All Asia articles – Page 552
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News
Korea's Showbox sells M, Happiness to Japan
South Korean distributor Showbox Mediaplex has announced the sales of director Hur Jin-ho's Happiness and Lee Myung-se's M to Avex for Japan. The announcement comes on the heels of the Korean Film Council (KOFIC)'s latest report on exports dropping by 50% last year, with flat fee and high minimum guarantee ...
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News
Noise dominates Australian critics awards
Noise , a drama about a police officer with a debilitating case of tinnitus, dominated the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards (FCCA).It earned best film for producer Trevor Blainey, best director for Matthew Saville, best actor for Brendan Cowell, best editor for Geoff Hitchins, and best music score for ...
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News
Noise dominates Australian critics awards
Noise , a drama about a police officer with a debilitating case of tinnitus, dominated the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards (FCCA).It earned best film for producer Trevor Blainey, best director for Matthew Saville, best actor for Brendan Cowell, best editor for Geoff Hitchins, and best music score for ...
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News
India's UTV changes name to avoid AIM listing confusion
India's UTV Motion Pictures, which floated on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) last year, has changed its name to UMP Plc to avoid confusion with another AIM-listed company, UTV Media Plc (formerly Ulster Television Plc). The company will be trading under the new name from Feb 4. Its wholly-owned subsidiary ...
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News
Warner Bros taps Oz tax break for next Harry Potter
Warner Bros is set to be the first company to trigger the 15% post-production, digital and visual effects (PDV) offset introduced by the Australian government in May last year. The studio has signed with local effects house Rising Sun Pictures for some of the visual effects on Harry Potter And ...
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News
Strand Releasing takes US rights to Lee's Help Me Eros
Fortissimo Films has announced a slew of sales coming out of the Rotterdam Film Festival and in the run up to next week's European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin. The company has sold all US rights to Lee Kang-sheng's Venice competition entry, Help Me Eros, to Strand Releasing. The Culver ...
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News
Imports gain upper hand at flat Japanese box office
According to annual data published today by The Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (Eiren), overall box office revenues for 2007 totalled $1.87bn (Y198.44bn), a 2.2% decrease from 2006's $1.91bn (Y202.93bn). The figure represents earnings on 163.19 million admissions, only a 0.8% drop on the previous year's 164.56m cinemagoers. The ...
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News
New Zealand box office up in 2007 but no records fall
The $118.93m (NZ$151.74m) worth of tickets sold at New Zealand cinemas in 2007 exceeded the previous year by 3.6%, but fell short of 2003, the country's stand-out year in terms of gross box office. 'All the blockbusters did well in the middle of the year, yes, but business petered out ...
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News
Jeonju unveils African trio for digital shorts project
South Korea's Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) has announced three African directors - Idrissa Ouedraogo, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun and Nacer Khemir - for its Jeonju Digital Project 2008, the festival's trademark shorts troika showcase. The festival provides each director with $53,000 to make a 30-minute short to be put in the ...
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News
CineMart prizes go to new projects from Sophie Fiennes, Liew Seng Tat
At tonight's CineMart 2008 closing night party in Rotterdam, the Arte France Cinema Award for best project this year's co-production market went to The Pervert's Guide To Ideology, to be directed by UK film-maker Sophie Fiennes.The honour also comes with $14,856 (Euros 10,000) in cash. The film will continue Fiennes' ...
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News
Paramount Australia pacts with start-up Transmission
Dendy Films' executives Andrew Mackie and Richard Payten are leaving the company to establish a new Australian/New Zealand distributor, Transmission, that will conduct most of its business through a joint venture with Paramount's local theatrical and home entertainment divisions. The deal was negotiated with Paramount in the US and is ...
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News
Canning, Sherman launch Aus/UK production outfit See-Saw
UK-based acquisitions executive Iain Canning and Australian producer Emile Sherman have launched Australia/UK-based production outfit See-Saw Films. One of the first credits for the new company will be as producer of an English-language remake of writer/director Guillem Morale's 2004 Spanish mystery thriller The Uninvited Guests (El Habitante Incierto).Canning and Sherman ...
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News
Korean admissions up by 3.5% according to KOFIC
Korean admissions increased by 3.5% to 158.8 million in 2007, according toa year-end report by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), contradicting earlier figures released by exhibitor CJ CGV which estimated a 5.5% dip in admissions. However, KOFIC agreed with CJ CGV that the market share of local films was down ...
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Reviews
Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)
Dir: Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath, US, 2008, 87mins.Even by the standards of independent documentaries, Ellen Kuras's Nerakhoon is the ne plus ultra of ultra-marathons. For her directorial debut, the cinematographer spent 23 years with the family of her co-director, Thavisook Phrasavath (Tavi), as Laotions settled in New York ...
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News
Edgerton debut to feature in AFC's IndiVision Lab
The Australian Film Commission (AFC) has unveiled the eight low-budget projects that will take part its IndiVision Project Lab, one of which will be the directorial debut of Kinky Boots star Joel Edgerton. Edgerton's film The Professor is a thriller about a top forensic scientist investigating a family murder-suicide, who ...
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News
Japan's Sun Music unveils details of debut film production
Japanese talent management company Sun Music has announced details of its first feature film production, a drama entitled Yesterdays. The main character will be played by 25-year-old Takashi Tsukamoto in his first leading role. The story follows Tsukamoto's mission to find his estranged dying father's ex-lover, when he slips back ...
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News
Bumper Asian crop set for release over Chinese New Year
Two Chinese-language films, Stephen Chow's CJ7 and Kung Fu Dunk starring Jay Chou, are poised to kick off the first major box office battle of the year with massive pan-Asian releases over the upcoming Chinese New Year. This year, the first day of the lunar New Year holidays falls on ...
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News
Fortissimo adds Son Of ALion, Hold Me Tight to EFM slate
Fortissimo Films has bolstered its slate for the upcoming European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin with two acquisitions. The Amsterdam and Hong Kong-based sales agent has picked up Australian production Son Of A Lion, which was shot in Pakistan by first-time director Benjamin Gilmour. The deal, which includes worldwide rights ...
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News
SPTI seals mobile VoD deal with Korea's SK Telecom
Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) has sealed a video-on-demand (VoD) licensing deal with South Korean mobile operator, SK Telecom. Under the terms of the agreement, a selection of SPTI's films and TV series will be offered on-demand and in full-length to SK Telecom mobile customers via its mobile platforms NATE ...
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News
Mei Ah Entertainment sells BIG stake to mainland investor
Hong Kong producer-distributor Mei Ah Entertainment has sold a 21% stake in local production outfit BIG Media Group to Chinese investor Brandon Wen Rui Feng for $10.3m (HK$80m). Mei Ah bought a 44% share in BIG last year which was diluted to 23% following the placement of new shares. The ...