opinion
The Power Of Two
Leading UK producers Ruby and See Saw are going out to investors together next week with a new EIS investment scheme designed to raise working capital for upcoming productions.
Indie Shakedown
The news – not entirely unexpected – that Lionsgate had bought Summit Entertainment comes as good news in that the two companies will together create an independent powerhouse and as depressing news in that the business loses another buyer of material and movies and a key supplier to the international market.
Remembering Bingham Ray
The film world lost one of its most colourful and passionate characters this week when Bingham Ray died at the age of 57 after a stroke at the Sundance Film Festival.
On the audience and UK films
In light of the Film Policy Review, remembering that you can’t force audiences to watch a film they don’t want to watch; and noting how the UK benefits from US box-office domination.
Great expectations for 2012
Welcome to Screen International 2012, a year that could see a silent French film win the best picture Oscar and Angelina Jolie win the Golden Globe for best foreign-language film.
Venice’s Latest Renaissance
Outgoing festival director Marco Mueller returned Venice to its former glory by focusing on the movies. Incoming Alberto Barbera has been charged with creating a market infrastructure. But does Venice need it?
Lonergan’s Period Piece
The seven year-old film Margaret, which has finally been released by Fox Searchlight, is very much of its time for a number of reasons.
Online versus face time
How can the internet help the film industry at a time when online-only businesses are still struggling to devise effective revenue models?
Glittering European Prizes
The EFAs and the BIFAs celebrate their respective constituents’ art and talent in as pure a way as possible, largely indifferent to the Hollywood awards hype machine.
An Undervalued Master
Ken Russell, who died this week, was one of the UK’s most audacious film-makers so why was he so wildly under-appreciated?
An Oscars What If?
If the Oscars move into January in 2013, the Academy will set in motion a sea change in the production cycle and distribution of prestige titles.
UIP: The comeback?
The dramatic reorganization of Paramount Pictures International, which will see 80 people lose their jobs in the UK, raises big questions for all the studios’ international businesses.
Is Downtown LA the wrong move for AFM?
The possible move to a new part of Los Angeles in 2013 has met with early resistance, but it could be a great way to freshen up the market.
The Market Vs The Movie
Sales agents and financiers have never been more conservative in their demands for cast, script and budget changes. It’s a complicated problem for film-makers striving to keep their project’s integrity intact.
Tokyo Story
Take an Iranian, a Turk, an American and a Frenchman, throw in some Korean funding and start shooting a Japanese film in Tokyo. That is the story behind the critically acclaimed film Cut.
Family Decisions
Parents and their young kids are champing at the bit as they wait for the European release of The Adventures Of Tintin, reflecting a chronic shortage of quality films suitable for the unfashionable but super-lucrative family market.
LFF: Film Central
This year’s London Film Festival showcases a rich selection of UK titles and celebrates the BFI’s new role in the production sector with style. And with funds only looking to increase in the next two years, it’s up to the film community to build on the current wave of quality.
To Be Or Not To Be...in a Franchise
The Simpsons cast is playing hardball in its salary battle with Fox, but actors in big film franchises have to tread carefully when getting involved in the same standoffs.
Independent Cultural Cinema Exhibition: A Manifesto
An outline of the ambitions put forward by a group of UK independent exhibitors including at venues including the Independent Cinema Office, Cambridge Film Trust, and venues including Glasgow’s GFT, Bristol’s Watershed, Manchester’s Cornerhouse, London’s ICA and Newcastle’s Tyneside.
Rise Of The Gatekeeper Brands
As consumers embrace new ways of finding and watching movies, independent distributors need to make sure that audiences know their brand.
Why the US studios are struggling with Asian production
The news that Disney has followed Warner Bros and Paramount in closing down local-language production or acquisition units highlights the difficulties the US studios face in this area, particularly in Asia where a very different filmmaking culture exists.
Lovers of TIFF
The world’s top buyers and sellers descended onto Toronto last week for an annual event which is looking increasingly like a major film market as well as a festival.
