All articles by Anna Franklin – Page 3
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News
Apollo wraps Russian-US feature
Russian-American production company Apollo Films has just wrapped on its new feature Passenger From San Francisco after nearly a year of shooting in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cyprus, the Crimea, the Greek islands, Moscow and St Petersburg.Producer and director Anatoli Balchev hopes to break into the American market with the ...
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News
Russia's Return racks up pre-Venice sales
Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev's debut feature The Return has struck two international sales in advance of its competition screening in this year's Venice International Film Festival. All rights for the film have already been sold to distributor Lucky Red for Italy and to Frenetic for Switzerland. Moscow based international sales ...
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News
Russia's Return racks up pre-festival sales
Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev's debut feature The Return has struck two international sales in advance of its competition screening in this year's Venice International Film Festival. All rights for the film have already been sold to distributor Lucky Red for Italy and to Frenetic for Switzerland. Moscow based international sales ...
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News
Bulgaria looks to cash in on footloose productions
Bulgarian studios are getting ready to profit from the increase in prices that is expected to accompany the accession of its neighbours to the European Union next year."We see the three years between 2004 and 2007 when Bulgaria is scheduled to join the EU as a window of opportunity," said ...
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News
Warner Bros strikes Russian TV output deal
Warner Brothers International Television Distribution has concluded a landmark deal with three Russian television networks which have agreed to the joint purchase of a package of the studio's top films. The deal was concluded by Russian channels NTV, CTC and Russia (RTR) who will take turns airing the package which ...
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News
Lithuania looks to exploit EU accession
Lithuania, which has lagged behind its Baltic neighbours in terms of film production, is poised to see major changes in advance of EU accession next year. Increased state funding, a new film law and the impending privatization of its state owned film studios all signal better times ahead for Lithuanian ...
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News
Spanish Mystery tops Moscow film festival
The 25th Moscow International Film Festival closed on Sunday night with the grand prix going to Spanish director Miguel Hermoza for La Luz Prodigiosa (The End Of A Mystery) a drama set at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Koktebel a Russian road movie about a young boy ...
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News
Russian films maintain high presence at Moscow festival
The 25th Moscow International Film Festival (June 20-29) has announced its competition line-up with Russian films again making their strongest presence in recent years.Three Russian films, The Stroll directed by Alexei Uchitel, Koktbel directed by Alexey Popogrebsky and Boris Khlebnikov and Petersburg directed by Irina Yevteeva feature in the ...
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News
Polish producer hopes for new blockbuster with Old Tale
While the Polish film industry is still waiting for promised funding from new minister of culture Waldemar Dabrowski to revive the stalled industry, some producers are still managing to make films. Director Jerzy Hoffman who ushered in the era of the Polish blockbuster in 1999 with With Fire And ...
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News
Russian distributors focus on foreign-language films
Russia's box office grew by a stellar 45% last year - and with the chief beneficiaries being the Hollywood majors, Russian distributors are increasingly relying on foreign-language films.Animation and major releases aside, one of the things that characterises the Russian market is the popularity of French films. Thirty-eight French films ...
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News
Russia spawns rival awards events
Russia's new Academy of Film Art founded by director Nikita Mikhalkov has rolled out the first ever edition of its new awards for cinema excellence the Golden Eagles. But the awards which are being touted as Russia's answer to the Oscars have sparked a major controversy as they are competing ...
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News
Polish cinema admissions fall back in 2002
The Polish box office declined slightly in 2002, falling back by half a million compared to 26 million admissions in 2001.Some pundits have blamed the lack of big budget Polish productions for the decline. In 2001 the box office was driven by Quo Vadis with more than 4m admissions and ...
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Reviews
Edi
Dir: Piotr Trzaskalski. Poland. 2002. 100minsPolish Oscar hopeful Edi presents a touching portrait of a man who has lost everything in life yet accepts his fate with a stoicism and respectful courage. The Polish feature debut from director Piotr Trzaskalski, who has spent the past 10 years in Polish television, ...
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News
Baltic producers target Euro co-productions
Film producers in the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are reaching out to their neighbours in western Europe, ahead of formally joining the European Union in 2004. Latvia, along with Poland, became the first country in eastern Europe to join the Media Plus programme in July, as ...
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News
Tallinn Black Nights film fest attracts record admissions
The sixth annual edition (23 November to 8 December) of the Black Nights Tallinn Film Festival joined forces for the first time this year with the Estonian Film Foundation to present two days of new films from the Baltic states during the festival.The Baltic screenings presented the six feature films ...
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News
Vienna to subsidise key arthouse cinemas
The city of Vienna has agreed to subsidise the operation of two historic art house cinemas that were threatened with closure after they ran into financial difficulties. The Vienna International Film Festival has been asked to take over the running of the 736 seat central Vienna Gartenbau cinema, while ...
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News
Local successes defy Polish production crisis
Despite the ongoing crisis in the Polish film industry that has seen the collapse of both production levels and budgets, local films continue to dominate the country's box office Polish productions or co-productions currently account for five of the top ten films on release. Topping the box office is Andrzej ...
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News
Baltic film shines at Arsenals Film Festival
The 16th edition of the quirky Arsenals International Forum (Sept 21-29) highlighted the achievements of filmmakers in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia at the second Baltic screenings, which has become an important part of this festival held in Riga each two years. While the combined feature film production of the three ...
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News
Bodrov Jr and film crew still missing after Russian avalanche
Sergei Bodrov Junior (pictured) and 49 members of his film crew are still missing, one week after a major avalanche hit a valley in Southern Russia where he was directing his latest film.Rescue workers are continuing to search for survivors from the avalanche which may have claimed as many as ...