Published on: 2026-09-25
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
This summer, the Moscow Film Commission received more than 1,200 applications for filming. As a result, 127 projects were taken to city locations. This was announced by the Minister of the Moscow Government, head of the city’s Department of Culture Alexey Fursin.
“The Moscow Film Commission operates on a one-stop-shop principle, helping to coordinate filming on city territories, interact with specialized agencies, and resolve organizational issues. And through the digital film platform ‘Moskino,’ hundreds of city and interior locations, studios, and cluster services are now available,” noted Alexey Fursin.
The warm season is traditionally one of the busiest periods for the film industry. The long daylight hours and more stable weather allow film crews to work more actively outdoors: conducting extended shifts and involving streets, embankments, squares, and other urban spaces.
The Moscow Film Commission operates as a one-stop service and assists filmmakers in organizing their activities within the capital, as well as coordinating with relevant departments and institutions. Depending on the task, this may involve filming on a street or square, placing technical equipment, working with production vehicles, temporarily modifying the urban environment, or staging more complex scenes.
Where most frequently filmed
The most sought-after districts in Moscow in the summer of 2026 included Basmanny, Danilovsky, and Zamoskvorechye.
The leader was the Basmanny District: during the summer season, film crews worked at 18 different locations there. Its popularity is explained by its diverse historical buildings and recognizable urban environment. One of the favorite places among filmmakers remains Khitrovskaya Square: its architectural texture is especially suitable for historical projects and scenes set in past eras of the capital.
In the Danilovsky District this summer, 11 locations were used for filming. One of the most popular is the Marc Chagall embankment. Modern architecture, open spaces, and proximity to the water make it suitable for filming projects about today’s Moscow, as well as car scenes and dynamic urban sequences.
Another 10 filming locations have been engaged in Zamoskvorechye. Among them, Sadovnicheskaya Embankment is especially popular: filmmakers are attracted by its distinctive urban perspectives, historical buildings, and proximity to the central part of the capital.
There are in-demand sites outside the districts that made the top three as well. For example, in Savelovsky, the city clinical hospital No. 24 of the capital became a sought-after site. Department of Health: during the summer, seven projects were filmed here. In the Gagarinsky district, one of the leaders was the Moscow Palace of Pioneers on Vorobyovy Gory: he was chosen for filming six projects in the season.
A separate category of in-demand locations consists of the roads in the Troitsky and Novomoskovsky administrative districts. Specialists regularly select sections in the Voronovo and Krasnopakhorsky areas for shooting car driving scenes and scenes in motion.
Moscow’s architecture allows for spaces suitable for a wide range of genres and eras — from historical dramas to contemporary comedies and series. It is precisely the diversity of the urban environment that remains one of the key advantages of the capital as a filming location.
Genre determines the place
The choice of filming location directly depends on the project’s dramaturgy. For historical films and series, areas with preserved architecture of the old capital are especially in demand: such spaces allow recreating the required era right in the city. For modern comedies and dramas, filmmakers more often choose embankments, public spaces, residential neighborhoods, and new urban areas that help portray today’s Moscow as the natural living environment of the characters. At the same time, the same location can work differently on camera. It all depends on the artistic task, time of day, decorative design, and angle.
Moscow as a film set
For filmmakers, the city becomes not just a backdrop but a full-fledged part of the on-screen story. In one project, the director might need a historic square; in another, a modern embankment or a quiet street in the city center. The task of the Moscow Film Commission is to help the film crew realize their creative vision, taking into account the specifics of the particular area and the everyday life of the city.
A large-scale project is presented on the mos.ru portal special project, dedicated to the development of key sectors of Moscow. Among them are transport, industry, healthcare, education, sports, and the construction sector. The special project helps to learn how the capital has changed over the past years, which initiatives aimed at making citizens’ lives even more comfortable are currently being implemented, and what awaits Moscow and its residents in the near future.
On the project page “Culture, Heritage, and Leisure Industry” one can learn about how architectural monuments are preserved in the capital.
Moscow is the center of the country’s cultural life and ranks among the leading metropolises in terms of the number of museums and exhibition halls. The city has created a film cluster that unites the Moskino film factory on Ryazansky Prospekt, the Gorky Film Studio, and the Moskino film park.
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