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Screen
24 September 2007

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  • Ao: The Last Neanderthal

    A Neanderthal man’s journey across ancient Europe and his encounter with homo sapiens. Based on Marc Klapczynski’s book Aô, Ancient Man.

  • Magic Boys

    Two blue-collar Hungarians disguise themselves as exotic dancers to blackmail a scheming American tycoon.

  • Outskirts

    A tableau of Bucharest and its residents

  • Retrace

    A woman travels to Ceausescu’s Romania for the first time since finding refuge in Ireland as a child escaping the Holocaust.

  • 3DD takes on international rights to Meat Loaf doc

    UK-based 3DD Entertainment is taking on international sales for the full-length documentary Meat Loaf: In Search Of Paradise. 3DD plans to start sales of the feature documentary and one-hour TV version at MIPCOM. Bruce David Klein directed the story about rock icon Meat Loaf on tour. Atlas Media Corp produced in association with Rainbow Media's VOOM HD Networks. The film played at the recent Montreal World Film Festival and is set for a January 2008 US theatrical

  • AAM works on digital release of Queen Rock Montreal

    Arts Alliance Media is working with Eagle Rock Entertainment and Empire Cinemas to digitally release concert film Queen Rock Montreal in cinemas across the UK. The project was shot in November 1981 and has only been seen on the big screen at its Cannes debut in 1984. The film has now been re-mixed and will be released on new digital prints created by AAM. Queen Rock Montreal will play Sept 21-25 at cinemas including the Empire Leicester Square. Eagle Vision and

  • Affleck, Connelly, Meron and Zadan get Hollywood Awards

    Ben Affleck will be named Hollywood Breakthrough Director Of The Year, Jennifer Connelly Hollywood Supporting Actress Of The Year and Neil Meron and Craig Zadan Hollywood Producers Of The Year at the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony in Los Angeles on Oct 22.The awards show takes place at the close of the Hollywood Film Festival. Both are presented by STARZ.Affleck is being honoured for his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, Connelly f

  • AGOSTINO FERRENTE/ GIOVANNI PIPERNO - What's Working

    AGOSTINO FERRENTE/ GIOVANNI PIPERNO Project: What's WorkingScrs: Agostino Ferrente, Giovanni PipernoEstimated budget: $920,000 (Eu673,000)What's Working (working title) is a docu-drama about mothers

  • Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Barthes among Sundance Annenberg fellows

    The Sundance Institute has named the seven film-makers who are 2007 Annenberg Film Fellows. Each of the fellows will receive a $10,000 to $15,000 grant to support the further development of their projects and next steps in planning for production.The fellows are Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Sophie Barthes, Caren Hartsfield, Braden King, Eric Lahey, Richard Montoya and David Riker.The fellowship programme was created in April 2004 when Annenberg Foundation trustee Charles Ann

  • Alliance signs Canadian output deal with Overture

    Alliance Films and Overture Films have signed an all-rights multi-year output deal for Canada. The deal was announced by Overture's CEO Chris McGurk and Alliance's executive chairman Victor Loewy.The deal, which runs through 2010, will add an additional eight to 12 titles annually to Alliance's releeasing slate, beginning with Callie Khouri's Mad Money on January 25, 2008. Overture recently acquired all North American rights to Tom McCarthy's

  • Amal wins top prize at Sudbury's Cinefest in Canada

    Richie Mehta's debut feature Amal won the NFB Carolyn Fouriezos Memorial Award for Best Canadian First Feature as the 2007 Cinefest Sudbury International Film Festival wrapped on Sunday. The film, which world premiered at Toronto in the Canada First! program, is written by Mehta and his brother Shaun and produced by David Miller and Steven N. Bray of Toronto-based Poor Man's Productions. Shot on location in New Delhi, the story rev

  • ANANDA EVERINGHAM (THAILAND)

    After he was talent-spotted a decade ago by GMM Grammy, one of Thailand's top entertainment companies, Ananda Everingham started to act in TV and features when he was just 15. Film has become his focus since 2004's horror hit Shutter made him a household name. Determined to show his versatility, the good-looking actor has taken on a range of different roles. His films vary widely in theme and scale, ranging from romance and horror to independent art films and

  • Arcand's Days Of Darkness named Canada's Oscar submission

    Denys Arcand's Days Of Darkness has been selected as Canada's submission for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film. It is the fourth time an Arcand film has been selected. The latest, 2004's The Barbarian Invasions, won the Oscar. The previous films were 1989's Jesus Of Montreal and 1986's The Decline

  • Art Of Crying and A Man's Job enter foreign Oscar race

    Danish director Peter Schonau Fog's The Art of Crying (Kunsten at gaede i kor) and Finnish director Aleksi Salmenpera's A Man's Job (Miehen tyo) have joined the race for consideration for the Best Foreign-Language Oscar.Both are also nominated for the Nordic Council Film Prize.Fog's feature debut, which was selected by the Danish Film Institute and an industry committee, was launched at last

  • Arts Alliance America picks up Life After Tomorrow

    Arts Alliance America, the new US DVD arm of Arts Alliance Media which was formerly Hart Sharp Video, has picked up US DVD rights to the documentary Life After Tomorrow.Directed by Julie Stevens and Gil Cates Jr, the film explores the life-changing repercussions of child performers in the long-running Broadway musical Annie and features appearances by Sarah Jessica Parker, Danielle Brisebois and Charles

  • Asian Film Market unveils Star Summit Asia line-up

    As part of the Pusan International Film Festival's Asian Film Market, Star Summit Asia has selected 14 actors to participate in the second year of the talent showcase (Oct 8 -11). Launched last year with the aim of invigorating pan-Asian co-productions by supporting talent management and actor exchanges, the Summit incorporates Curtain Call, which presents established stars from across Asia, and Casting Board, a showcase for Asia's up-and-coming actors. Curtain Call stars are sele

  • Atonement joins line-up at Dinard's British Film Festival

    The Festival of British Film in Dinard has announced further films in its line-up.Titles added to the previously announced Avant Premiere section include: Joe Wright's Atonement, Anand Tucker's And When Did You Last See Your Father, and Bille Eltringham's Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution.As reported last week, Dinard (Oct 4-7) will open with Ken Loach's

  • Atopia picks up Gauder's The District! for North America

    Montreal-based Atopia Distribution has acquired North America rights to Aron Gauder's animated musical The District! (Nyocker!). The Hungarian film made its North American premiere at Toronto in 2006 and went on to win 13 prizes across a swath of international film festivals. The social comedy tells the story of a group of teens from the wrong side of Budapest's tracks who band together to make themselves rich by traveling back in time, burying a horde of mammoths under the city

  • Aurora

    A murder story, inspired by actual events.

  • BAEK SUNG-HYUN (KOREA)

    At 18-years-old, Baek Sung-hyun may be young, but he is committed. His performance as the neglected younger brother of an autistic runner in the 2005 hit Marathon had an authenticity that stood out. Baek is also experienced. 'When I was little, I lived next door to Lee Yi-jung [a TV actress and singer]. Her mother saw me singing and dancing as a kid and told my mother I had that certain something. 'So I got my first film role when

  • Bahamas Film Festival goes into local classrooms

    The Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF) is expanding its Kid's Film Workshop during the fourth annual event this year (Dec 6-13) and will partner with schools throughout Nassau to bring the workshops directly into the classroom.The programme is being sponsored by The Royal Bank Of Canada (RBC) in Nassau as well as The British Colonial Hilton which is hosting the weekend workshops prior to the school instalments on Dec 9 and 10.'The Bahamas International Film Festiv

  • Batman sequel to touch down in Hong Kong

    Hong Kong is set to join London and Chicago as a filming location for Warner Bros' latest Batman flick, The Dark Knight. The Hong Kong Film Services Office (FSO), which provides location support to foreign productions, said the picture is expected to shoot in the territory this November. The Central district will be the main location, including landmarks such as the Central-Mid-Levels escalator, 80-storey skyscraper The Center and Queen's Road Central. The nightly Sy

  • Berlinale taps Dominique Green as UK delegate

    As its selection period looms, the Berlinale has appointed Dominique Green as its official delegate for the UK. Green will advise the Berlinale about the UK film industry and film selection.Green, a veteran of film production, distribution and training, has collaborated with the Berlin festival for many years. In 2004 she became managing director of Magnum Photos and worked on the 2006 Berlinale event Magnum In Motion. Her contact email is

  • Berlin's EFM tightens access and starts premium first weekend rates

    Berlin's European Film Market (EFM) is introducing new access restrictions to its venue in the Martin Gropius Bau for the first weekend (Feb 9-10), which may lead some accredited professionals looking to go elsewhere to do business at the festival. Moreover, new premium screening rates will be introduced for the first time for market screenings at the EFM from Friday, Feb 8 to Sunday, Feb 10. One thing that is not changing, though, are the prices of the three standard

  • Beta Film picks up Wehling's desert-set drama Kronos

    Beta Film has picked up the international distribution rights for Olav F. Wehling's Kronos which began shooting Monday on location in the Moroccan desert near Ouarzazate and Merzouga. The family drama is being produce d by Lisa Groezinger and Christopher Zwickler of the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg with the ZDFtheaterkanal, CP Medien, Kasbah-Films and the facilities company Panther. Kronos is a contemporary version of the story of Cronos, Uranos, Gaia and Rhe

  • Biblob and Antoniou join foreign-language film competitors

    Bangladesh has selected Golam Rabbany Biblob's directorial debut On The Wings Of Dreams, while Greece has picked Angeliki Antoniou's Eduart for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the forthcoming 80th Academy Awards. Both films are being handled internationally by the Berlin-based sales agent MDC International who is also representing another Oscar national entry, Aleksi Salemnpera's box-office hit

  • Blueprint takes film rights to Before I Die

    Blueprint Pictures, working with its slate deal with Pathe, Film4 and the UK Film Council, has picked up film rights to Jenny Downham's debut novel Before I Die.The deal was negotiated by Caroline Wood at Felicity Bryan Agency on behalf of Catherine Clarke.David Vickling Books published the novel on July 5 to strong reviews.Before I Die is about Tessa,

