All Screen articles in 28 April 2002
View all stories from this month.
-
News
Berlusconi's Mediaset posts heavily-reduced profits
Mediaset, the leading private Italian network owned by Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, recorded a sharp drop in net profits in 2001 on the back of losses linked to its 2.3% stake in KirchMedia. Net profits were down to Euros 248.4m, compared to Euros 423.5m in 2000.Overall, the group's net ...
-
News
Moby Dick gets biggest slice of German film fund backing
New feature film projects by Soenke Wortmann, Sherry Hormann, Wolfgang Panzer and Benjamin Quabeck are among more than 20 projects backed with over Euros 6m by FilmFernsehFonds Bayern in its latest round of funding.The largest single amount of Euros 1.5m though, went to Trixter Film for Moby Dick: The Legend ...
-
News
Five-hour thriller wins top prize at Singapore's Silver Screen Awards
Despite a running time of five hours, the Filipino thriller Batang West Side, directed by Lav Diaz, beat 14 other contenders to win the Best Asian Feature Film prize at the Silver Screen Awards of the 15th Singapore International Film Festival (April 11-27). Quantity with quality paid dividends for Batang ...
-
News
Sex-scandal priest drama acquired by Columbia TriStar Mexico
A topical and controversial story of a priest involved in a sex scandal has been acquired by Columbia TriStar Mexico. Carlos Carrera's El Crimen Del Padre Amaro, starring Mexico's fast-rising star Gael Garcia Bernal (Amores Perros, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Motorcycle Diaries) sold all Mexican rights, with a first option ...
-
News
Messier called to account for his actions by French TV watchdog
Jean-Marie Messier will have to detail the half-year accounts of Canal Plus Group and French pay-TV channel Canal Plus, a 49% subsidiary of Vivendi Universal, to the CSA (Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel), the French broadcasting industry watchdog.Following Messier's controversial firing of Canal Plus Group's chairman Pierre Lescure, the CSA has ...
-
News
Advanced's corrected figures show deeper losses in '99, but less red ink in 2000
German rights trader Advanced Medien has published its revised financial statements for 1999 and 2000 after auditors exposed "dubious" transactions in the original filing, rendering them "ineffective" and, according to some analyst allegations at the time, possibly fraudulent. (ScreenDaily, March 21, 2002)According to the corrected figures, the company recorded revenues ...
-
News
Fortissimo to handle remaining sales on Pau's The Touch
Han Entertainment, Thomas Chung's nascent media empire, is to appoint fellow Hong Kong outfit Fortissimo Film Sales to handle outstanding territories on big-budget extravaganza The Touch. Produced by superstar Michelle Yeoh through her Mythical Films, which has a deal with Han, the film is the English-language directorial debut of Oscar-winning ...
-
News
Norway's Film Fund supports first-time directors
The Norwegian Film Fund has greenlit seven new films, all of which are set to roll this year, with newcomers and children's films grabbing most of the $4.1m support from the fund.Production outfit Yellow Cottage has received funding for two high-profile children films based on well-known local franchises. Originally a ...
-
News
Beckham picked up for Germany
Highlight Film has picked up German speaking rights for Gurinder Chadha's box office hit Bend It Like Beckham, which has so far clocked up $6.6m on its UK release. Highlight plans to organise a large scale marketing campaign to launch the football comedy into German cinemas this year and has ...
-
News
My Brother Tom wins 'Britspotting' audience award
The 3rd 'Britspotting' British Independent Film Festival in Berlin awarded audience prizes for the first time this year, with the Best Feature Film category won by Dom Rotheroe's feature debut My Brother Tom which took home Euros 13,000 in prize-money donated by Das Werk and Metropolitan TV.The prize for Best ...
-
News
Nordisk Film adds to Egmont's profits slump
Newly restructured Nordic media major Egmont revealed its highest revenues ever on Wednesday (April 24) - at the same time as announcing a 67% dive in after-tax profits.While Egmont's revenues for 2001 reached an all-time high of Euros 1.1m, its profit after tax was a mere Euros 5.4m, compared ...
-
News
UK's Gala acquires Mon-rak Transistor
The UK's Gala Film Distributors has made its first acquisition of a Thai film, buying Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Mon-rak Transistor, which will get its international premiere in Cannes Directors' Fortnight.The film is billed as a contemporary genre-defying odyssey of self-discovery about a young man from rural Thailand. Handled by Fortissimo, the ...
-
News
Internationalmedia claims revenues set to double in 2002
After posting a decrease in revenues and a negative EBIT for the financial year 2001, Internationalmedia (IM) has announced that revenues in 2002 will be between Euros 330m - 370m and operating profit before goodwill amortization (EBIA) estimated at between Euros 21m - 25m. "The budget for 2002 is based ...
-
News
Director's Fortnight unveils six more titles
The Director's Fortnight (Quinzaine Des Realisateurs) came closer to completing its line up when it announced the selection of a further five films. These included Shane Meadows One Upon A Time In The Midlands, Lynne Ramsay's Morvern Callar from the UK, Romanian first film Occident by Christian Mungiu and three ...
-
Reviews
Life Or Something Like It
Dir: Stephen Herek. US. 2002. 103 mins. "Live every day as if it was your last" is the none-too-original moral of Life Or Something Like It, an insipid romantic-comedy/drama that casts Angelina Jolie as a post-feminist Marilyn Monroe who discovers the drawbacks of blonde ambition and the virtues of true ...
-
Reviews
A Snake Of June (Rokugatsu No Hebi)
Dir: Shinya Tsukamoto. Japan. 2002. 80 mins.Having burst onto the international indie scene in 1989 with Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Shinya Tsukamoto has always been a one-main show, writing, filming, editing and acting his private visions of a nightmare world in which humans have fused to machines, all set to ...
-
News
Digital pay-TV platforms fold in Spain and the UK
Two European pay-TV platforms, Spain's Quiero TV and the UK's ITV Digital have simultaneously reached the end of their struggles to survive.Spanish pay television platform Quiero TV, Europe's second digital terrestrial television platform behind the UK's ITV Digital (formerly Ondigital), is pending formal closure following a decision by shareholders to ...
-
News
Spain's MediaPro launches in to feature film production
Spanish producer and rights broker MediaPro has announced its fully-fledged entry into feature film production, with plans to produce and back between five and seven films per year.Newly appointed film chief Juan Ruiz de Gauna, former CEO of Via Digital, said MediaPro won't "just play a financing role, we will ...
-
News
MRP plans Finland's first digital cinema
Finland's MRP: Matila & Rohr Productions is planning to build the country's first digital cinema. 'We are building it from scratch,' Marko Rohr told Screendaily, 'it will have three screens and is the next obvious step for us in our ambitions to be involved in every part of the film ...
-
News
Can Hungary's Bridgeman cross-over to commercial success'
Historical biopic Bridgeman, the most expensive film ever produced in Hungary, opened last week with the country's fourth highest weekend gross ever for a local film. But despite national interest in the subject matter, controversy has erupted over the government's massive $2.5m investment in the $6m film, when the Hungarian ...