All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 154
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International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009 update
More than midway through the 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), there is a clear feeling of relief among industry delegates. Some had feared that thanks to the global economic downturn, even an event as well-established as IFFR's coproduction market CineMart might have fallen completely flat. However, despite a cautious ...
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Fassbender, West and Kurylenko to headline Neil Marshall's Centurion
Pathe and Celador have confirmed casting on Neil Marshall's Roman era Centurion with Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, Hunger), Dominic West (300) and Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) to headline the film. Shooting begins next month on February 22. The script is written and will be directed by Marshall, whose The ...
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High Point Films picks up Dutch hit Winter In Wartime for EFM
Winter In Wartime, the biggest Dutch box-office hit of recent months, has been picked up for international sales by London-based High Point Films. The first market screenings of the film are planned for Berlin next month. The film is proving a minor box-office phenomenon in the Netherlands and attracted over ...
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Holland and Italy threaten to withdraw from Eurimages fund
A potentially serious rift is building at the heart of Eurimages, the Council of Europe fund for the co-production, distribution and exhibition of European cinematographic works. It has emerged that both Holland and Italy are threatening to withdraw from the fund, which currently has 33 members. 'They are unhappy with ...
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United Kingdom - Fresh blood
Is Hammer really "rising from the dead" again' The UK company that made Dracula, Prince Of Darkness, the Quatermass movies and The Devil Rides Out has often seemed on the verge of resurrection. As 2009 begins, it is clear the long-predicted revamp is happening for real. And in its new ...
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United States - Atlantic crossing
Overlook, as any self-respecting horror fan should know, is the name of the hotel in The Shining. It is also now the name of the sales outfit set up by Verane Frediani and Franck Ribiere.The company aims to have a presence on both sides of the Atlantic, and is an ...
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38th edition of Rotterdam opens with plea for Hubert Bals Fund
Rutger Wolfson, director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam made an impassioned defence of the work of Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) at the opening of the 38th edition of the festival last night. The fund, devoted to supporting filmmaking in developing countries, has just received a qualified vote of ...
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38th International Rotterdam Film Festival opens
The 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will open tonight(January 21) with outdoor screenings of three specially commissioned films by Carlos Reygadas, Guy Maddin and Nanouk Leopold. The films will be projected high on the sides of buildings in the city's centre. In Maddin's Send Me to the 'lectric Chair, ...
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Eye on the tiger: Rotterdam International Film Festival preview
When Rutger Wolfson was named director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in autumn 2007, his appointment was on an interim basis. His contract was for only one edition and many expected him to return to his job as director of De Vleeshal, a Dutch centre for contemporary art, ...
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The co-production market - 'We had to Kill a lot of our darlings'
"We want to maintain the exclusivity of being in CineMart and to give more space and attention to the projects," says CineMart manager Marit Van Den Elshout, of the 36 projects being showcased at this year's event.She talks regretfully about having to "kill a lot of our darlings" and to ...
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Lars Bredo Rahbek leaves Denmark's Nimbus
In a surprise move, producer Lars Bredo Rahbek (the man behind Denmark's biggest box-office hit of the year Flame & Citron) is to leave Nimbus after 11 years to take up a new position as Chief of Fiction at state broadcaster DR TV.The move comes as Nimbus appears to have ...
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CineMart announces 2009 titles
CineMart, the Rotterdam film festival's co-production market, has announced its 2009 selection.There are 35 titles in all. New projects from established autuers like Zhang Yuan, Rodrigo Moreno and Pablo Stoll nestle alongside films from newcomers.There are animation films (Alois Nebel from the Czech Republic), dark-themed family dramas and thrillers. Confirmed ...
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In Focus: Film Festivals brace for the recession
As the 2009 festival cycle approaches, organisers are huddling down, hoping the economic storms will pass them by. However, at a time when both state funding and sponsorship for arts events is under increasing pressure, most acknowledge film festivals are bound to be buffeted eventually.'In these times, sponsorship is not ...
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Burma VJ - Reporting From a Closed Country wins Amsterdam top prize
Burma VJ - Reporting From a Closed Country has won the VPRO Joris Ivens Award 2008, the main competition at IDFA (the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam). Burma VJ - Reporting From a Closed Country consists largely of material filmed in secret by a group of reporters during the uprising against ...
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Expose of the Burmese dictatorship win Amsterdam doc award
Burma VJ - Reporting From a Closed Country has won the VPRO Joris Ivens Award 2008, the main competition at IDFA (the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam).The film, described by jury member Bianca Stigter, as 'a harrowing reminder of the power and the weakness of images,' was directed by Dane, Anders ...
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21st IDFAaward nominees announced
The nominees for this year's International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Joris Ivens Award and $16,000 (Euros 12,500) have been announced. Burma VJ - Reporting From a Closed Country by Anders Ostergaard; Necrobusiness by Fredrik von Krusenstjerna, Richard Solarz and Monika Sieradzka; and Yodok Stories by Andrzej Fidyk. In the ...
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Profile - Pim Hermeling
At the AFM in Santa Monica, several Dutch distributors were heard to grumble about the prices being charged by international sales companies for Benelux rights.Nonetheless, there was little evidence the Dutch buyers were keeping their wallets in their pockets. A-Film and Dutch FilmWorks both made major acquisitions of high-profile titles ...
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In Focus: Erik Van Looy's Flemish hit Loft
With 500,000 admissions already posted and the Christmas holidays still to come, Erik Van Looy's Loft is the runaway local hit of the autumn in Belgium. Four weeks after its release on October 22, it had not only outperformed Quantum Of Solace and left Mamma Mia! The Movie gasping in ...
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In focus: Marketing theatrical documentaries
We don't do documentary,' was the response from Wouter Barendrecht, co-founder of Fortissimo Films, when John Sloss of Cinetic Media approached him to see if Fortissimo might be interested in handling a small-scale film about child abuse called Capturing The Friedmans in 2003.At that time, Fortissimo did not handle docs ...
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Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty opens 21st International Documentary Festival
The 21st International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has opened with the world premiere of Renzo Martens' Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty. On the eve of IDFA, international sales rights to Enjoy Poverty were picked up by Vienna-based outfit, Autlook Film Sales.The provocative, Congo-set film explores the emotional and economic value of ...