  • Bong Joon-ho leads campaign against online piracy

    Led by The Host director Bong Joon-ho and the Korean Directors' Network, 13 film-related organisations yesterday in Seoul declared the launch of a campaign against illegal film downloads. Participating groups include the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), the Korean Association of Film Art & Industry (KAFAI), Korean Motion Pictures Producers' Association, the Film Actors' Association of Korea, the Korean Directors' Network, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Informatio

  • Bosnia and Herzegovina adds It's Hard To Be Nice to Oscar list

    The Bosnian-Herzegovinian Association of Film Makers chose Srdjan Vuletic's It's Hard To Be Nice (Tesko Je Biti Fin) as the country's foreign language submission for the Academy Awards.The drama, about a Sarajevo taxi driver who involuntarily gets mixed up in a series of complicated situations, opened this year's Sarajevo Film Festival where the Sasa Petrovic won best actor. Vuletic's first feature Summer In The Golden Valley (Ljeto U Zlatnoj Dolini)

  • Bourne keeps on running

    ANALYSIS: INTERNATIONAL BOX-OFFICE - WEEKEND SEPTEMBER 14-16(Last3-dayweek)Film (origin)gross $ScrsCume $Terr1(1)The Bourne Ultimatum (US)$20,837,5364,124$125,058,805452(11)Th

  • Bourne stays ahead with $13m international weekend

    Universal's The Bourne Ultimatum once again set the pace at the international box office this weekend, grossing an estimated $13m from 4,269 dates in 48 territories. The marketplace's only new entrant, Sony's Resident Evil: Extinction, opened in Mexico day-and-date with its chart-topping domestic launch and came in number one with an estimated $2.2m from 350 screens. Over a typically slow early autumn weekend, the third installment of the Bourne spy thriller franch

  • Bourne Ultimatum set to remain international champion

    With only one new entrant into the marketplace and a smattering of openings for other frontrunners, Universal's The Bourne Ultimatum looks set for a third straight international box office win this weekend. The latest installment in the Bourne spy thriller franchise has now reached $128.8m internationally. It opens, through Universal Pictures International (UPI), in one new market this weekend, arriving on 50 screens in India on Friday (Sept 2

  • Brick Lane added to LFF schedule after royal snub

    The annual Royal Film Performance has been cancelled for the first time in more than 60 years.This year's event was to be a screening of Sarah Gavron's Brick Lane in November, due to be attended by Prince Charles. Officials said the decision was a diary clash with an overseas trip for the royals.'We regret that the planned date of the Royal Performance (Oct 29) no longer works in the Royal diary,' chief executive Peter Hor

  • Brightman, Hilton head cast of Repo! The Genetic Opera

    Twisted Pictures' Repo! The Genetic Opera has begun shooting in Toronto this week with an eclectic cast featuring Sarah Brightman, Anthony Head, Paris Hilton, Bill Moseley, Paul Sorvino and Alexa Vega. Lionsgate holds worldwide rights to the film.The film is being produced by Daniel Heffner, Carl Mazzocone, Mark Burg and Oren Koules; Lionsgate's president of acquisitions and co-productions Peter Block and executive vice president Jason Constant

  • Cancun festival plans international film market for 2008

    The new Cancun Riviera Maya International Film Festival is planning to expand next year to include an international market.The event debuts on Nov 5, opening with Mexican film Nonna's Trip and including titles from the US, Canada, Spain, Iceland, Germany, Italy and Latin America. But there are already plans for future growth. 'We are also putting together plans for an international market, but that won't feature until next year,' Pedro Valiente, di

  • Ces Amours-la

    A woman recalls her various romances over two decades.

  • CHANTAL AKERMAN - What Happens Next'

    CHANTAL AKERMANProject: What Happens Next'Scr: Chantal AkermanEstimated budget: $11m (Eu8m)Born in Belgium and now based in Paris, Chantal Akerman is one of the world's leading female directors. Her credits span more than 30 years of film-making and include 1975's

  • Charles Durning to receive SAG Life Achievement Award

    Charles Durning will be honoured with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Life Achievement Award for career achievement and huminatarian accomplishment at the 14th annual SAG Awards which will be held on Jan 27 next year.'Charles Durning is the perfect choice for the Life Achievement Award as Screen Actors Guild celebrates its 75th anniversary,' said SAG president Alan Rosenberg in a statement. 'Throughout his career, he has epitomized the art and grace of acting and brought something spec

  • CHARLES MCDOUGALL - Cromanon

    CHARLES MCDOUGALLProject: CromanonScr: Alejo FlashEstimated budget: $2.2m (Eu1.6m) Funds in place: $830,000 (Eu600,000)UK film-maker Charles McDougall has made his name in the US as the Emmy-awa

  • CHINA

    The Chinese talent industry is a supernova in the making - but is still in its infancy. SEN-LUN YU explores the emergence of the territory's star system.Film talent management is a very recent development in China. Up until three years ago, star managers and companies mostly concentrated on TV, and most of the stars were managed by family members or friends.In the film arena, production companies sou

  • China Film Group reveals plans to launch IPO

    China Film Group chairman Han San Ping announced the state-owned conglomerate's intention to list on the Chinese stock market through an IPO, at the opening of the Beijing Screenings yesterday (Sep 18). Han said the group was 'in talks with Asian financial institutions' about the listing which would enable it to raise 'better quality funding for Chinese productions'. However he didn't give further details about timing or the amount of capital to be raised. A China Film spokesperso

  • China's Wanda Cinema Line Corp books 10 IMAX cinemas

    IMAX Corp. and China's Wanda Cinema Line Corp. have signed an agreement that will see ten IMAX cinemas installed in the People's Republic of China, including seven IMAX digital cinema systems. The deal is the largest-ever multiple-cinema deal in Asia.All ten cinemas are expected to be installed by 2010, with two installations scheduled for December of this year in the cities of Changsha and Changchun. Other identified cities include Beijing, Chongqing and Wuxi. In all, 39 IMAX cinema

  • CLAUDIA LLOSA - The Scared Breast (Teta Asustada)

    CLAUDIA LLOSA Project: The Scared Breast (Teta Asustada)Estimated budget: $1.4m (Eu1m)Scr: Claudia LlosaFunds in place: $600,000 (Eu435,000)Influenced by Peruvian legends and customs, the second film by

  • Columbia, French buyers get busy at Beijing Screenings

    State-owned China Film Group announced a slew of sales and co-production deals on the last day of the four-day Beijing Screenings (Oct 18-21). The largest announcement was a co-operation agreement between China Film, Columbia TriStar, Korea's CJ Entertainment and two Hong Kong companies - Media Asia and Emperor Motion Pictures - to jointly develop young filmmaking talent in China. Columbia, CJ and the two Hong Kong companies have agree to co-produce around five projects each with

  • Coote appointed as CEO of Dune Entertainment

    Australian producer Greg Coote has been appointed chairman and CEO of Dune Entertainment, the production company affiliated to multi-million dollar hedge fund Dune Capital Partners. Dune Entertainment has committed to invest more than $500m in a slate of Fox films over the next three years. 'I am greatly looking forward to the prospect of helping Dune Entertainment create a successful production entity. Working in conjunction with Twentieth Century Fox gives us a unique opportunit

  • Cosijntakes new strategic post at Fox Home Entertainment

    Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has appointed Pieter Cosijn as vice president of planning and development -- Southern Europe & Emerging Markets. In the newly created position, Cosijn reports to Gary Ferguson (SVP Emerging Markets), Marc Caux (SVP Southern Europe) and Richard Crook (VP International Licensees. He assumes the new role immediately, and will be based in Fox's Benelux office. Cosijn joined Fox in 1999 and since 2003 had been in a shared role as Fox's finance

  • Critical Mass with Lee Marshall - Another fine mess

    Okay, confession time. Once, in Cannes 2005, I walked out of a film I was supposed to be reviewing. I queued for a press screening of another film, realised I wasn't going to get in, and went back to the film I'd walked out of, drawn by an impulse I didn't quite understand. I probably missed about seven or eight minutes but wrote the review anyway.As crimes go, that's not on a level with incest, genocide or owning a James Blunt CD but it's still pretty bad for a film critic.Let

  • Croatia selects Svilicic's Armin for Oscar consideration

    The Croatian Association of Film Makers has chosen Ognjen Svilicic's Armin as its foreign language submission for the Academy Awards. The project is winner of numerous festival awards, including best screenplay at Croatia 's national Pula Film Festival and at Festroia, best actor for Emir Hadzihafizbegovic in Pula and Durban and East of the West award at Karlovy Vary. Armin tells a story of a father taking his son, a young accordion player, from a rural town in Bosni

  • Cronenberg reveals further plans for The Fly opera

    More than 20 years after directing Jeff Goldblum in The Fly, Cronenberg has decided to make an operatic version of the classic horror.'I've never directed an opera before and thought it might be quite fun,' Cronenberg tells ScreenDaily.com. The director is in San Sebastian to promote his latest film Eastern Promises, starring Viggo Mortensen, which opened the festival today after its world premiere at Toronto earlier this month.The opera will see Cronenber

  • Cuerda starts shoot in Galicia for Blind Sunflowers

    Spanish director Jose Luis Cuerda started shooting in Galicia for his 10th feature film, The Blind Sunflowers, based on Alberto Mendez's novel by the same name. Javier Camara and Meribel Verdu star. The film follows Elena (Verdu), who is living in post-war Spain hiding secrets about her family. Her teenage daughter has eloped with her blacklisted boyfriend, and Elena's husband (Camara) has to live in hiding while Elena is pursued by a stalker who thinks she's a widow.

  • Dau

    Soviet physicist Lev Landau was sent to prison for openly criticising Stalin, only later to be released to help develop the Soviet thermonuclear bomb.

  • Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, Patti Smith sign up for Wenders film

    Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed and Patti Smith have joined the cast of Wim Wenders' new feature The Palermo Shooting which began shooting in his home town of Duesseldorf yesterday.The production by Wenders' own outfit Wenders Images in collaboration with broadcasters ZDF and Arte, and Pictorion Das Werk with backing from Filmstiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and the Province of Palermo (AAPIT) will be shooting in Duesseldorf, Neuss and Essen for the next two weeks before m

  • Dimension touts Superhero as next potential franchise

    Dimension Films has begun production on Superhero, a comedy written and directed by Craig Mazin who directed both Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4 for the company.An ensemble cast has been assembled for the film including Drake Bell, Sara Paxton, Christopher McDonald, Leslie Nielsen, Kevin Hart, Marion Ross, Ryan Hansen, Jeffrey Tambor and Brent Spiner.

