All Screen articles in 30 March 2003
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News
Documentaries dominate Guadalajara awards
Documentaries swept the awards at the18th Guadalajara Mexican Film Showcase which ended March 27th, reflecting the sorry state of fiction feature filmmaking in Mexico last year.Best Picture winners (ex aqueo) Marcela Arteaga's Recuerdos and Mercedes Moncada's La Pasion De Maria Elena split a cash prize of $9,300 (100,000 pesos). ...
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MIP-TV ends on comfortable note
MIP-TV, the spring TV programmes market in Cannes, closed on a modestly positive note yesterday. Market chief, Rene Pires said that some 9,024 delegates had taken part. That was down 11% on last year's figure of 10,104, but was better than he had hoped for given the world's current political ...
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Vien takes over Universal's international TV operations
Patrick Vien is to take over management of Universal Television Group (UTG)'s international channel operations. These include Sci-Fi UK, 13th Street, which airs under different names in France, Spain and Germany, Studio Universal Germany, the leading film channel on the Premiere platform, USA Network Latin America and its local derivative ...
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US film organisations stress global free trade
Global trade partnership isa key plank in the United States' free trade and anti-piracy policies,America's trade representative Ambassador Robert Zoellick told filmindustry leaders and other members of the Entertainment Industry Coalition (EIC)today (Mar 27).Speaking in Los Angeles atthe official West Coast launch of the coalition, which was set up to ...
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Slovenia joins EU MEDIA Programme
Slovenia has become the seventh Central and East European country to become a member of the European Union's MEDIA Programme following Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.The association treaty, which is back dated to January 1 2003, was signed on March 25 and sees Slovenia committing an ...
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Toshiba takes over leading Japanese distributor
Japan's Amuse Pictures, whose recent releases include Roman Polanski's Oscar winning The Pianist, has been sold to Toshiba Corp by parent company Amuse Inc. According to the terms of the deal Amuse will transfer 67 percent of its Amuse Pictures shares to Toshiba on April 1 and the remainder in ...
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Das Werk sold to German production outfit
Huerth-based production outfit Media Select has acquired the core activities of the insolvent Das Werk postproduction group, in the face of stiff competition from a number of rival bidders from Germany, Europe and the USA. According to an official statement, the new owner plans to run Das Werk's regional operations ...
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Saban completes takeover of KirchMedia film library
As planned following the purchase of the majority of ProSiebenSat.1 Media on March 17 (Screendaily, March 17), US media mogul Haim Saban has now concluded a deal with insolvency manager Michael Jaffe and the KirchMedia management to acquire the film library of 18,000 films and TV series and the film ...
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Unifrance moves closer to naming new president
France's export body, Unifrance, is getting closer to naming a new president following the sudden death of longtime president Daniel Toscan du Plantier in February.On Wednesday, three new producers were added to the board of directors of Unifrance to replace the deceased Toscan du Plantier and Christine Gouze-Renal. Also replaced ...
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BVITV strikes MIP-TV deals
Buena Vista International Television (BVITV), the film and TV sales arm of Disney, struck a number of film deals in small territories during this week's MIP-TV market in Cannes. With PoPTV, the largest commercial broadcaster in Slovenia, it agreed to supply films including Gone In 60 Seconds, Armageddon, TV movies ...
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Warner Bros kicks off Matrix marketing onslaught
Warner Bros kicked off in earnest its international marketing campaign for The Matrix sequels this week, with a major London presentation - titled The Year Of The Matrix - to introduce the two films to the industry.Warners invited over 300 press, exhibitors and retail partners to the presentation on Thursday(March ...
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RAI drafts in Fiera di Milano boss as new CEO
Less than two weeks after appointing a new president, Italian state broadcaster RAI has hired Fiera di Milano chief Flavio Cattaneo as its new CEO.Cattaneo, 39, had been president and CEO of the sprawling Fiera complex, which houses MIFED, since 2000. A trained architect, he has previously also worked in ...
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Oberhausen engulfed in Iraq war ban controversy
The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (May 1-6) has become embroiled in controversy after announcing that it intends to ban official representatives of the US, UK, Spanish and Italian governments from attending the festival following their policy on Iraq.In an official statement, the festival said that "the world's oldest and ...
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France revs up fighter pilot adaptation
Continuing the trend towards comic book adaptations in France, Tanguy And Laverdure will be next to get the big-screen treatment. The tale of two fighter pilots is set to be directed by Gerard Pires, who previously directed the first Taxi film and made last year's Riders. Pires is also a ...
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Reviews
Utopia
Dir: Maria Ripoll. 2003. Spain-France. 105mins.Utopia adds to a growing body of stylish Spanish genre films and, with the right marketing and distributor Hispano Foxfilm behind it, will likely follow in their footsteps to healthy returns at the local box office. That said, it had a downbeat opening weekend, taking ...
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Reviews
Ned Kelly
Dir: Gregor Jordan. Australia. 2003. 109mins.The lasting iconographic significance of armoured 19th-century outlaw Ned Kelly to Australian culture and mythology can not be underestimated. However, as Gregor Jordan's unromantic recreation insists, the Kelly Gang were 100% Irish, fighting age-old wars against the hated English in a hostile new land. Ned's ...
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Reviews
Dreamcatcher
Dir: Lawrence Kasdan. US. 2003. 134mins. Castle Rock's latest big-screen take on the work of author Stephen King starts out with a spooky psychological intensity that recalls some of the company's most successful King adaptations, like Misery and The Green Mile. Before long, however, Dreamcatcher degenerates into a confusing horror/sci-fi ...
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Ned Kelly has third best local opening in Australia
Ned Kelly grossed $460,000 - the third biggest opening day for an Australian film, behind Moulin Rouge and Crocodile Dundee 2.The massive local campaign has included a blitz-style publicity tour featuring most of the key cast, including star Heath Ledger, a huge number of massive outdoor billboards and a ...
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New HQ planned for Toronto film festival
The Toronto International Film Festival has plans to construct its own headquarters and cinema. A purpose-built facility can only heighten the profile of the festival, which is widely considered second only to Cannes in terms of importance. It currently does not have its own public screening facilities; moreover, the closure ...
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Sodano resigns from Eagle Pictures
Giampaolo Sodano, one of the Italian film industry's leading figures, has resigned from his position as president of Eagle Pictures, after helping the company more than double its revenue over the last three years."I simply decided it was time to move on. I had completed my task, so to speak. ...