All articles by Francoise Meaux Saint Marc – Page 10
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French films slide to less than 30% market share
French cinema's national pride took a dent last year as local films' box office share dipped under the symbolic 30% mark.The fall from 1999's market share of 32.4% came despite a buoyant market. The French box-office rang up 163m tickets, the highest cinema attendance in ten years with the exception ...
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StudioCanal, RAI confirm Italian partnership
France's StudioCanal has finalised the long sought after Italian link in its European theatrical distribution chain, unveiling a partnership with RAI Cinema, the start-up film arm of public broadcaster RAI.The two partners will hold equal shares in the company, which is expected to complete StudioCanal's international distribution network. The operation ...
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Gaumont, Pathe merge exhibition interests
French film groups Gaumont and Pathe - headed respectively by brothers Nicolas and Jerome Seydoux - are forming a joint venture to house their exhibition interests, EuroPalaces, which will be 66% owned by Pathe and 34% by Gaumont.The new combine, which will be chaired by Pathe/Chargeurs' Eduardo Malone, will operate ...
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Chabrol awarded France's Prix Louis-Delluc
Claude Chabrol's latest opus Nightcap (Merci Pour Le Chocolat) has won France's coveted Prix Louis-Delluc, while Laurent Cantet's Sundance title Human Resources has been awarded the Louis-Delluc prize for a first film.Other contenders included Dominik Moll's Cannes sensation Harry, Un Ami Qui Vous Veut Du Bien, Jean-Pierre Denis' Les Blessures ...
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Investors warm to Vivendi Universal
After a 1.6% fall on their first day of trading mostly due to technical arbitrages, Vivendi Universal shares livened up a flat French stock market on Tuesday (Dec 12), opening at Euros75.25, for a 1.69% gain.The bullish trend - helped by the fact that Vivendi Universal opened up 3% at ...
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French broadcast quotas not affected by EU Treaty
France managed to hold on to its broadcast quotas in the Nice Treaty finally signed by the 15 member states of the European Union on Monday (Dec 11).France, which has been striving to protect what it describes as the European Union's "cultural diversity", successfully retained its veto on decisions affecting ...
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Canal shareholders back birth of Vivendi Universal
The final pieces of financing have fallen into place on Thomas Vinterberg's eagerly-awaited new project It's All About Love, his first since acclaimed Dogme title The Celebration, with France's Slot Machine and Sweden's Memfis Film boarding as co-producers, and Japan's Shochiku pre-buying Japanese rights.The $10m English-language science-fiction love fable, originated ...
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Vivendi, Seagram shareholders rubberstamp merger
A cheering crowd of 10,000 Vivendi shareholders, gathered beneath the pyramid at the Louvre museum in Paris, approved the company's three-way merger with Universal Studios owner Seagram and Canal Plus by a massive 95%. Seagram's shareholders had previously voted the merger by a 90.4% majority. Canal Plus' shareholders are meeting ...
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TPS losses to amount to $502m at year-end
French digital pay-TV platform Television Par Satellite (TPS) has announced that it has reached the one million subscribers mark, but that it will also have accumulated losses of $502m (FFr3.7bn) by the end of this year. TPS - which is backed by terrestrial broadcasters TF1, M6 and France Television as ...
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Canal Plus delays shareholder vote on merger
France's Canal Plus has postponed a shareholder vote on its three-way merger with Vivendi and Seagram for three days from December 5 to 8, for "technical reasons". Vivendi and Seagram will still hold their shareholder meetings as planned on December 5.In the last few weeks there have been several last-ditch ...
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TF1, Pathe discuss merging film divisions
Leading French broadcaster TF1 and film group Pathe are in talks to merge part of their film activities, in a move that is seen as a response to rival Canal Plus' strength in the film rights arena, and its impending merger with Vivendi and Universal Studios. The companies said in ...
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De Hadeln answers critics at Strasbourg Forum
Moritz de Hadeln, outgoing Berlin International Film Festival chief, rebuffed criticism that Germany's leading film event has become dominated by US films as he picked up a tribute award for services to European cinema at the European Film Forum of Strasbourg (November 9-14). In his acceptance speech, de Hadeln argued ...
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Vivendi Communication rings up 70% growth
Ahead of its merger with Seagram and Canal Plus, French media and utilities giant Vivendi has reported a 70% hike in sales at its media and phone unit - Vivendi Communication - to Euros9.4bn, in the first nine months of 2000.The figure includes, for the first time, Canal Plus' contribution ...
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Billy Elliot provokes outcry with Strasbourg win
UK hit Billy Elliot sparked controversy at the European Film Forum of Strasbourg after it won the pan-European distribution support prize despite already being guaranteed a wide European release by powerhouse distributor UIP.The UK entry's triumph was met with anger and surprise from rivals. One pointed out that, according to ...
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Don Quixote tilts towards insurance nightmare
Terry Gilliam's $32m The Man Who Killed Don Quixote looks set to become one of European cinema's most costly insurance cases, now that some insurers have decided to no longer cover the troubled production.Quixote, which started shooting September 26 in Navarra and Aragon in the North of Spain, has been ...
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StudioCanal cinema revenues up 91%
StudioCanal has reported that turnover from cinema-related activities increased by 90.5% in the nine months to September 31 to Euros236.6m, compared to Euros124.2m during the same period last year. The growth was mainly due to German distribution arm Tobis which contributed Euros24.1m and French distribution subsidiary Bac Distribution, which contributed ...
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Houston's Angel takes flight with Noe
French production company Noe Productions is developing an adaptation of Canadian novelist Nancy Houston's The Mark Of The Angel, set to star French actress Elsa Zylberstein, who optioned the novel.Noe's president Frederique Dumas is currently in talks with US and UK partners to join the English-language project which the UK's ...
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Billy Elliot nominated for European Cinema award
Stephen Daldry's Billy Elliot is one of 15 European titles competing for a $130,000 (FFr1m) prize at the 5th edition of the Forum of European Cinema to be held November 9-14 in Strasbourg. The award - doled out by French film industry support organisation CNC - is intended to support ...
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CNC slaps fine on UGC over loyalty pass
French film industry watchdog, the CNC, has fined UGC $198,000 (FFr1.5m) because the exhibitors' controversial loyalty card scheme breaches its regulatory code.The UGC pass allows cinema-goers to see an unlimited number of films for FFr98 a month with a minimum subscription period of one year. The CNC argues that cinema ...
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Bac desires Wenders, plans DVD release
French distributor-exhibitor Bac Majestic has acquired all French rights to selected Wim Wenders titles from the German film-maker's own production company Road Movies. Bac, which plans to release the titles on DVD during 2001, is also in talks to acquire Wenders' Paris Texas and Wings Of Desire from the French ...