  • DOMENICO DISTILO - When Elephants Fight

    DOMENICO DISTILOProject: When Elephants Fight Scrs: Domenico Distilo, Filip Gravino, Guido IuculanoEstimated budget: TBCThere is not much evidence of 'la dolce vita' in Domenico Distilo's vivion of Rome. The first film by the Italian f

  • Dominican Film Festival to host children's workshops

    The third annual Dominican International Film Festival, which takes place Nov 8-11, will host two children's film workshops on Nov 9 and Nov 10.Hosted by native Dominican actor Manny Perez, the programs will be open to 12 future film-makers between the ages of 5 and 17 per session. The sessions, which will allow children to experiment with digital film and imaging software and hardware, are being organized by non-profit The Elliott Foundation and The Director's Cut, a Can

  • DOMINIQUE LIENHARD - Along The Main Road

    DOMINIQUE LIENHARD Project: Along The Main Road Scr: Dominique Lienhard Estimated budget: $2.3m (Eu1.7m) Funds in place: $526,000 (Eu382,000)Dominique Lienhard's debut film, Muetter, was an unde

  • Donsol, 881 join foreign-language Oscar race

    The Singapore Film Commission (SFC) has selected Royston Tan's 881 as the country's official entry for best foreign-language film for the 80th Academy Awards. 'The film presents a part of the rich and colourful street culture of Singapore which is hardly seen by the world and provides a window to showcase our unique heritage to the international audience,' said SFC chairman Jennie Chua. The musical drama tells the story of the Papaya Sisters who aspire to become the showies

  • E J-YONG - Homecoming

    E J-YONGProject: HomecomingScr: E J-YongEstimated budget: $2.7m (Eu2m)South Korean director E J-Yong is one of Asia's leading arthouse directors. His 2003 film, Untold Scandal, was the first Korean costume drama to attract more than 3 milli

  • Earth

    Dir: Alastair Fothergill/Mark Linfield. UK/Germany 2007. 98 mins.Probably the most ambitious nature documentary ever produced, Earth is a feature-length condensation of the eleven-part BBC series Planet Earth, broadcast in the UK in 2006 and on Discovery Channel in the US in spring 2007. Better than a trip to the zoo, and a lot less pungent, Earth is like an updated, people-free version of o

  • Encounters at the End of the World

    Dir. Werner Herzog, US, 2007, 99 mins

  • Erik Nietzsche - The Early Years (Erik Nietzsche - De Unge Ar)

    Dir.Jacob Thuesen. Denmark . 2007. 91 min.Lars von Trier's revenge on the Danish film industry is a very funny inside joke. A not-so-fond evisceration of film school, filmmakers, actors (more precisely oversexed Danish actresses), technicians, guilds and unions, the picaresque film follows its eponymous hero through a circus of cinema-related escapades.While knowledge of the von Trier oeuvre and the Danish film industry is preferred but

  • European Film Awards announce 13 short film nominees

    The European Film Academy has announced the short film nominees for the 2007 European Film Awards. Nominees are determined by the Prix UIP at a year-long series of European festivals. The 1,800 members of the EFA will now vote for the winner. The nominees are: Salvador by Abdelatif Hwidar (Spain), selected at the International Short Film Festival in Drama (Greece) Kwiz by Renaud Callebaut (Belgium), Ghent Le Diner by Cecile Vemant (Fran

  • Exhibition - Middle East - Gulf starts to widen

    A new US-style mall opens every couple of months in the Gulf, most of them complete with a multiplex. Exhibitors in other territories, including Egypt and Lebanon, have ambitious plans to expand their reach but all battle with censorship and piracy and, outside the Gulf, with political and economic uncertainty."Last year the Middle East grossed about the same for us as Poland," says Mark Braddel, Sony's senior vice-president of distribution for Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Afric

  • Feast Of Love

    Dir. Robert Benton, US 2007. 102 mins.Feast of Love weaves its way through the frustrated loves of couples in Portland Oregon who don't have much else to do besides reflect on what they have won and lost in romance. Robert Benton's adaptation of Charles Baxter's 2000 novel coats the original with a honeyed sentimentality, without deepening the drama that was already on the page.

  • Festival - Building up a buyers' market

    While San Sebastian director Mikel Olaciregui admits it can be difficult to attract major US buyers so soon after Toronto, the festival remains a busy sales event, with almost 100 international buyers scheduled to attend in 2007. These include Lionsgate, HBO, Warner Bros, DeA Planeta and Rezo Films."San Sebastian is one of the best-organised film festivals, and is of much value for us looking to create relationships with Spanish-speaking directors and producers who are looking for dist

  • Festival - Buzz from the Basque country

    Mataharis (Sp)Dir: Iciar BollainSpanish actor-turned-director Bollain returns to San Sebastian after winning several awards at the festival in 2003 for domestic violence drama Take My Eyes. Mataharis is a $4m drama that tells the stories of three female detectives trying to juggle their working and private lives.Bollain admits the "expectation levels are high after Take My Eyes. But we have been doing screenings in Spain and the reaction has been good

  • Festival - Latin lovers

    With its beautiful horseshoe bay, old-town tapas bars and laid-back Basque atmosphere, San Sebastian is a popular industry stop-off on the festival circuit. Despite the increasingly busy autumn calendar, the 54-year-old event is this year expecting more than 1,700 delegates, plus a further 1,500 press and a smattering of international stars.But the event is facing increased competition for world premieres."This year is the hardest we've had," admits San Sebastian festival direct

  • Festival - Remaining films in Official Selection

    Eastern Promises (US-UK, opening film)Dir: David CronenbergInt'l sales: Focus Features International, (44) 207 851 6500A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers (US)Dir: Wayne WangContact: CAA, (1) 212 277 9000Battle For Haditha (UK)Dir: Nick BroomfieldInt'l sales: HanWay Films, (44) 20 7290 0750Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame (Iran-Fr)Dir: Hana MakhmalbafInt'l sales: Wild Bunch, (33) 1 53 01 50 20Daisy Diamond (Den-Swe)Dir: Simon StahoInt'l sales:

  • Festival - World premieres in Horizontes Latinos

    Grandmother's Trip (El Viaje De La Nonna) (Mex)Dir: Sebastian SilvaSilva's directorial debut is a story about a forgetful grandmother whose family try to convince her that she has travelled to Italy. Silva has already worked on more than 20 films as assistant director or second unit director, including Babel, Before Night Falls and The Air I Breathe. Altavista Films is producing and the cast includes Ana Ofelia Murguia, Veronica Langer and Rodrigo Murray. Th

  • Festival preview: Rome's New Cinema Network

    While no-one knows the exact number of potentially great film projectsthat just sit on the shelf, it is estimated 75% of first-timefilm-makers do not complete their second projects. WhenTeresa Cavina, who co-curates the Rome Film Fest's competitionselection with Giorgio Gosetti, decided to design a co-production eventto coincide with the festival, she thought carefully about constructingone aimed at helping film-makers over this particular hurdle. She also wanted to creat

  • Films from Attenborough, Freedman and Ruzowitzky open Ghent

    The 34th edition of the Ghent International Film Festival is to feature three opening films on October 9.They are:The European premiere of Richard Attenborough's Closing the RingStefan Ruzowitzky's The Counterfeiters (Die Faelscher) Paul Freedman's Sand And SorrowClosing the Ring,

  • Foul Gesture (Tnuah Meguna)

    Dir: Tzahi Grad. Israel 2006. 96 mins.A satirical social comedy turns into a terrific, slow-burn revenge drama in Israeli actor Tzahi Grad's second directorial outing. Though the rough, low-budget production values will put off mainstream distributors, arthouse and genre specialists should take a look at this title, whose strong script and bravura performances - especially from Gal Zaid as the small guy who decides to stand up to the big boss - more than make up for its l

  • France and German groups make joint declaration for digital cinema

    France's CNC and Germany's FFA have signed a joint declaration with regard to the evolution of digital projection and are calling on their European neighbours to join them in certain initiatives to aide in a coherent digital rollout. Digital projection in Europe, say the CNC and the FFA, must operate with transparency and respect for the specificities and diversity of the European film sector. Three fundamental principals have been underlined by the two agencies: the quality and

  • GERALD HUSTACHE-MATHIEU - Like Marilyn (Comme Marilyn)

    GERALD HUSTACHE-MATHIEUProject: Like Marilyn (Comme Marilyn) Scr: Gerald Hustache-Mathieu Estimated budget: $4.8m (Eu3.5m)Like many film-makers inspired from an early age to make movies, Gerald Hustache-Mathieu has spent a lot of time using

  • GIANFRANCO QUATTRINI - Toxic Jungle

    GIANFRANCO QUATTRINIProject: Toxic JungleScr: Gianfranco QuattriniEstimated budget: $3m (Eu2.2m)Funds in place: $670,000 (Eu500,000)Gianfranco Quattrini was born in Peru of Swiss parents, raised

  • Glass

    Dir: Scott Hicks. Australia . 2007. 122mins.The critical relationship of subject to filmmaker is the tipping point for most documentary portraits. It is the primary distinction between a probing and objective analysis and hagiography. In Scott Hicks' Glass, the composer Philip Glass has allowed the director unmediated exposure to his life and work, and it is particularly disappointing that Hicks in turn is so timid and apparently unwilling to use that

  • Gone with the Woman (Tatt av Kvinnen)

    Dir. Peter Naess. Sweden/Norway 2007. 92 min.Picked by Norway to carry its flag at the Oscars this year, Peter Naess' new screwball romance takes off a vivacious, though rather misogynistic tone, but soon settles down to a pedestrian pace which it follows the rest of the way. Naess, whose irreverent oddball comedy Elling went as far as the final Academy Awards nominations in 2002, comes up this time with an ill-assorted affair between a

  • Good Luck Chuck

    Dir: Mark Helfrich. US. 2007. 99 mins.A high-energy servicing of the randy, relationship-oriented sex comedy sub-genre, Good Luck Chuck feels work-shopped for big business, but beset by awkward tonal swings that seem less a function of story, and much more nakedly designed to try to lure in different demographics. The result is a ramshackle piece of fleeting entertainment that lacks the airy, character-rooted charms of fellow R-rated comedies Wedding Crashers

