One of the hottest destinations on the "soft money-low cost location" scene, Romania is to get its own form of film commission.

The new body, Romanian Film Promotion, is a private sector initiative spearheaded by Tudor Giurgiu, an independent producer and chief selector of the Transylvania Film Festival.

"Ultimately, we want Romania to become more than a service industry for foreign films. But we also need to help those films that do come here and to facilitate the kind of co-productions that will help our industry grow," said Giurgiu.

Its first initiative is to publish Shooting Romania, a production and facilities guide.

In June it will also organise three days (June 4-6) of seminars and discussions with foreign film financiers and distributors as part of the Romanian Film Days sidebar to the Transylvania festival (May 28-June 6).

The country's low-cost reputation has attracted films such as Cold Mountain, Haute Tension and the forthcoming Modigliani. The Media Plus programme is also soon to send an exploratory delegation to the country.

So far Romanian Film Promotion's initiatives have been financed by private sponsors, but Giurgiu expects to receive funding from the Romanian Producers' Association and from the national film centre (CNC). An expanded budget would allow the quasi film commission to travel to co-production markets such as Mannheim, Heidelberg, Rotterdam's Cinemart or IFP.