The Madonna Factor
W.E. is being declared a bomb after its Venice world premiere, even before it’s screened anywhere else. But Madonna’s movie should have a second wind. It’s no masterpiece but it’s an ambitious second film which should recover and find its audience.
Let the smart season begin
Summer is for inane, mindless spectacle, but autumn and winter – as if the harsher weather demands it – bring on the thinking movies.
After 18 years, a documentary gets a happy ending
A tribute to the work of Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky and HBO Films, as the West Memphis 3 are freed.
China’s international ambitions
What the Relativity Media and Legendary Pictures deals say about China rallying forth into the world.
Criticising The Critics
I think Goodbye First Love is a great film, but Screen’s critic Lisa Nesselson didn’t respond in the same way. When it comes to movies, it seems everyone has their own opinion.
Don’t Remake Baby Into A Corner
Why the Dirty Dancing remake could alienate audiences young and old.
Give That Ape An Oscar
Movie magic takes a giant leap in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes as a group of digital apes give fully realised performances that outclass their human counterparts.
Made In Britain, but not set there
It’s a strong year for British movies as the upcoming festival season tells us, but why aren’t there any movies set in today’s Britain?
Storm Over Jerusalem
Perhaps befitting the volatile nature of Israel itself, the Jerusalem Film Festival this year stirred up heated divisions for its films and its jury.
Bold visions needed from new festival heads
As several major festivals recruit new artistic directors, a reminder of why these positions are crucial within the film industry.
British talent on the global stage
UK actors are important exports, especially when they come home again.
Theatrical industry needs boldness and fresh vision
How the industry can learn from the past and reinvent itself.
2011: A Golden Awards Season
Who said prestige film-making was dead in Hollywood? After The King’s Speech and Black Swan, studios are racing back into the business of serious stories and ambitious talent. Thank heavens.
Superhero Fatigue
The deluge of superhero movies this summer could spell saturation for a genre that is exhibiting a serious lack of adventure.
UK producers must lobby to rejoin Eurimages
For too long UK producers have been been deprived of access to funds and co-producers that their European counterparts take for granted.
D-day in the developing world
Despite the growth of DCI-compliant D-cinema, there’s still huge potential for lower resolution e-cinema in India and other emerging markets.
A New Approach To The Window Wars
Some smart exhibitors are looking to get into the VOD business and extend their reach beyond the first window. It makes sense.
Dawn Porter, Tina Mabry win Tribeca All Access Promise awards
Tribeca Film Institute today announced several award winners and grantees, during the 10th annual Tribeca Film Festival.
The World Belongs To Rio
The fact that most international audiences saw Rio a week before domestic shows how the North American release is losing its power in dictating the success of film.
Rubbing The Sheen Off Stars
In today’s amorphous online world, personal publicists cannot control the image of the stars like they used to. But maybe the tabloid obsession with actors only serves to fuel their public appeal.
So you wanna make a movie?
LA based media lawyer Schuyler M. Moore offers his top ten tips for newbie producers.
The Handover
This week, the first 16 UK Film Council staff move over to the BFI as part of the absorption of UKFC functions into a new BFI super-structure. There’s a good deal of common sense at work in the new entity.
Defending A Serbian Film
Attempts to censor or ban Srdjan Spasovjevic’s shocking horror film miss the point of the director’s intentions and his considerable skills.
Colombia Pictures
The president of Colombia gave a rousing rallying cry for local cinema at the opening of the Cartagena Film Festival late last month, showing one country that is taking its industry seriously.
Grab Your Partners
A groundbreaking report points to the social impact of a documentary film, spurred by a willingness to work with 15 different partners.
Crime Scene
The Nordic countries appear to have a monopoly on crime fiction in print and on screen. So why is the world so mesmerized by the laconic northerners?
Cheer & fear at EFM
The international business was looking robust again for the first time in a long time, but rumblings over the future of the MEDIA programme cast a pall over the future health of European public funding.
Weighing Up The Grit
The opening night of the Berlinale might serve True Grit’s international box office prospects, but in general US studios are far more cautious than they used to be about bringing tentpole pictures to festivals.