  • GUSTAVO MONTIEL - Tide Of Sand

    GUSTAVO MONTIELProject: Tide Of SandScr: Gustavo MontielEstimated budget: $1.5m (Eu1.1m)Funds in place: $1.2m (Eu880,000)Mexican director Gustavo Montiel thrives on being busy. At present he is juggling work on an

  • HARUMA MIURA (JAPAN)

    Born north-east of Tokyo, Haruma Miura is only 17 - but already has an impressive resume.Miura's parents enrolled him in Tsukuba Actors' Studio as a child and he made his debut at just seven years old on the NHK television drama Aguri. Soon after, he made his film debut in 1999's Nile, followed by school drama Mori No Gakko (2002). W

  • Helsinki's Love & Anarchy kicks off with Corbijn's Control

    The 20th anniversary edition of Helsinki International Film Festival - also known as Love & Anarchy - starts tonight with a screening of Anton Corbijn's Control and it will close Sept 30 with Roy Andersson's You, The Living. Following the Helsinki run, the festival tour goes to Espoo, Tampere, Turku, Jyvaskyla and Hameenlinna. The Finnish Film Gala will present Petri Kotwica's Black Ice, the French Touch Gala is Julie Delpy's 2 Days In Paris a

  • Hong Kong selects Exiled as Oscar submission

    Hong Kong's Federation of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong (FMFP) has selected Johnnie To's Exiled as the territory's entry for the best foreign-language film category of next year's Academy Awards. The Macau-set gunplay drama premiered in competition at the Venice film festival in 2006 and was sold widely by Hong Kong's Media Asia Distribution. Magnolia Pictures, the UK's Optimum and Madman Entertainment in Australia teamed up to acquire all English-language rights to the film

  • Huayi Brothers to co-produce Gallenberger's John Rabe

    Beijing-based Huayi Brothers Pictures is to co-produce and handle distribution in China for Florian Gallenberger's second feature film John Rabe, which will begin principal photography in Shanghai and at original locations in Nanking from Oct 18 to February 2008. Previously known as John Rabe - The Good Man of Nanking, Gallenberger's own script tells the story of the German businessman and Nazi party member John Rabe who succeeded in 1937 in setting up a neutral zo

  • IFC Entertainment takes North America on Kalin's Savage Grace

    IFC Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Tom Kalin's Savage Grace, which had its world premiere in Directors Fortnight at Cannes this year.The film will be released theatrically and at the same time on video on demand cable platforms in the US as part of IFC First Take programme.Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne star in the film which was Kalin's first feature since Swoon in 1

  • IFP hands out $100,000 in annual artist grants

    IFP, the nation's largest membership organization of independent filmmakers, named the recipients of its annual grants to individual artists at the conclusion of its 2007 Independent Film Week in downtown New York City. Cash, in-kind product donations and mentorship services were valued at more than $100,000.A grant of $10,000 was presented to Eunhee Cho, the winner of The Adrienne Shelly Director's Grant for her film Inner Circle Line

  • ILMAR RAAG - One More Croissant

    ILMAR RAAGProject: One More CroissantScr: Ilmar RaagEstimated budget: $2.2m (Eu1.6m) Funds in place: $131,000 (Eu96,000)Produced by Estonia's Amiron Productions, Ilmar Raag's second project,

  • Image launches urban division, signs agreement with Spirer

    North American distributor Image Entertainment has launched a new urban division called One Village Entertainment and signed a multi-picture production and worldwide distribution agreement for documentaries and narrative feature films with Peter Spirer's Rugged Entertainment who directed Image's recent release Notorious BIG: Bigger Than Life.One Village will be headed by Brett Dismuke, who is named vice president of urban programming after 13

  • In focus - 'What about the day job''

    It feels like it has got a bit out of control. It feels like there are a lot of useless festivals,' lamented a US sales agent recently. It is hard not to sympathise. On the face of it, the festival calendar seems wildly overloaded. In early autumn, distributors, sales agents, producers, publicists and press travelled to Toronto. Several had already been to Venice. Some were going on to San Sebastian, New York, Pusan or Tokyo. Others would also be going to Rome or London. Th

  • In the City of Sylvia (En la ciudad de Sylvia)

    Dir. Jose Luis Guerin. Spain / France, 2007. 90 min.In the City of Sylvia is likely to be defined by some as 'a work of genius' and by others as like 'watching paint dry'. An audience in search of a plot with a beginning middle and end should look elsewhere. But those who like to explore cinema language, and how close to abstract art cinema can be, will find much to cheer. Spanish director Jose Luis Guerin is much admired in his own country for his unconventional

  • Inaugural Middle East festival selects Israeli film

    In a surprise move, Abu Dhabi's Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), October 14-19, has selected an Israeli film to play in competition. Head programmer Nancy Collet issued the invitation to Eran Kolirin's Cannes favourite The Band's Visit, which is about the visit of an Egyptian marching band to a remote town in Israel. 'As Israelis this is a great honour for us. Ever since we released the film in Cannes we keep hoping to get invitations from Arab or Muslim festival

  • India selects Chopra's Eklavya for foreign Oscar race

    India has selected Eklavya - The Royal Guard as its official entry to the best foreign-language film category of the Oscars, marking the second time that a film from director Vidhu Vinod Chopra has been submitted. In 1989, Chopra's Parinda was India's official entry to the Oscars. He had greater success in 1980 when his short non-fiction film, An Encounter With Faces, was nominated for an Oscar. On the selection of his 2007 release, Chopra said: 'I'm elated by

  • International - Korea ambitions

    Three Korean films made a big impact on the international chart this weekend, and their collective total accounted for 5.4% of the international revenue from the top 40 films over the three-day period.Three new Korean openers - Kidnapping Granny K, Two Faces Of My Girlfriend and The Happy Life - all made the top 25 films at the weekend, having only opened in their home territory. Comedy Granny K, released by Cinema Service, came out on top, taking $2.2m from 420 s

  • Internationalmedia plans 'new beginning' with strategic investor

    Following the debacle of the cancellation of shooting on Jan de Bont's action thriller Stopping Power last month, the IM Internationalmedia Group has signed a deal memo with the strategic investor R Media Acquisition LLC for a reorganisation of the group's activities - including the divestment of its interest in the sales company IM Global - 'as a first necessary step' which may help it to convince existing business partners of a 'new beginning'.

  • Jimi Mistry and Joanne Whalley line up for Eating Dust

    Jimi Mistry, Joanne Whalley, Joseph Beattie and Clive Standen have signed up to star in Eating Dust for Glasgow-based director Jade Carmen. Carmen wrote the script with producer Louis Paltnoi. The film will start shooting at the end of October. The project, described as a 'modern Celtic comedy' is set in the Scottish Highlands. The story follows two cousins from rural Scotland who have chaotic antics including a run-in with a voodoo cult and a fight with a

  • JOAO PEDRO RODRIGUES - To Die Like A Man

    JOAO PEDRO RODRIGUESProject: To Die Like A ManScr: Joao Pedro RodriguesEstimated budget: $1.5m (Eu1.1m)Funds in place: $1.2m (Eu900,000)The plot of To Die Like

  • JOHN CHO (US)

    Korean-American star John Cho is perhaps best known for his performances in the American Pie series or the stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle.Cho is interested in characters who break the stereotypical Asian-American mould. 'I don't want to make films that are just about feeling Asian-American,' he says. 'They have to be about bigger things like love, war, jealousy and hatred.'

  • JULIA VON HEINZ - The Preserver

    JULIA VON HEINZProject: The Preserver Scr: Julia Von HeinzEstimated budget: $2.7m (Eu2m)Love and how to overcome social barriers are the themes of the second film by Berlin film-maker Julia Von Heinz.

  • Keith Potter leaves Dan Films for Film Agency For Wales

    Keith Potter has joined the Film Agency for Wales as its head of talent.Potter had been in charge of development for London-based production company Dan Films, working on Christopher Smith's Triangle, Tom Rob Smith's Put Together, and Jeff Noon's Creeping Zero.He is also a member of the advisory board of the International Screenwriters Festival.He replaces the agency's former head of talent, Britt Harrison.Keith starts work with the Cardi

  • KIM JAE-SEUNG (KOREA)

    Kim Jae-sung is currently training in martial arts for his next appearance on the upcoming television mini-series Hong Gil-dong, a costume drama. The actor has yet to make a film but is being tipped as talent agency Yedang Entertainment's next big star. Yedang is placing Kim in television dramas to show off his acting skills and let him hone his chops: he has also appeared in TV dramas Sister

  • KIM KI-BUM (KOREA)

    As a member of the popular boy group Super Junior, and with several TV drama roles under his belt, Kim Ki-bum has already had his fair share of stardom. He made his big-screen debut this summer in Attack Of The Pin-Up Boys, a mystery comedy in which he stars as a high school student tracking down the perpetrator of a series of terrorist attacks on pretty and popular boys. The film debuted in the top 10 when it was released last July.

  • KOEN MORTIER - Killroy

    KOEN MORTIERProject: Killroy Scrs: Paul Budnitz and Paul Durham, based on an idea by Koen MortierEstimated budget: $3.4m (Eu2.5m)Funds in place: $102,000 (Eu75,000)

  • Korean trio makes splash in Screen International chart

    Korean films made a big impact on the international chart this weekend together accounting for 5.4% of the international revenue from the top-40 films over the three-day period.Kidnapping Granny K, Two Faces Of My Girlfriend and The Happy Life all made the top 25 films at the weekend, having only opened in their home territory. To see the full chart, compiled by Len Klady, cl

  • Latido secures more sales for Saura's Fados

    Spanish sales outfit Latido Films has sold Carlos Saura's film Fados to countries across North, Central and South America. The musical drama, co-produced by Spain's Zebra Producciones and Portugal's Fado Filmes, has been sold to Canada (K Films Amerique), Mexico and Central America (Latino Vision), Venezuela (Amazonia). Deals were also said to be struck for Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Fados depicts recitals of Portugal 's most emblematic national music performed by local

  • LAURENT NEGRE - Butano

    LAURENT NEGREProject: Butano Scr: Laurent Negre Estimated budget: $4m (Eu3m) Funds in place: $68,000 (Eu50,000)Swiss-born director Laurent Negre's pan-European film education is translating to his films.

