All articles by Karsten Kastelan
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News
MGM in talks to launch pay channel in Germany
MGM Worldwide Television Group is in talks to launch a movie channel in Germany, according to Financial Times Deutschland.Simon Sutton, MGM Worldwide TV's senior vice president, international pay & free television, said in an interview that negotiations with the Kirch group had recently stalled and new talks are underway with ...
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Babelsberg to launch multimedia centre
Germany's Babelsberg Studios is planning to add a state-of-the-art multimedia production centre to house up to 30 companies, with construction scheduled to start as soon as spring 2001. Babelsberg co-managing director Gerhard Bergfried said the move was in response to demand from multimedia companies looking for a base in ...
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Media[netCom] losses double due to start-up costs
German video-on-demand (VoD) company media[netCom] has reported that its losses more than doubled in the six months to September 30, from Euros461,000 to Euros1.16m, due to the cost of building an infrastructure and licensing film packages.However turnover rose by more than 1,000% to Euros1.94m from Euros141,000 in the same ...
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Schuendler to head co-production at Bavaria
Oliver Schuendler has been appointed to replace Carina Vogel as head of co-production at Bavaria Media, the international production and rights arm of German mini-major Bavaria Film.Schuendler, a producer at Bavaria Film, is best known for his German-language mini-series and TV movies. At Bavaria Media he will be responsible for ...
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Koenig's Helkon shares to stay in the family
Germany's Helkon Media has announced that shares in the company belonging to the late Werner Koenig will be inherited by his mother, who is the sole beneficiary. Koenig's mother, who requested not to be named, said in a statement that she does not plan to sell her son's estimated 16% ...
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Kinowelt enters Bulgaria with Duga, Solaris
Germany's Kinowelt is continuing to build up its Eastern European presence by setting up two distribution outfits in Bulgaria, one in partnership with local theatrical distributor Duga Entertainment and the other with video company Solaris.The German mini-major has taken a 51% stake in Kinowelt Bulgaria, a joint venture with Solaris ...
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Jetzt Oder Nie bags Luenen audience award
Lars Buechel's Jetzt Oder Nie won the audience award at this year's Kinofest Luenen (November 16-19). The comedy, about three elderly ladies who decide to rob a bank in order to finance a cruise, received DM10,000 in cash from sponsors and DM5,000 in subtitling costs from the German Federal Film ...
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Kinowelt provides NBC Europe with prime-time fare
Germany's Kinowelt has sold another tranche of titles to German TV, this time to cable station NBC Europe which plans to run them in prime-time slots, replacing its Tonight Show and Late Night With Conan O'Brian.Lead-in for the feature package which includes titles such as Sphere, Executive Decision, A Hard ...
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Bavaria, Rai strike co-production pact
Munich-based Bavaria Media and Italy's Rai Cinema have formed a long-term alliance under which they will develop and co-produce television projects, and eventually theatrical features.The agreement, which runs until 2003, calls for the two companies to co-produce three television films or mini-series a year, with development costs shared equally by ...
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Helkon co-founder Werner Koenig dies in accident
Werner Koenig, co-founder of Germany's Helkon Media, died on Sunday after being caught in an avalanche near Verbier, Switzerland, whilst scouting locations for upcoming feature The Extremists.The film's director, Christian Duguay, and another crew member were also present when the accident happened but remained unharmed. Helkon said in a statement ...
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Meyer's Spoils wins funding from NRW
German regional funding body Filmstiftung NRW has awarded $1.1m (DM2.5m) to Spoils, a co-production between Germany's Dazu Film and Belgium's Corsan, which is set to star Alec Baldwin and Linda Fiorentino.The film, to be directed by Nicholas Meyer, is about two US soldiers who make off with a haul of ...
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Lost Killers wins main award at Cottbus
Georgian director Dito Tsintsadze's Lost Killers was awarded the $8,800 (DM20,000) top prize at the 10th annual Cottbus Film Festival in Germany, which spotlights Eastern European films.The German production, recently acquired by German distributor Advanced (see separate story), qualified for the festival because of the director's nationality as well as ...
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Germany's Filmfest Luenen to present editing prize
For the second time, German film magazine Der Schnitt will present an award for Best Editing at the Filmfest Luenen (November 16-19) which will be accompanied by a cash prize of $6,600 (DM15,000) from funding body Filmstiftung NRW. The 11 German films nominated for this year's prize include the festival's ...
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Berlin Film Festival to feature Lang tribute
The 2001 edition of the Berlin Film Festival will honour director Fritz Lang with a retrospective, screening the complete filmography of the German director, who died in Los Angeles in 1976. Many of the prints that will screen have been restored from original negatives.The highlight of the series, which was ...
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HOT joins bidding for Murdoch's TM3
Munich-based home shopping network HOT Networks is in talks to acquire a majority stake in German broadcaster TM3, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Kirch Media was previously seen as a front-runner to buy the channel which has less than a 3% share of the German market.HOT is part-owned by ...
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CineMedia, TeleMuenchen pact for digital film
Germany's CineMedia and TeleMuenchen have entered into a strategic alliance to develop digital cinema. TeleMuenchen will take a 7% stake in CineMedia as part of the deal.CineMedia recently launched a division to research digital film-making, post-production and film conservation. TeleMuenchen, which is involved in licensing, production and distribution, is the ...
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Vienna gives top prize to Balkan drama
Goran Rebic's take on the Balkan war, The Punishment, won the award for best Austrian film at the Vienna International Film Festival (October 13-25).Shot in the face of anti-Serbian sentiment, the documentary by the Serbian-born, Vienna-raised film-maker focuses on NATO's bombing of Belgrade and the subsequent devastation. The Standard Award, ...
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Mechanic named as Berlin jury president
Former 20th Century Fox chairman and CEO Bill Mechanic will preside over the jury at the next Berlin Film Festival, to be held February 7-18, 2001.Festival chief Moritz de Hadeln, who hands over to Dieter Kosslick after next year's event, described Mechanic as "a staunch supporter of the festival during ...
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Splendid launches TV division
German rights trader Splendid Medien has launched a New York-based television arm, headed by TV veteran Douglas J. Schwalbe.The unit will acquire, co-finance and sell mini-series and TV movies. "We realised that there is worldwide demand for a special type of product," said Splendid chairman Andreas Klein.Splendid's first television project ...
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Viennale to open with Le Gout Des Autres
Agnes Jaoui's French hit Le Gout Des Autres will open this year's Viennale - Vienna International Film Festival (October 13-25). Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys will close proceedings.Highly-anticipated titles in the festival's feature section include Terence Davies' The House Of Mirth, Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood For Love, Lars von Trier's ...