How Hollywood could benefit from 'Box Financing'
LA-based lawyer Schuyler M. Moore argues that the finacial overhaul bill new definitions will offer transparent equity investing to benefit many sectors of the film industry.
Mourning Eichinger
Bernd Eichinger wore many hats in his long career, but is celebrated here as a ground-breaking Germany-based producer of English-language films tailor-made for the international markets.
Creative meets coal face
High Point Films’ Carey Fitzgerald says aspiring filmmakers need to understand the commercial world.
The glitch behind China’s gold rush
Investment is pouring into Chinese films, but the industry still relies too heavily on big-budget costume epics, many of which are losing money.
Foreigners In Hollywood
Golden Globes weekend was an opportunity for Hollywood to engage in an orgy of parties, networking and awards ceremonies. And there were even a couple of occasions for foreign talent to seize the spotlight.
Fantastic International Voyage
The snowballing international box office numbers for The Tourist, Narnia and Gulliver’s Travels are showing that audiences outside the US are deciding what is a hit and what is not.
What Went Wrong?
The box office holiday season in North America was a big letdown, as a series of major box office hopes stumbled by the wayside. The problem lies not with the audience but with the films.
Brand appeal
Branded film must appeal to audiences’ social motivations, says content & digital director at FRUKT Communications, James Poletti.
China’s digital future
Liz Shackleton examines how China is racing ahead of other markets in terms of digital delivery of film.
One Night In Tallinn
The European Film Awards turned 23 last weekend in Estonia and the event has found a comfortable groove and a fixed place on the calendar.
A New Hope
The UK film industry is entering another new chapter courtesy of the new government. So now we know the plans, there’s an occasion for optimism.
The Minister’s Speech
The UK government’s new film policy plan unveiled in a speech by Ed Vaizey next week promises another crucial period of consultation and reorganization in a local industry weary from upheaval.
The Greatest Showman On Earth
The late Dino De Laurentiis can be remembered for a spectacular producing career but he also invented the foreign sales business and spawned a breed of international movie moguls.
The Horror, The Horror
The American Film Market (AFM) highlighted the increasing diversity and creative richness of the horror genre, as buyers snapped up original and ingenious movies from around the world.
Falling Stars?
Are movie stars losing their power in the film business? At the AFM as well as in the executive offices of the studios, the appetite is for high concepts and visionary film-makers over pricey star vehicles.
Barriers to entry in Japan
In a brutal Japanese market for world cinema, the Tokyo International Film Festival is doing everything in its power to encourage buyers to take on foreign films.
Embracing change
EM Media chair Lisa Opie calls for the industry to face change head on and remember not to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Middle East Is Middle East
Tarak Ben Ammar, Ed Pressman and others gave the UAE states plenty to think about at the Circle Conference last week in Abu Dhabi.
Protecting your ideas
Don’t allow others to rip off your ideas when you can take some simple steps to protect yourself. Pamela Forte, media lawyer at Forte Law, offers some practical tips on safeguarding confidential information.
Facing The Film Industry
How did Ed Vaizey measure up in his first public address of the industry since abolishing the UK Film Council?
Bollywood's boom and bust
Bollywood is officially in recovery, but unless it applies the brakes, it runs the risk of over-heating again quite soon.
A Smiley Face For Europe
StudioCanal has stepped up to fully finance Working Title’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It is a significant deal for all parties.
The Foreign Film Conundrum
Foreign language films made with a mainstream wide-audience sensibility often fall through the cracks when being sold overseas. So why the snobbery?
Pandora’s Lightbox
This year’s Toronto Film Festival is coming to an end, having successfully opened its new C$200m film centre over last weekend, but keeping everybody happy during this year’s event was a tough task.
Protecting Inward Investment
A new proposal to make the UK tax credit recoupable seems to ignore the fact that virtually every other country in the world is lining up to steal big productions away from the UK.
UK government should direct Lottery funds to arthouse film
Commercial UK cinema should live or die on the open market both in financing and distribution, but artistic cinema needs government support.
Redistributing the wealth
With new titles increasingly being squeezed into the schedules of the four major festivals, is it time that sales agents took a punt on other festivals, like Locarno?