  • LEO RICCIARDI - The Exodus

    LEO RICCIARDIProject: The ExodusScr: Leo RicciardiEstimated budget: $3.4m (Eu2.5m) Funds in place: $1.2m (Eu900,000)Part thriller, part family drama, Leo Ricciardi's

  • Leonsis assembles businessmen backers for Kicking It doc

    Ted Leonsis, the producer and vice chairman of AOL who coined the term 'filmanthropy', has come up with a new film financing mechanism for his latest film Kicking It. The feature documentary about the power of sports as an agent for change is being financed by a group of businessmen, venture capitalists and philanthropists.The film, directed by Susan Koch, is the story of how thousands of homeless people from around the globe train and compete

  • LFF adds UK premiere of Gavron's Brick Lane

    The forthcoming London Film Festival has added the UK premiere of Sarah Gavron's Brick Lane. The film will screen as a Film On The Square screening the night of Oct 26. Gavron said: 'I am delighted that the film will be in the London Film Festival. It is a film made and set in London, that embraces everything London is today - there isn't a more appropriate place for it to premiere.' Brick Lane, adapted from Monica Ali's 2003 bestseller, is about a young Bangladeshi wom

  • LIM SOO-JUNG (KOREA)

    Although Lim Soo-jung is most easily cast as a dewy ingenue, she is also capable of terror and grit - as seen in horror film A Tale Of Two Sisters - and brittleness, having portrayed a mentally disturbed girl in Park Chan-wook's recent I'm A Cyborg But That's OK. In Hur Jin-ho's upcoming Happiness, she plays a terminally ill patient at a country sanatorium

  • Liu Ye joins cast of Lu Chuan'sNanking! Nanking!

    Chinese filmmaker Lu Chuan's war drama Nanking ! Nanking ! started shooting in Changchun city in north-east China yesterday, with Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan and Qin Lan heading the cast. Liu previously starred in Zhang Yimou's Curse Of The Golden Flower and Chen Kaige's The Promise, while Gao is best known for her performance in Wang Xiaoshuai's Shanghai Dreams. Lu previously directed Missing Gun and Kekexili: Mountain Patrol which

  • Lou Reed's Berlin

    Dir. Julian Schnabel. USA 2007. 83 mins.

  • Love Comes Lately

    Dir. Jan Schutte. Germany/Austria/US 2007. 86 min.Jan Schutte's adaptation of three short-stories by the Yiddish writer and Nobel-prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer will attract mostly mature audiences who will identify with its central character, octogenarian writer Max Kohn. Like most adaptations of works by great authors, the picture faces the difficulty of translating the magic of words into images, and though Schutte doesn't quite rise to the challenge, he is greatly

  • Lust, Caution has Oscar-qualifying opening in Taiwan

    Taiwan's Government Information Office (GIO) is expected to imminently announce Lust, Caution as the country's official bid for best foreign-language film at the Academy Awards. The uncut version of the film opens in Taiwan and Hong Kong tonightahead of its North American opening, which enables it to qualify for the best foreign-language film category. However, it would still be eligible to be nominated in the other major categories. Lee was represeting Taiwan when he scoop

  • Lustig, Petritsky to receive special awards at Bitola festival

    The 28th International Cinematographers Film Festival 'Manaki Brothers' in Bitola, Macedonia (Sept 25-30) has announced that Croatian producer Branko Lustig will receive the festival's 'Golden Camera 300' award for outstanding contribution to the world cinema. Veteran Lustig produced Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and Ridley Scott's Gladiator. Meanwhile, the festival's life achievement award goes to the legendary Russian cinematographer Anatoli Petritsky, best known fo

  • Macedonia pushes Manchevski film for Oscar consideration

    Milcho Manchevski's new film Shadows will represent Macedonia in the Foreign-Language Oscar race. A committee of Macedonian filmmakers made the decision.Shadows premiered at this month's Toronto International Film Festival and stars Borce Nacev as a young physician who encounters shadowy figures after a car crash.Manchevski previously represented Macedonia in 1996 with Before The Rain.Bavaria Film is handling international sales on Shadows

  • Mad Detective

    Dir. Johnny To, Wai Ka Fai. Hong Kong 2007. 89 min.The prolific Johnny To and his occasional collaborator Wai Ka Fai here put a new twist on the standard police yarn. No longer simply good cop versus bad cop, they add a third angle, the mad cop, who uses neither logic nor guns to solve his cases, but instead relies on pure psychotic inspiration. The angle requires the investigators to put themselves in the shoes of the killer or the victim in order to discov

  • Magnolia's genre arm Magnet acquires two starring Latin Dragon

    Magnet, the newly formed genre arm of US distributor Magnolia Pictuers, has acquired North American distribution rights to Kiltro and Mirageman, two action films starring Marko Zaror aka 'The Latin Dragon.'Magnet will also produce the next film from the Chilean martial arts star.Both of the films were written, directed and edited by Ernesto Diaz Espinoza and produced by Derek Rundell.

  • Mamas & Papas

    Four stories of modern parenthood: a successful couple seeks to adopt, a young couple consider an abortion, a poor couple who cannot afford to raise their child, and a mother whose marriage collapses.

  • Man From Plains

    Dir. Jonathan Demme. US 2007. 125 mins.Man from Plains follows the former US president Jimmy Carter from his sprawling family peanut farm in southern Georgia to a national book tour on which the earnest man who brokered the Camp David Accords defends his controversial view that Israel imposes rules akin to apartheid on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.Jimmy Carter is hardly an electoral hero these days, and the t

  • MARK MAHON - Freedom Within The Heart

    MARK MAHONProject: 5Scr: Mark MahonEstimated budget: $27.3m (Eu20m)Funds in place: $6.8m (Eu5m) Freedom Within The Heart won the best unproduced screenplay award at the Int

  • MGM Channel launches in Bulgaria with Eurocom

    MGM Networks has signed a deal with Eurocom, the largest cable operator in Sofia, Bulgaria, to launch a local language version of The MGM Channel starting next month. The deal marks MGM's debut in Bulgaria.'MGM Networks has been on a roll across Central and Eastern Europe,' said MGM Networks executive vice president Bruce Tuchman in a statement. 'Starting from scratch just a few years ago, we have built a vibrant collection of locally versioned MGM branded channels now reaching most

  • MICHA WALD - Simon Konianski

    MICHA WALD Project: Simon KonianskiScrs: Micha Wald, Agnes CaffinEstimated budget: $4.1m (Eu3m)Funds in place: $1.4m (Eu1m) For his first feature, Horse Thieve

  • Middle East festival adds ipod competition, more industry delegates

    Adding to a plethora of prizes, Abu Dhabi 's Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), Oct 14-19, has launched an iPod competition for Middle Eastern short filmmakers. The Hayah (meaning 'life' in Arabic) Film Competition is open to students, professionals and amateurs making films for the iPod screen. Winners will be selected via audience votes, received online before and during the festival; submissions close on Sept 27. International fiction, documentary and short film

  • Miller, Schepisi projects among SPAAmart line-up

    The Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) has announced the feature film projects for this years SPAAmart financing market, running November 13-15 on Queensland's Gold Coast. A number of highly experienced and awarded directors and producers are on the list, including veteran directors George Miller, Fred Schepisi and rising talent Tony Ayres. Miller is set to direct the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll high school horror flick Newcomer, written by Christopher Link-Pea

  • MOHSEN MELLITI - Returning To Haifa

    MOHSEN MELLITIProject: Returning To HaifaScr: Mohsen Melliti, based on a novel by Ghassan KanafaniEstimated budget: $4.8m (Eu3.5m)Tunisian-born writer and director Mohsen Melliti has lived in Italy since 1991. He has made a career as a writ

  • My Winnipeg

    Dir: Guy Maddin.Canada, 2007, 80 Mins.

  • NBC Universal International reorganises digital operations

    NBC Universal International has restructured its international digital group, organizing its digital efforts into two parallel strands - New Media Licensing and Digital Assets.The moves come in an efforts to reflect the company's priority on digital strategy and to position it for further digital growth, while also driving growth across its international businesses.New Media Licensing will be headed by Beth Minehart who has been promoted to executive vice president, inter

  • NBC Universal International reorganises digital operations

    NBC Universal International has restructured its international digital group, organizing its digital efforts into two parallel strands - New Media Licensing and Digital Assets.The moves come in an efforts to reflect the company's priority on digital strategy and to position it for further digital growth, while also driving growth across its international businesses.New Media Licensing will be headed by Beth Minehart who has been promoted to executive vice president, inter

  • NBC Universal International starts new digital strands

    NBC Universal International has restructured its digital business to maximise its digital growth strategy. NBCUI will now organise its digital efforts in two strands: New Media Licensing and Digital Assets. LA-based Beth Minehart has been promoted to Executive Vice President, International New Media, NBC Universal International Television Distribution. She will oversee New Media Licensing. London-based Kevin Obi, recently appointed to the role of Senior Vice President, Di

  • NEW CINEMA NETWORK FOCUS EUROPE 2007

    The projects selected for New Cinema Network's Focus Europe 2007 range from dark comedies to delicate relationship dramas; from a surreal love story to a Viking action movie. Click on a link below to see the featured projects.DOMENICO DISTILO -

  • NEW CINEMA NETWORK INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS

    The international projects being showcased by New Cinema Network have a different mission: to link the Rome event with similar initiatives around the world throughout the year at festivals such as Sundance, Berlin and Rotterdam.Click on the links below to see projects.CHANTAL AKERMAN - What Happens Next'

  • NEW CINEMA NETWORK: AN INTRODUCTION

    While no-one knows the exact number of potentially great film projects that just sit on the shelf, it is estimated 75% of first-time film-makers do not complete their second projects. When Teresa Cavina, who co-curates the Rome Film Fest's competition selection with Giorgio Gosetti, decided to design a co-production event to coincide with the festival, she thought carefully about constructing one aimed at helping film-makers over this particular hurdle. She also wanted to

  • NGUYEN-VO NGHIEM-MINH - Point of Reference

    NGUYEN-VO NGHIEM-MINHProject: Point of ReferenceScr: Nguyen-Vo Nghiem-Minh Estimated budget: $2.1m (Eu1.5m)While growing up in a small town in

  • Normal

    Dir. Carl Bessai. Canada . 2007. 100 min.With Normal , Canadian filmmaker Carl Bessai delivers his most accomplished film yet. An intense psychological portrait of lives shattered by a sudden death, it does everything well. Although it explores familiar terrain - comparisons with the daisy-chain of Paul Haggis' Crash are unavoidable - Bessai and co-screenwriter Travis McDonald have focused on fewer personalitie

  • One More Croissant (working title)

    In Paris, an Estonian caretaker forms a bond with her charge, an elderly, exiled French lady.

