All Screen articles in 25 February 2008 – Page 4
-
Features
United Kingdom - Love is all around
Mike Leigh has not named his new film Happy-Go-Lucky ironically. He readily says the Berlinale Competition title is "lighter" than 2004's devastating 1950s abortionist drama Vera Drake. "It's upbeat and funny and life affirming," the director says. Still, he says the project "does have some weight to it".Actress Sally Hawkins, ...
-
Features
In Focus - Market beats festival to number one spot
The Berlinale kicked off in fine style with Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones documentary Shine A Light, but the general consensus - at least for buyers - was that this year the festival line-up was upstaged by the market.The focus turned to the European Film Market (EFM) following a perceived lack ...
-
Features
In Focus - Postcard from Berlin
Breakout filmsHappy-Go-LuckyAudiences were enchanted by Mike Leigh's story of a young schoolteacher navigating modern life (with memorable flamenco classes and driving instruction). Sally Hawkins was the source of the buzz, stepping up from minor roles in previous Leigh films to win the Silver Bear for best actress (review, p21).Hey Hey ...
-
Features
Video-on-demand - Europe - Patchwork picture is a brake on growth
Europe's position in the VoD market is characterised by a distinctive set of issues that differentiate it from much of the rest of the world.One is the role of the telecoms companies, such as British Telecom, France Telecom, Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom. These were often the state monopolies that once ...
-
Features
In Focus - Cannes film festival - Palme Reading
Official selection berths seem set for Ari Folman's animated documentary Waltz With Bashir from Israel; Wong Kar Wai's revision of his 1994 martial arts classic Ashes Of Time - Redux; and Courtney Hunt's Sundance prizewinner Frozen River.Also tipped from Sundance are Barry Levinson's What Just Happened' featuring Robert De Niro, ...
-
News
Screen Opinion: The Red-Stained Carpet
No matter which film walks home from Sunday's Oscar ceremony with the big prize, it will mark another victory for the US-centric studio apparatus otherwise known as Hollywood. Even at the more artistic fringes of the film-making spectrum, the big-six movie conglomerates still exert a gravitational pull on the marketplace ...
-
News
Mercuri rising: Profile ofNu Image/Millennium's Christian Mercuri
It took Christian Mercuri a while to find his niche when he joined Nu Image/Millennium Films six years ago.But after working with company co-founder Avi Lerner on the Los Angeles independent's production side, 'I moved over and started doing sales with Danny (Dimbort, partner to Lerner and third company principal ...
-
Features
Sweden - Taking the crown
Jens Jonsson was on the other side of the world for his breakthrough moment. As his film The King Of Ping Pong was winning the Sundance 2008 World Cinema Jury Prize (as well as the World Cinema cinematography prize), he had already left Park City to show the film closer ...
-
Features
Video-on-demand - Territory snapshot: The UK - Indies fight to be seen in a new light
UK film companies are waking up to the possibilities of releasing independent films through VoD services (both online and TV).Dogwoof Digital, a film distribution company dealing with independently produced feature films, has announced it will launch the UK's first digital platform from its own website, bypassing the service provider, in ...
-
Features
The International View - Summer's thirst for firsts
I don't think we're ever going to see a summer like last year that was so reliant on sequels and remakes," suggests Fox distribution executive Chris Aronson. "And that's a good thing."It's not that the US film industry or those of France, Japan or India have slammed the door on ...
-
News
Video-on-demand - Right here, right now
In an increasingly on-demand world, video-on-demand (VoD) represents a growing opportunity for film distributors and producers. But grasping that opportunity will mean forging relationships with a new generation of rights buyers and structuring deals that produce significant new revenue without eroding income from established ancillary outlets, especially the vital DVD ...
-
Features
International - Jumper hops to top
With Doug Liman's Jumper in at number one, India's Jodhaa Akbar was the highest non-US entry in this weekend's international top 40, generating $8.1m from 15 territories. The 16th-century love story, starring Aishwarya Rai, catapulted to number four in the chart and played on 1,105 screens for a $7,305 screen ...
-
Features
Video-on-demand - Territory snapshot: Spain - Independent producers search for VoD play
With the leading VoD portals in Spain such as Imagenio and Orange TV striking deals with the US studios to show all their major projects, the smaller Spanish indie films are being squeezed out. But now local producers and distributors are fighting back with their own internet VoD portals.One of ...
-
Reviews
Vantage Point
Dir: Pete Travis. US. 2008. 90 mins.Although it's a thriller based around a familiar, Rashomon-style concept, Vantage Point ratchets up its intensity so effectively that the film's lack of originality hardly matters. The assassination of the US president is told through the perspective of different eyewitnesses, with each variation offering ...
-
News
Greenaway scouting Australia for science-fiction feature
Legendary filmmaker Peter Greenaway will fly over Western Australia on Feb 23 scouting locations for a science-fiction feature film based on his most recent book The Historians Book 39: The Rise and Fall of Gestures Drama.'The book is really a history of cinema rewritten as fiction,' he told Screendaily.com. It ...
-
News
Christopher Hampton to speak at International Screenwriters' Festival
Christopher Hampton, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Atonement, has been added to the high-profile line-up of speakers at this year's International Screenwriters' Festival, to be held July 1-3 in Cheltenham. Previously announced speakers include BBC Fiction controller Jane Tranter, Oscar winners Julian Fellowes, Guillermo Del Toro, Lucy Prebble, Deborah Moggach, Peter ...
-
News
Big Screen Entertainment Group teams with Five Star Picture
Big Screen Entertainment Group (BSEG) has entered a joint venture with Florida production companies Five Star Pictures for the primary purpose of producing feature films in Florida.Over the coming weeks, BSEG and Five Star will be announcing specifics regarding their partnership, which includes over a dozen film projects, most with ...
-
News
Sony Classics picks up I've Loved You So Long for US
UGC International has sold Philippe Claudel's I've Loved You So Long... (Il Y A Longtemps Que Je T'Aime...) to Sony Classics for the US. The film, starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, Serge Hazanavicius and Laurent Grevill, ran in competition in the recently-wrapped Berlin Film Festival where it earned strong ...
-
News
Medb Films acquires rights to Tremain's Sacred Country
Kent-based independent film company Medb Films has acquired the film rights to Rose Tremain's best selling-novel Sacred Country. The option has been funded with development funding from regional film agency Screen South. The film is set in the English countryside, London and Nashville, Tennessee. It tells the story of an ...
-
News
Icon Film Distribution buys Australian arthouse brand Dendy
Icon has acquired the 35 cinema screens in Australia and the distribution interests that underpin one of Australia's key arthouse film brands, Dendy.Becker Group Limited announced the sale today and said it was worth a 'cash consideration' of $19.4m (A$21m). The sale is expected to be completed by Mar 31. ...