The Kaunas City Municipality has approved the establishment a new film studio in Kaunas. The founders of the public institution will be the city municipality, businessman Edvinas Bindokas and film director Vytautas Balsys. The project was initiated by Stanislavas Buškevi?ius, Deputy Mayor of Kaunas.
“The Lithuanian film industry has to move to a new level of quality. Establishing the Kaunas Film Studio would allow us to capture the best experience and avoid repeating mistakes,” Bindokas and Balsys said.The Kaunas Film Studio proposes to finance itself from its activities and support by the Ministry of Culture, along with EU grants and private sponsors. Alongside its main activity of feature film production, the studio plans to pursue other activities to assist with financing.
The first Kaunas Film Studio project is expected to commemorate the 1863 Lithuanian uprising and a priest who was one of the leaders of the rebellion.
The original Lithuanian Film Studio was founded in Kaunas and was known as Lithuanian Newsreel Studio beginning in 1940. In 1949 the studio was transferred to Vilnius and re-named Lithuanian Film Studio in 1956. It was privatized in 2004. The studio has been most active in film services for foreign films shooting in Lithuania, most recently the Spanish coproduction Blood in the Snow.