  • PABLO REYERO - Survivors

    PABLO REYEROProject: SurvivorsScr: Pablo Reyero Estimated budget: $690,000 (Eu500,000)Funds in place: $320,000 (Eu230,000)Survivors is a film about a film, blending elements of tragedy, horror a

  • Rails & Ties

    Dir. Alison Eastwood. US, 2007. 96 mins.The feature-film directorial debut of Clint Eastwood's 35-year-old actress daughter, Alison Eastwood, Rails & Ties is an always serviceable, professionally accomplished film. Unfortunately, its ambitions are hampered by a central situation that is redolent of too many made-for-TV films, as well as by implausible plot complications that put too many disparate people together rather too conveniently.Despite

  • Razzle Dazzle: A Journey Into Dance

    Dir: Darren Ashton. Australia 95 minsFollowing two children's dance troupes as they compete for top prize in a prestigious national tournament, Razzle Dazzle: A Journey Into Dance is an intermittently amusing backstage comedy that skewers the rampaging egos and vaulting ambition of its ragbag of aspiring show-biz types. Filmed in a mockumentary style, Darren Ashton's second movie boasts some fine comic performances but it's pitched awkwardly between the deadpan hum

  • Reclaim Your Brain (Free Rainer-Dein Fernseher Lugt)

    Dir. Hans Weingartner. Germany . 2007. 132 minsAnyone who has ever railed against the pernicious poison of reality television should derive a scattering of wry chuckles from Reclaim Your Brain, a Capra-esque call to arms from writer/director Hans Weingartner. Taking aim at some obvious targets, it is slow to warm up but eventually delivers a mildly provocative satire that shares the same anarchic spirit and excessive length of Weingartner's previous f

  • Recycle and Salt Of This Sea win Cinema in Motion awards

    Now in its third year, San Sebastian's Cinema in Motion programme has selected Mahmoud Al Massad's Recycle, an insightful documentary that exposes the economic and political instability of Jordan, and Anne Marie Jacir's moving portrait of Palestine, Salt Of This Sea, as this year's winners. The award helps film-makers from the Maghreb and Portuguese-speaking African countries to get their films completed. Recycle will receive $21,000 from the National Cinemato

  • Resident Evil 3 makes strong US debut

    Sony's Resident Evil: Extinction went straight to the top of the North American box office chart this weekend with a $24m estimated gross, the best domestic opening yet for the Resident Evil sci-fi horror franchise. Two other wide releases had more modest debuts but several awards hopefuls had promising launches or expansions. Resident Evil: Extinction, from S

  • Resident Evil: Extinction

    Dir: Russell Mulcahy. US. 2007. 94 minutes.A movie of intermittent action catharsis and reliably deafening sound design, the altogether middling Resident Evil: Extinction takes the videogame action franchise to the desert, allowing star Milla Jovovich to energetically lop off zombie heads in a manner that will please series aficionados but leave newcomers mostly fidgety and baffled.2002's Resident Evil was a surprisingly strong internati

  • Robert Beeson leaves managing director post at Artificial Eye

    Ending a 30-year relationship, Robert Beeson has stepped down as Managing Director of UK distribution company, Artificial Eye.His decision to leave follows on from the acquisition of Artificial Eye in the summer of 2006 by Act Entertainment Group, owner of Curzon Cinemas, and Knatchbull Communications Group. 'With the changes in the marketplace and the opportunities that creates, Curzon Artificial Eye has made the

  • Rome Extras sidebar to include Malick conversation

    The Rome Film Fest's Extra section - one of the festival's primary sidebars, has unveiled its packed and diverse line-up.While the Fest will present main stream filmgoers-fare in the Premiere and Cinema 07 line-ups next week, Extra serves as Rome's experimental portal. Artistic director Mario Sesti told ScreenDaily.com that Extra explores areas that 'border' traditionalbig-screen cinema.The multi-faceted section is comprised of five sub-sections.One high

  • ROME FILM FESTIVAL 2007

    Sections New Cinema Network

  • ROME FILM FESTIVAL 2007

    ROME FILM FEST 2007 (October 18-27), CONTENTS - CLICK ON LINKNewsRome: Second time lucky New Cinema Network - an introduction

  • ROME: SECOND TIME LUCKY

    It was no surprise the first edition of the Rome Film Fest in October 2006 took place during Walter Veltroni's term in office. The mayor of Rome, Veltroni is a cinephile who enjoys meeting Hollywood regulars to the city such as Tom Cruise, George Clooney and Robert De Niro. Veltroni has worked tirelessly to increase Rome's visibility on screen and to promote the city as a location for international film-makers. He may have kept a low profile during last year's festival, b

  • Run, Fat Boy, Run strolls to second UK chart-topping weekend

    Run, Fat Boy, Run topped the UK chart for a second weekend, grossing $3.1m (£1.5m) from 411 sites, making its total $9.1m to date in the territory. Click here to see chart.The film, released by Entertainment Film Distributors, may have fallen by 23% but still beat Sony Pictures Releasing International's (SPRI) new US comic sensation Superbad to the top spot.Superbad, anothe

  • Run, Fat Boy, Run tops UK box-office for third week

    David Schwimmer's directorial feature debut, Run, Fat Boy Run, topped our UK chart for a third weekend, taking $2.4m (£1.2m) from 401 sites for a $12.8m (£6.3m) total to date.The British comedy, which is released by Entertainment Film Distributors and stars local favourite Simon Pegg, fell by 22% this weekend and boasted a sturdy $6,083 (£3,008) site average.Universal Pictures International (UPI) saw Atonement maintain steady progress - the romantic World Wa

  • SA HEE (KOREA)

    Currently starring in the stage musical Singin' In The Rain in Seoul, in which she plays a quirky young woman who befriends two brothers, Sa Hee seems made to play lively gamines. 'I'm doing a musical because it's fun and I wanted to do it, but ultimately I am interested in films,' says Sa, who has already appeared in supporting roles in three movies. In the recent romantic comedy The Two Fac

  • Sam Riley joins cast of Franklyn for Recorded Picture Company

    Gerald McMorrow will start principal photography in London on Monday, Sept 24, on debut feature film, Franklyn, for UK-based producer Recorded Picture Company. Sam Riley, who has won raves for his leading role in Control, has joined the cast, along with previously announced Ryan Phillippe and Eva Green. The cast also includes Bernard Hill, Susannah York and Art Malik. The film is about four lost souls whose worlds collide in the parallel worlds of contemporary London

  • Schnabel to kick off Copenhagen festival tonight

    US director Julian Schnabel will introduce his The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which won for Best Director at Cannes, at tonight's (Aug 20) kick-off for the Copenhagen International Film Festival (CIFF).He will be followed by guests including Jim Sheridan, Patrice Leconte, David Hare, Julie Gavras, Sam Garbarski, Stefan Ruzowitsky, Jean-Claude Carriere and Kenneth Branagh in the largest contingency of international filmmakers to attend the Danish event unspooling 147 featur

  • Screen opinion - Festival dating game

    The way films are bought and sold can seem quaintly archaic; we still drive our sheep to market in the Age of Wal-Mart. In the film industry, the 24/7 rat race one associates with other forms of trading is stuck in a choreographed series of events.At one level, this is natural enough. Film markets exist alongside festivals that bring together content and commerce in a unique way. Hectic bidding wars in fevered screenings are a reminder this business is different.It's a regular f

  • Screen/HFF World Award shortlist ten including 4 Months, Control

    Screen International and the Hollywood Film Festival have announced the 10 films which have been shortlisted for this year's Hollywood World Award to be presented at a gala ceremony on Oct 22.The shortlisted films are:4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Romania) Cristian MungiuAlexandra (Russia) Alexander SokurovThe Ba

  • Secret director to tackle the lost life of Jesus Christ

    Drew Heriot, the director of the phenomenally successful DVD The Secret, will make his narrative directing debut on spiritual fantasy/adventure The Aquarian Gospel which attempts to tell the story of Jesus Christ's 'missing years' from the ages of 13 to 30.Heriot's documentary-style The Secret has sold over two million copies and spawned a book which is close to

  • SEI ASHINA (JAPAN)

    On the international poster for the $26m film Silk, the beautiful face of a Japanese woman looms large above the image of established stars Keira Knightley and Michael Pitt. This is the striking visage of Sei Ashina. She was cast from more than 800 hopefuls for the role of a mysterious woman who captures Pitt's heart in director Francois Girard's extravagant 19th-century tale of a silkworm trader who travels across the continents to Japa

  • Shadows

    Dir/Scr: Milcho Manchevski. Macedonia 2007. 120mins.A ghost story that draws on the irrational to explore the historical and cultural redress of displaced Macedonians, Milcho Manchevski's third feature Shadows is ambitious and capably mounted. However it is too fastidious for its own good, and is damaged by dramatically contradictory parts that constantly throw the movie's balance and tone off kilter.This is only Manchevski's second film in the

  • Shake Hands with the Devil

    Dir. Roger Spottiswoode. Canada 2007, 113 Mins.The tragic recent history that informed Hotel Rwanda is viewed from another angle in Shake Hands with the Devil. Viewed from the perspective of General Romeo Dallaire, who commanded United Nations forces during the 1993 crisis, it paints a picture of broader dimension that makes the earlier film appear restrained by comparison. The horror is as vividly recalled but the implications of indifference and inaction a

  • SLAWOMIR FABICKI - Bonobo Jingo

    SLAWOMIR FABICKI Project: Bonobo JingoScrs: Slawomir Fabicki, Mieczyslaw KrzelEstimated budget: $4m (Eu3m)Funding in place: $104,900 (Eu76,000)

