All Screen articles in 19 December 2008

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  • News

    Public funding for Rome Film Festival cut by $2.5m for 2009 edition

    2008-12-19T16:28:00Z

    The International Rome Film Festival has announced that public funding for its budget will be cut from $8.1 (Euros 5.8 mil) to $5.6 (Euros 4 mil) for the 2009 edition. The cuts come from the festival's founding committee, which has cited the global economic crisis as the reason.Earlier the committee ...

  • News

    Göthenberg Film Festival to open and close with local documentaries

    2008-12-19T16:14:00Z

    Sweden 's Göthenberg International Film Festival will bookend its 32nd edition with two local documentaries: Nahid Persson Sarvestani's The Queen And I and Jesper Ganslandt-Martin Degrell's The Film I Am No Longer Talking About. Göthenberg International Film Festival is the Nordic countries' largest film festival, screening around 450 films to ...

  • News

    SCREEN REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2008: PART ONE

    2008-12-19T15:41:00Z

    In the first of a three-part review of the year. Screen looks at some of the key issues for the international filmindustry in 2008. Click to see full story.CRUNCH TIME:harsh economic conditions push online distribution and D-cinema to centre stage, says Michael GubbinsREALITY BITES: A bleak year for the US ...

  • News

    Sieben's Distance to open Berlinale's Perspektive Deutsches Kino

    2008-12-19T12:10:00Z

    Writer-director Thomas Sieben's feature debut Distance (Distanz) will open the Berlinale's Perspektive Deutsches Kino - the sidebar dedicated to German films on February 6.Sieben describes the film as 'An existential story of violence and love which simultaneously disturbs and touches through its unconditional nature.'Distance was produced by Berlin-based GrandHotelPictures with ...

  • News

    European Film Market launches documentary initiative

    2008-12-19T12:01:00Z

    The European Documentary Network (EDN) is collaborating with the Berlinale's European Film Market (EFM) to provide a new initiative for documentary sellers entitled Meet The Docs.Meet The Docs will serve as a connecting platform for all documentary sellers, buyers, and directors offering a meeting place and a general information service ...

  • News

    Stelios Ziannis to leave Germany's Kinowelt International

    2008-12-19T11:54:00Z

    Stelios Ziannis, head of world sales at Germany's Kinowelt International for the past eight years, is leaving the company of his own accord at the end of December.Ziannis will be succeeded by Barbara Knabe, Kinowelt's head of TV sales.Kanbe will have responsibility for cooperation with the world sales and distribution ...

  • News

    China Film, Enlight launch new media shorts programme

    2008-12-19T10:57:00Z

    China Film Group Corporation and private entertainment group Enlight Media launched the 'China Film New Media Production Project' today with 20 short films to be distributed across 12 digital platforms, starting from Saturday (Dec 20). The two groups plan to spend more than $7.3m (RMB50m) to produce 1,000 short films ...

  • Reviews

    The Spirit

    2008-12-19T08:00:00Z

    Dir: Frank Miller. US. 2008. 108 mins. Using the same green screen technology which created stylised films of his comic books Sin City and 300, Frank Miller's first solo effort as a director is an entertaining, if forgettable, cinematic imagining of Will Eisner's classic superhero The Spirit. Strictly two-dimensional, despite ...

  • News

    Coleman and Matthews get top jobs at Screen Australia

    2008-12-19T07:15:00Z

    Martha Coleman, who recently returned to Australia after seven years working in the UK film industry, has been appointed head of development at Screen Australia and will work from the Sydney headquarters. A second senior appointment was also announced today: Melbourne-based Ross Matthews, an eight-year veteran of the now defunct ...

  • News

    Nigel Clark returns to Sony after stints at UIP, Eon

    2008-12-19T02:26:00Z

    Nigel Clark has returned to Sony as senior executive vice president of international marketing following his role as executive vice president of international marketing at UIP and a recent consultancy stint for Eon Productions on Quantum Of Solace, which Sony released worldwide.Clark first joined Sony in London as European marketing ...

  • Seven Pounds
    Reviews

    Seven Pounds

    2008-12-19T01:43:00Z

    Dir Gabriele Muccino. US. 2008. 118 mins

  • News

    Madagascar 2 continues rollout in Italy andAustralia

    2008-12-19T01:33:00Z

    A subdued pre-Christmas weekend will should carry DreamWorks Animation's Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa over $200m and push Fox International's The Day The Earth Stood Still towards $60m in its second weekend.Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa has reached $182.8m and there are 14 launches on the cards through PPI. Significant debuts are ...

  • News

    Gary Yates' High Life from Shoreline gets Panorama slot in Berlin

    2008-12-19T01:24:00Z

    Gary Yates' heist caper High Life starring Timothy Olyphant and Joe Anderson will get its world premiere in Panorama at the 59th Berlinale, set to run from February 5-15.Robert Cass is producing along with Yates through his Triptych Media. Triptych partner Anna Stratton serves as executive producer with Shoreline Entertainment's ...

  • News

    Luhrmann, Jackson to receive legend awards at Capri

    2008-12-19T01:19:00Z

    Baz Luhrmann and Samuel L Jackson will join Quentin Tarantino to receive the Capri Legend Award at the 13th Capri, Hollywood - Honda International Film Festival.Festival chairman and producer Mark Canton and festival director Pascal Vicedomini made the announcement today [December 18].Luhrmann and Jackson will attend screenings of their latest ...

  • News

    Screenopinion:Film must look to reinvention

    2008-12-19T00:00:00Z

    In the middle of the fake souk in the hotel complex where the Dubai International Film Festival is based, there is a Santa's grotto blaring out Frosty The Snowman.Given the temperature is up to 28 degrees centigrade even in December, it is a surreal setting - perfect, in fact, for ...

  • News

    Profile: Shorts International

    2008-12-19T00:00:00Z

    It might seem like a challenge to fill a rolling 24-hour schedule with short films but Carter Pilcher, head of Shorts International, the London-based company behind the new UK channel Shorts TV, is unfazed.'We developed a huge catalogue, building video-on-demand relationships,' he explains. 'We have an enormous library and thousands ...

  • Features

    International - World domination

    2008-12-19T00:00:00Z

    The Day The Earth Stood Still took the top spot on the international box-office chart for the December 12-14 weekend, giving Fox International its first number-one debut in five years. Opening day-and-date in 90 territories in addition to North America, the sci-fi remake took $39.2m from 7,715 screens, giving it ...

  • Features

    United States - Documentary evidence

    2008-12-19T00:00:00Z

    The launch last summer of Msnbc Films brought not just a new player but a new type of player onto the US documentary scene.The initiative is an off-shoot of Msnbc, the basic cable news channel (owned by Microsoft and NBC Universal) that reaches 91.6 million US TV households. And among ...

  • News

    Profile: Ray Burdis' Britflick Productions

    2008-12-19T00:00:00Z

    This time last year, UK producer-writer-actor-director Ray Burdis was happily retired and making wine in the south of France. But his passion for film-making, and encouragement from his friends in the industry, brought him back to the UK where he has set up a new production company, Britflick Productions.'I had ...

  • Features

    Europe - breaking the deadlock

    2008-12-19T00:00:00Z

    Given the slow pace of change in European digital cinema, there is a danger in over-hyping any kind of movement. But a $56m investment in leading UK and France-based D-cinema business Arts Alliance Media (AAM) may prove significant.The money from European services company Econocom and various private investors will allow ...