Learning from the UKFC backlash
UK Film Council naysayers are having a field day in the wake of the organisation’s death sentence, and, bitchiness aside, they cannot be ignored.
Bollywood gets serious
Mumbai’s mainstream film industry is starting to mix serious subject matter with commercial elements for some interesting results, Liz Shackleton writes.
Inside Sundance Labs
Sydney Freeland reveals what it’s really like to attend the Sundance Directors Lab, and to learn to be more spontaneous on set.
A return to common sense
Indie films may not be achieving the grosses of years gone by, but we shouldn’t judge them against the inflated goal posts of the past.
Is Film Losing Its Value?
The ongoing attempts to sell MGM and Miramax Films highlight the steep decline in the valuation of libraries but consumers are also feeling the cheapening of the product.
PACT proposals: ambitious but timely
UK producers have long survived on resourcefulness rather than reward; trade association PACT is determined to rebalance the industry although its plans to help producers get their share have met with lively debate.
Indian film's tender shoots
Against a backdrop of social and economic change, Indian cinema has started to diversify. But it will take more time for India’s new wave of film-makers to compete at an international level
Beyond China’s Borders
Liz Shackleton argues that the Chinese film industry can’t overlook the usefulness of Hollywood and the international film business.
Issues, with an element of surprise
Producer Peter Carlton, chair of the drama jury for the One World Media Awards, says cinema and social issues can go together with entertainment and surprise.
Summer Chill
This summer not many of the tentpole movies have been delivering the goods, Mike Goodridge argues.
Popcorn and Other Disasters
Mike Goodridge confesses to being a cinema shusher who is offended by the loud popcorn crunchers and mobile phone talkers. That’s why exhibitors need to keep upping the ante to draw us into the theatrical experience.
Sex and the Souk
Sex And The City 2’s trip to the Middle East can either be seen as silly fun or deeply offensive. Mike Goodridge goes further and asks why Hollywood and the Gulf States aren’t making as many strides together as expected.
The Boys Are Back
Forget Stallone and Schwarzenegger. This year’s Cannes market unleashed a tsunami of action movies starring 21st Century tough guys like Gerard Butler, Jason Statham and Clive Owen.
Les Miserables
Mike Leigh and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Cannes competition titles offer bleak portraits of the human condition that will both polarise audiences and provoke debate. Where else would such ambitious world cinema find a home but at Cannes.
Time To Get Back To Basics
Bob Berney’s resignation from Apparition highlights how much money is required to release prestige movies in the high-spending US distribution arena these days. So perhaps it’s time to get back to basics.
Producer recoupment: not the whole solution
Tom Harvey, CEO of UK regional screen agency Northern Film & Media, welcomes some aspects of PACT’s proposals but argues that funding for film should be spread across the industry (including for cast and crews), not just for producers.
A Spoonful Of Sugar
The Cannes Film Festival’s annual cocktail of art and glamour looks decidedly art-heavy this year and could use an injection of razzle dazzle, Mike Goodridge writes.
The romance of remakes
It’s easy to scoff at remakes but only if you don’t understand that a US remake will be seen by millions more around the globe than a non- English language original, Mike Goodridge argues.
Why we need PMDs (Producers of Marketing and Distribution)
Digital distribution guru Jon Reiss says film-makers need this key crew position from the inception of the project.
As the volcanic dust settles
Perhaps the only thing that is clear following the travel chaos that engulfed Europe last week is just how enmeshed the US film industry has become with the rest of the world.
A tale of three cities
The rise of mainland China as a massive market could have stubbed out originality across Chinese-speaking Asia, but production centres in Taipei and Hong Kong have ensured diversity and fresh vision.
Small is beautiful
It’s inconceivable that even 10 years ago, an actress of the calibre of Kate Winslet and a film-maker as world-class as Todd Haynes would be working together in television. But that is exactly what the two cinema luminaries are doing in a five-hour mini-series of James M Cain’s 1941 Mildred Pierce that is now in production. Haynes is returning to the Cain source material rather than the classic 1945 Michael Curtiz film and has cast Evan Rachel Wood as Mildred’s daughter Veda ...