  • Sony, Eros to co-finance slate of Hindi films

    Sony Pictures Entertainment and global Bollywood producer-distributor Eros International plan to co-invest in a slate of Hindi films, to be released in India and around the world. Under the terms of the non-exclusive agreement, Sony and Eros will jointly develop, produce and acquire multiple films for the new slate. Sony is expected to distribute some of the titles in the US, while Eros will use its global network for Bollywood product to distribute the films in other internationa

  • Spain - Dangerous minds

    Julio Medem is back with his first film in four years, Chaotic Ana, which is screening at San Sebastian this week. Charlotte Rampling (speaking Spanish) and newcomer Manuela Velles star in the film, which ventures into the troubled, psychotic world of a young woman named Ana.Following its world premiere at the Toronto film festival earlier this month, all the Medem trademarks are at play in Chaotic Ana - sumptuous visuals, mystical overtones and lots of sex."The pe

  • Spain - Place at the top table

    Gracia Querejeta was born in Madrid into a film family. Her father, Elias, has produced more than 40 films and has taken an active role in supporting Gracia's own film career, including her latest work, Seven Billiards Tables, which makes its world premiere at San Sebastian this week.Querejeta is no novice on the festival circuit, and especially not in San Sebastian where two of her previous film, the English-language Robert Rylands' Last Journey (1996) and more recently

  • SPOTLIGHT ON ASIA

    Asian talent steps into the limelight at Star Summit Asia, the event that recognises and promotes the regional actors and actresses who are the key to the international success of Asia's film industryJust as in other global film industries, local stars are the fuel that keeps the Asian film industry turbo-charged; the common currency that gets movies made and then propels them into markets across the rest of the world. Without Asian stars, we would have no Asian film indu

  • Stockholm opens with Swedish film for the first time

    The Stockholm Film Festival (Nov 15-25) is to open with Josef Fares' Leo - the first time the event has launched with a Swedish film.Leo is Fares' fourth feature, following Jalla! Jalla! (2000), Kops (2003) and the Nordic Council prizewinning Zozo (2005).The film is a thrille

  • Strategic Partners projects include Indigenes writer's debut

    At the recent Strategic Partners co-production market in Canada, producers revealed a number of new projects currently in the works. In total almost 200 industry figures from the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, South Africa, the Netherlands, and the UK were given the chance to pitch their projects to fellow producers, distributors or sales agents in one-to one meetings, arranged as part of the Atlantic Film Festival (September 13-22) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Screen highli

  • Stutz, Ebrahimi and Figerold join The Film Department

    Mark Gill and Neil Sacker's The Film Department has hired Dan Stutz as executive vice president, business and legal affairs. Stutz previously worked at Yari Film Group, most recently as senior vice president of business and legal affairs.The Film Department has also hired Sara Ebrahimi as vice president of legal affairs and Kristen Figeroid as vice president of international.Stutz has been at Yari for the last five years, handling films like

  • Summit signs Canada, UK deal with Entertainment One

    Summit Entertainment has signed a multi-territory, all rights agreement with Canada's brand new Entertainment One (E1) whereby E1 will handle Summit titles in Canada through E1 subsidiary Seville Entertainment and in the UK through subsidiary Contender Films. The deal will run through 2010.The announcement was made yesterday by Summit co-chairmen Rob Friedman (pictured left) and Patrick Wachsberger (centre) and E1 CEO Darren Throop and president of filmed entertainment Patrice Therou

  • Sundance Institute, Skoll Foundation team for three-year pact

    The Sundance Institute and Jeff Skoll's Skoll Foundation today announced a $3m, three-year partnership dedicated to exploring film's role in advancing knowledge about social entrepreneurship. The grant will support the launch of Stories Of Change: Social Entrepreneurship In Focus Through Documentary, a new initiative spearheaded by the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Programme.Stories Of Change builds on earlier work between the two groups exploring the potential of c

  • TATSUYA FUJIWARA (JAPAN)

    In the final shot of director Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale, a teenage boy who was not supposed to survive the government's horrifically staged game of death runs off into an uncertain future. Actor Tatsuya Fujiwara - who played 'Boy #15' - has a much surer future ahead of him.Born in Saitama Prefecture in 1982, Fujiwara developed a strong interest in acting at a young age. At 15, he auditioned for famed theatre director Yuk

  • Terrence Howard stars with Channing Tatum in Montiel's Fighting

    Terrence Howard will co-star with Channing Tatum in Dito Montiel's action drama Fighting, which begins shooting in New York City this week for Rogue Pictures. Kevin Misher is producing the film through his Misher Films.The film, set in the world of underground street fights, stars Tatum as a young man who is drawn into fighting by veteran coach Howard. Tatum and Howard are joined in the cast by Zulay Henao, Luis Guzman and professional fighter

  • TERRITORIES

    What makes a star - and how much value do they have' Screen correspondents explore the talent systems across Asian territories, and the companies that discover and nurture tomorrow's starsChinaHong KongJapanJoreaThe PhilippinesSingaporeTaiwanThailand

  • The Band's Visit sweeps Israeli Film Academy awards

    Following its triumphal march launched in Cannes, Eiran Kolirin's The Band's Visit completed its grand sweep, taking eight out of the 14 awards distributed by the Israeli Film Academy in its annual ceremony.Thefeature took awardsincluding best film, best director and best script for Kolirin, best actor (Sasson Gabai), best actress (Ronit Elkabetz) and best supporting actor (Sallah Bakri). Doron Ashkenazi's costumes and Haviv Schehade Hanna's music added two more prize

  • THE BUSINESS STREET

    As an additional boost to film-makers, this year Rome is combining its two strongest industry initiatives. New Cinema Network and the more informal The Business Street market are overlapping by one day so buyers on hand for the market can meet film-makers participating in the New Cinema Network. 'Last year many international sales companies wanted to know about the projects we present in the network,' Teresa Cavina, who co-curates the Rome Film Fest's competition se

  • The Chosen Ones

    To see your first film become a hit is the dream of every film-maker. But the process often takes a serious toll on the directors, who have put all their effort into their project from start to finish. When all goes well, the first film wins awards at festivals, the reviews are positive and good word of mouth can lead to world sales. Co-producers and financiers are eager to work with the film-maker on their next project. But the first film is often a labour of

  • The Class enters foreign Oscar race for Estonia

    The Class has been put forward as the Estonian contender for the foreign-language Oscar.Ilmar Raag's debut feature beat out the other Estonian choice, The Autumn Ball, among the local Oscar committee.The drama, based on true events, is about a class geek and a friend who stands up for him to battle their classmates.NonStop Sales is handling international sales and will be selling the project at the forthcoming MIPCOM and American Film Market.'We are of course thril

  • The Edge Of Heavenis German Oscar entry

    Fatih Akin's The Edge Of Heaven (Auf Der Anderen Seite), which had its world premiere in this year's official competition in Cannes, has been selected as Germany's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 80th Academy Awards. Akin's film had its North American premiere last week in Toronto and has been sold by sales agent The Match Factory to over 30 territories so far, including France, Italy, Spain, Russia, the UK, Japan, Korea, Australia, Brazil and Canada.

  • The Great Ghost Rescue

    A young boy helps a flock of ghosts find a new home. Adaptation of the children’s novel by Eva Ibbotson.

  • The Obscure (Xiaoshuo)

    Dir. Lu Yue. China 2006. 84 min.Potentiallya powerful soporific for any audience not fluent in Mandarin, Lu Yue's combination of documentary and improvised live action is almost self-defeating in its insistence to stick, for the first hour, to a purely theoretical seminar. As it is, Lu's picture could interest scholars of Chinese poetry, or patient Westerners that do not mind extensive subtitles and are willing to bide their time until the academic analyses are over and r

  • The Passage

    Dir: Mark Heller 2007 USA . 95 mins.A likable cast and the exotic backdrop of Morocco provides first-time feature director Mark Heller with the tools to make a tense thriller about Western tourists in danger but he fails to build much-needed suspense. While pretty to watch, The Passage never scares enough to bring audiences to the edge of their seats.The one sequence that shows Heller as a filmmak

  • The Take

    Dir: Brad Furman. US 2007. 96 mins.The Take is a potentially very interesting film that suffers from a bad case of bi-polar disorder. On the one hand, a gritty, often exciting crime-and-caper movie, and on the other hand an authentic-feeling domestic drama set in one of the Latino barrios of Los Angeles, this otherwise worthy two-headed film repeatedly, and damagingly, clashes with itself.Headliners John Leguizamo and Rosie Perez do their usual great

  • The Trap and Short Circuits enter foreign Oscar race

    The Serbian Academy of Film Arts and Sciences has selected Srdan Golubovic's The Trap (Klopka) for the Oscar race. The Serbian-German-Hungarian co-production is a thriller about a man who decides to take on a hitman's task in order to be able to pay for a life-saving operation for his son. It has picked up a number of international awards, including the Grand Prix at Sofia. Separately, Janez Lapajne's Short Circuits (Kratki Stiki) has been chosen as Slovenia's foreign langu

  • Tokyo International Film Festival unveils full line-up

    The Tokyo International Film Festival has announced the full line-up for this year's 20th edition (October 20-28). The 15-film competiton section includes three world premieres - Jin Chen's Crossing Over, Peter Howitt's Dangerous Parking and Yu Nakai's Bloody Snake Under The Sun. Also competing are Jacob Thuesen's The Early Years - Erik Nietzsche, written by Lars von Trier, Feroz Abbas Khan's Ghandi My Father, Iranian director Abolfazl Jalili's

  • TONG DAWEI (CHINA)

    Among the many young actors in China, Tong Dawei has one of the largest fanbases, popular with teenagers and housewives alike for his boy-next-door image. Describing himself as quiet and easygoing, Tong comes from an industrial town in north-east China. Originally a business student, he was later accepted into the Shanghai Drama Academy, the second most famous drama school in China.He started out in television in 1998, but it was the 2002 TV drama

  • Tovarisch, I Am Not Dead

    Dir: Stuart Urban. UK 2007. 83 minsStuart Urban's documentary is the latest in an increasingly lengthy list of films made by children about their fathers (Mark Wexler's Tell Them Who You Are, Nathaniel Kahn's My Architect and Doug Block's 51 Birch Street are three other recent examples.) Tovarisch, however, is neither an intimate family confessional nor a son's anguished account of not being able to live up to an illustrious parent. Rather, it

