partnership and 1-2-3 Production, actively collaborating with global blogging agencies. If Serbian bloggers join the promotion, the figures will increase many times.”

In turn, Serbian filmmakers noted that the country has strong directors, costume designers, editors, and quality production houses. However, the local movie distribution market is limited (about 7 million people), and a large number of online services distracts viewers. Therefore, cooperation with Russian companies can significantly strengthen the position of the Serbian industry. Attempts to enter the markets of China and Turkey, according to the Serbian side, have failed, unlike the growing interest in partnership with Russia.

The parties also discussed practical mechanisms: the tax cash rebate system in Serbia (a return of 25% of qualifying expenses, and 30% for projects with a budget over 5 million euros), as well as the automatic script analysis system of KIT Film Studio (part of Gazprom-Media Holding), which allows selecting projects of interest to both Russian and Serbian audiences.

Following the meeting, the parties agreed to form working groups on co-production in the coming months, discuss the expansion of Russian content in Serbian distribution and on digital platforms, and engage Gazprom-Media’s blogger network for joint project promotion.

Participants of the meeting from the Russian side included Aleksandr Zharov, CEO of Gazprom-Media; Boris Khanchalyan, Deputy CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding; Aleksandr Kormukhin, Communications Director of Gazprom-Media Holding; Alina Zinnatullina, CEO of Insight People Production Center; Darya Bogdanova, Head of the International Department of Gazprom-Media Holding; Vadim Vereshchagin, CEO of Central Partnership; and Artem Mikhalkov, General Producer of 1-2-3 Production. From the Serbian side, they were Lav Pajkić, State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture; Jakov Petrović, Head of Film Center Serbia; Andjelija Vlaisavljević, CEO of Work in Progress; Maksut Čatović, co-founder of Film Danas; and Aljoša Čeranić, producer of Tracktor Film.