All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 155
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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 ...
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Media Luna closes deal with Call Girl to Only Hearts in Japan
Cologne-based Media Luna Entertainment has closed a Japanese deal onPortuguese drama Call Girl, a drama about a high class prostitute who is hired to seduce the local mayor.Only Hearts Co. Ltd has taken all Japanese rights to the film, which is directed by Antonio-Pedro Vasconcelos and stars Soraia Chaves. Media ...
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Siritzky gets science with Bogdanov twins
Veteran producer/sales agent Alan Siritzky, owner of the Emmanuelle erotic franchise, is to partner with the controversial French twins Igor and Grichka Bogdanov, physicists best known for their popular TV series on science, on a feature documentary based on the brothers' 1991 best-seller God And Science (Dieu Et ...
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A-Film takes Benelux rights on four-film package from HanWay
Re-energised Dutch distributor A-Film has snapped up a four film package from London-based HanWay Films. The films acquired are Harry Brown starring Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer, Sam Taylor-Wood's Nowhere Boy about the young John Lennon, Christine Jeff's Sunshine Cleaning starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, and Jon Amiel's Charles ...
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Les Plages D'Agnes sold to Zazie for Japan, Cineart for Benelux
As the AFM reaches the midway stage, Les Plages D'Agnes from veteran French auteur Agnes Varda, has been sold to a handful of new territories.Deals have been closed by French sales Roissy Films with Zazie Films for Japan, Cineart for Benelux and Seville Pictures for Canada. A UK deal is ...
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Wild Bunch Benelux buys Boheme, takes Imagine package
Wild Bunch Benelux Distribution, the new Amsterdam-based distribution operation set up by Pim Hermeling, has revealed further details of its initial slate.The new company is a joint venture between Hermeling and French powerhouse Wild Bunch, which has long been seeking to build up a pan-European distribution network. Jan Van Aert ...
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Brisseau's erotic arthouse Aventure defies market blues
In what is by common consensus a cautious market, controversial French auteur Jean-Claude Brisseau is continuing to lure buyers with his crossover brand of erotic/art house cinema. During the AFM, Brisseau's latest feature A L'Aventure, sold internationally by Films Distribution, has gone to the UK (Axiom), Japan (Zazie), ...
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Alcine takes Japan from Rai Trade on Avati pic
In its first major Asian sale of the market, Italian outfit Rai Trade has closed a deal on Pupi Avati's new feature Giovanna's Father with Japan's Alcine. The film premiered in official selection in Venice earlier this autumn, picking up the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor for Silvio Orlando. Deals ...
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Affleck and Alba star in Winterbottom's Killer Inside Me for Wild Bunch
Prolific UK director Michael Winterbottom is to hit the film noir trail with The Killer Inside Me, a $13 million adaptation of a novel by Jim Thompson (The Grifters) starring Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba. Wild Bunch has worldwide sales rights on the film excluding the US which Endeavor ...
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Magnolia scores with The Girl From Monaco for US
Magnolia Pictures has pounced on US rights to The Girl From Monaco, Anne Fontaine's French box office hit which played at Locarno and Toronto this year.The deal was confirmed yesterday by Yoann Ubermulhin of French sales agent Pyramide International.'We are really glad to have our first collaboration with Magnolia on ...