  • Travolta wins supporting actor of the year at Hollywood Awards

    John Travolta will receive the supporting actor of the year award at the 11th annual Hollywood Awards presentation in Los Angeles on Oct 22.Travolta's selection was determined by his gender-bending performance as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray; the cast of the film will also be on hand at the ceremony to receive a previously announced Ensemble Acting Of The Year Award.'We are honored that John Travolta will be the recipient of this yea

  • Troma's Kaufman elected to chairman of IFTA

    Troma's Lloyd Kaufman was elected chairman of the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA) at the annual members meeting yesterday. He begins his two-year term immediately.The global independent film organization has also elected new executive committee members to two-year terms: former IFTA chairman Michael Ryan (Handmade Films International) is named vice chairman and Paul Hertzberg (CineTel Films) is vice chairman/secretary.Executive committee members remaining in

  • Tropfest@Tribeca took place on Sunday, names The Picnic winner

    Tropfest@Tribeca, the short festival created as a collaboration between Tribeca Enterprises and Australia's Tropfest, took place on Sunday night at the World Financial Center Plaza in New York City. 7,500 people attended the event which screened 16 films in the competition, all made specifically for the festival and all under seven minutes long.Of the films which had the signature word 'slice' in them, Belinda King won the Target Filmmaker Award for her film

  • TSAI MING-LIANG - Salome

    TSAI MING-LIANGProject: SalomeScr: Tsai Ming-liangEstimated budget: $4.7m (Eu3.4m)Funds in place: $945,000 (Eu685,000)One of the leading lights of Asian cinema, Malaysian-born film-maker Tsai Mi

  • Tuesday After Christmas

    Prod companies: Multimedia Est (Romania)Backers: CNC Romania, McCann-Erickson (Romania), Optimedia (Romania)Producers:Budget: $1.3mIntl sales: tba             Director: Radu MunteanScreenplay: Radu Muntean, Alexandru Baciu, Razvan RadulescuDoP: Tudor LucaciuProduction Design:Cast: Mimi Branescu, Maria PopistasuLocations: Bucharest, RomaniaShooting dates: November 2009Contact: Dragos Vâlcu

  • TWC, Exodus to co-produce CG-animated comedy Navy Seals

    The Weinstein Company and CG-animated production outfit Exodus Film Group have named the first film in their strategic partnership. Navy Seals, a story concept developed in-house at Exodus, is an adventurous family comedy about an elite pod of US Navy dolphins who are captured, their only hope for rescue being a band of misfit seals.The film is the first under the companies' CG-animated co-production agreement whereby the two will jointly deve

  • UK exhibitor Cineworld back in the black

    UK cinema chain Cineworld turned around 2006's losses for the first six months of the year to a healthy profit, and say the success of British films such as Hot Fuzz made an important contribution.The London-based company recorded pre-tax profits of $10m (£5.1m), compared with a loss of $12m (£6m) a year ago. Revenues increased 4.1%to $260m (£135.7m).British films supported strong blockbuster performances in a Summer which was fu

  • Ulrich Thomsen and Jack McGee join cast of Tykwer's The International

    Festen's Ulrich Thomsen, Crash's Jack McGee and Million Dollar Baby's Brian F. O'Byrne have joined the multi-national cast for Tom Tykwer's action thriller The International, headlined by Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. The film started shooting earlier today at the Babelsberg studios outside of Berlin after a week of location work in Istanbul. The Mosaic Media Group production of a co-production between the UK's Rose Line Productions and Siebente Ba

  • United Kingdom - Joy Ride

    Without any A-list stars or red-carpet posing, one of the hottest titles to emerge from the recent Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) was music documentary Joy Division, which had its world premiere in Tiff's Real to Reel section (Endeavor is handling North American sales while Katapult is handling international).The band's story could have been old news given that Anton Corbijn's Cannes hit Control is about Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, but the documentary team

  • United Kingdom - Looking to the Future

    UK outfit Future Films was created in 2000 to help producers put together financial packages for their films. That remit was soon expanded to include working as co-producers, and now the company is looking to be involved at every stage of a film's progress from development to international sales."I'm trying to achieve a horizontally integrated business," explains Future Films' chief executive Stephen Margolis. "Not many people know but we have co-produced more than 25 films in the last

  • United States - The Focus Puller

    It is a matter of pride for James Schamus, CEO of Focus Features, the specialised division of Universal Pictures, that he never misses a class at Columbia University, where he teaches film courses full-time in the autumn.Schamus paints a comic picture of himself this month, rushing back and forth from the Toronto Festival - where Focus premiered such movies as Eastern Promises, Lust, Caution, Reservation Road and Atonement - to Columbia in a desperate bid to

  • Vaines leaves TWC for LA job at King's GK Films

    UK film veteran Colin Vaines has joined Graham King's GK Films as co-president of production, effective Oct 1. He arrives from The Weinstein Company (TWC) where he was executive vice president of European production.Reporting directly to King, he will work alongside Gail Lyon, the company's other co-president of production, in heading the company's film development, pre-production and packaging activities.Vaines will move to Los Angeles and oversee film productions, takin

  • VICTOR LOPES - The Dribble (O Drible)

    VICTOR LOPESProject: The Dribble (O Drible)Scr: Victor LopesEstimated budget: $2.5m (Eu1.8m)The Dribble will be the debut feature from the Mozambique-born, Brazil-based fi

  • VIMUKTHI JAYASUNDARA - The Fallen

    VIMUKTHI JAYASUNDARAProject: The FallenScr: Vimukthi Jayasundara Estimated budget: $1.4m (Eu1m)Funds in place: $655,000 (Eu475,000)Sri Lankan director Vimukthi Jayasundara has a background in sc

  • Virgo's Poor Boy's Game wins major prizes at Atlantic Film Festival

    Clement Virgo's boxing drama Poor Boy's Game won two major prizes as the 27th Atlantic Film Festival wrapped yesterday. The Halifax-set picture was presented with the Best Atlantic Feature prize while Virgo and co-screenwriter Chaz Thorne won the Michael Weir Award for Best Original Screenplay. Thorne too was a double-winner. He bested Virgo in the Best Director category with his directorial debut, Just Buried

  • Von Trotta comes to Utrecht for Binger & Screen International talk

    Margarethe von Trotta will discuss her work and the future of European cinema during this year's Binger - Screen International Interview at the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht on Sept 28. Screen International's US Editor Mike Goodridge will conduct the public interview with the lauded German director, actress and screenwriter. Von Trotta started her career in 1965 as an actress, starring in films for Fassbinder and Volker Schloendorff. In the 1970s she moved

  • Wild Bunch closes a slew of deals on Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame

    The screening of Hana Makhmalbaf's French-Iranian drama Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame in official competition at San Sebastian has sparked a flurry of international sales. Wild Bunch has secured sales of Iranian director Hana Makhmalbaf's first feature to the UK (Slingshot), Spain (Wanda), Canada (Crystal), Portugal (Lusomundo), Benelux (Imagine), Switzerland (Frenetic), Greece (Rosebud), Mexico (Quality), the former Yugoslavia (Cinemania), Romania (IF), Israel (Shani), Turkey (

  • Winterbottom's A Mighty Heart wins Frankfurt Book Fair award

    At the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, director Michael Winterbottom will receive the award for Best International Literary Film Adaptation for A Mighty Heart.The award, to be given Oct 12, comes with a $14,000 (Euros 10,000) prize. Winterbottom's film, which premiered at Cannes, is based on the 2003 book of the same name by French journalist Mariane Pearl, whose husband Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Paki

  • Wolfgang Braun to leave post at Disney Germany

    Wolfgang Braun, general manager and senior vice president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Germany (previously known as Buena Vista International [Germany]), is stepping down from his post after 15 years as of Oct 1. His successor as general manager will be Thomas Menne, until now VP sales and marketing and assistant managing director at Walt Disney. German press reports suggested that Braun will continue to support Menne in a transition handover period until the end of Februa

  • Wolfgang Braun to leave post at Disney Germany

    Wolfgang Braun, general manager and senior vice president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Germany (previously known as Buena Vista International [Germany]), is stepping down from his post after 15 years as of Oct 1. His successor as general manager will be Thomas Menne, until now VP sales and marketing and assistant managing director at Walt Disney. German press reports suggested that Braun will continue to support Menne in a transition handover period until the end of Februa

  • Yamada to shoot kabuki feature for Shochiku

    Shochiku has announced that famed Japanese director Yoji Yamada will shoot a feature film version of a live kabuki performance next month, which is intended for theatrical release Two different performances of classic stories Renshishi and Ninjo-banashi Bunshichimottoi will be filmed at the Shimbashi Enbujo theatre, starring Japan 's most famous kabuki performer, Kanzaburo Nakamura XVIII (born Noriaki Namino). Yamada will also direct the stage performance of Ninjo-banash

  • YAN YAN MAK - The Journal Of Moonlight And Morning

    YAN YAN MAKProject: The Journal Of Moonlight And MorningScr: Amos Why, based on the novel by Zita LawEstimated budget: $965,000 (Eu700,000)Hong Kong film-maker Yan Yan Mak describes The Journal Of Moonlight

  • YANG JIN-WOO (KOREA)

    Yang Jin-woo has already demonstrated his versatility: the actor has just wrapped Won Shin-yeon's Seven Days, in which he plays a drugged-out rocker with a split personality. Meanwhile his previous film, Kwon Yong-kuk's The Elephant On The Bike, saw him playing an internalised, quiet part as a physically challenged young man.'The character is totally crazy,' Yang says of Seven Days. 'He goes

  • You, The Living enters Oscar race for Sweden

    Swedish director Roy Andersson's You, The Living (Du levanda), which was launched in competition at Cannes, will be Sweden's official candidate for the Academy Award nomination as Best Foreign-Language Feature. The selection, which was announced at a press conference in Stockholm today (Sept 25), was made by the 15-member committee also deciding the Guldbagge awards, the national film prizes. Sweden's most popular festival traveller this year, unspooling at more than 30 intern

  • Young People Fucking

    Dir: Martin Gero. Canada, 2007. 91 MinsYoung People Fucking is quite clearly a title that's out to grab one's attention. Neither documentary nor hardcore, it's an ingeniously constructed pastiche of sexual encounters presented affectionately and with humour. Reminiscent of American independent movies of the 1980s, the film should really be titled 'Young People Talking About Sex'. There's too much talk and not enough action in the bala

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