Bucharest Film Studios (Media Pro Studios) in Romania is Eastern Europe's largest and longest established film studios with a tradition in cinema spanning almost 70 years. The complex is located in the town of Buftea, 20 kilometers north-west of Bucharest. Since they were founded (in the 1950s), over 600 films have been shot and processed there, both Romanian and international productions. In 2015, a group of investors from the U.S. and Romania finalized the transaction through which CME sold the shares to Media Pro Entertainment, a major shareholder of the Media Pro Studios. After a rebranding, Media Pro Studios is now Bucharest Film Studios. Beginning In the wake of Soviet control of Romania, the newly installed regime was quick to realize the propaganda potential of feature films. In 1950, construction began at what would later be called, using a terminology typical for that era, Centrul de Producţie Cinematografică Buftea (Buftea Film Production Center). Like any other business in a communist country, the studios were owned by the state and controlled by the Communist Party. Although the studios were not fully finished until 1959, shooting began in the middle of the 1950s. At its completion, there were four stages, one set for mixed indoor-outdoor shooting, and a film processing lab. A single stage could store 30 limousines, as it did during a shooting for S-a furat o bombă ("A Bomb Has Been Stolen"), or could reproduce La Scala Opera Hall in Milan, used in the film Darcleé. Under the floor of the mixed indoor-outdoor set there was a water tank with crystal walls for underwater shootings. Film production during the communist regime From 1959 until 1989 the studios produced around twenty films per year. Films created during this period that won international acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival include: Scurtă istorie (A Short History) directed by Ion Popescu-Gopo, which won the Palme d'Or for Short Films in 1957; Pădurea spânzuraților (Forest of the Hanged) directed by Liviu Ciulei, who won the Best Director Award in 1965; Răscoala (Blazing Winter) directed by Mircea Mureșan, who won the Best First Work Award in 1966; Cântecele Renașterii (Renaissance Songs), a documentary about the Madrigal Choir directed by Mirel Ilieșiu, which won the Palme d'Or for Short Films in 1969. Some of the most famous directors of Romanian cinema made their debuts at the Buftea Studios: Iulian Mihu and Manole Marcus – Viața nu iartă