All articles by Jonathan Romney – Page 47
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Dutch government extends tax incentive scheme
The Dutch government has extended tax measures, introduced in 1997 to encourage private investment in local film production, for another 12 months. The move is an interim measure until the government develops a new support system in which "film entrepreneurs instead of investors" will be the first in line to ...
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Verhoeven mulls shoot in native Holland
Director Paul Verhoeven, currently in Europe to promote his latest feature Hollow Man, has said he is considering two projects that would take him back to his native Holland: a Dutch-language thriller and an English-language adaptation of French author Guy de Maupassant's short story Mont Oriol.Former Endemol chief Joop van ...
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Dutch industry launches appeal to save Ketelhuis
A group of prominent Dutch film professionals have launched a campaign to rescue the Ketelhuis, the permanent showcase cinema for Dutch film in Amsterdam. Both the Dutch Council for Culture and the Amsterdam Arts Council are opposed to giving the cinema any further support as they have serious doubts about ...
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Belgian box office basks in summer high
Admissions in Belgium reached a record-breaking 2.25 million for the month of July, up 30% from the same month in 1999. This resulted in an unprecedented box office gross of more than $12m (BFr500m).Similar to southern European countries July and August are traditionally slow months in terms of cinema-going in ...
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Start-up outfit F.A.M.E. teams with Becker
F.A.M.E. Film & Music Entertainment - the latest German production outfit destined for the Neuer Markt - has sealed a three-year agreement with Australia's Becker Entertainment to jointly develop and produce a raft of features over the next three years. The first project under the agreement will be Esben Storm's ...
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Production report: HK strives for pan-Asian appeal
The running joke at the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum in April was that the only Asian country producing films of a lower quality than Hong Kong was Macau. The huge success at the Hong Kong box office this year of Nakata Hideo's Japanese psycho-horror Ring ($4m) and Kang Je-gyu's ...
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Swiss culture ministry's film coffers run dry
Switzerland's production community has been hit by the news that the Swiss culture ministry (BAK) has already committed its entire $4.7m (SFr7.6m) annual budget for film production and development funding only halfway through the year.BAK director David Streiff explained at press conference in Berne that the overspend is due to ...
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Tykwer, Szabo secure German public funding
Tom Tykwer and Istvan Szabo are amongst the film-makers to secure cash in the latest round of funding awards from financing body the German Federal Film Board (FFA).Tykwer won funding worth $700,000 for his next feature, Heaven, from a script by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Pieseiewicz. The Berlin-based ...
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Die Unberuehrbare wins big at German Film Awards
Oskar Roehler's drama No Place To Go (Die Unberuehrbare), which had its premiere in Cannes last month as part of Directors Fortnight, was the evening's big winner at the 50th German Film Awards in Berlin on June 16, winning the Best Film award, the DM1m ($494,000) Film Strip in Gold, ...
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Germany's IN-motion plans IPO
Frankfurt-based music and film production company, IN-motion movie & TV productions, has become the latest German media company to seek a listing on the Neuer Markt stock exchange.IN-motion's founders Michael Muenzing and Luca Anzilotti have been key players in the international music scene for the last 15 years, masterminding the ...
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American Psycho to open Fantasy Filmfest
Mary Harron's American Psycho, starring Christian Bale, will be the opening film at this year's Fantasy Filmfest in Germany.The peripatetic festival for genre and thriller titles, held from July 26 to August 23, will tour through Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin. James Wong's darkly comic Final Destination closes ...
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Babelsberg production chief slams German tax laws
Studio Babelsberg's managing director for production, Rainer Schaper, called for changes to German tax legislation during a speech at this week's Media Forum NRW in Cologne.Schaper criticised current laws under which non-German talent is taxed when shooting in the country. Earlier this year, Schaper successfully beat off rival bids to ...
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Arndt takes producer prize at Cologne
Stefan Arndt has been awarded the Producer Prize at this year's Cologne Conference. The Casting Award went to Anja Dihrberg.Arndt is one of four partners, along with Tom Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker and Dani Levy, in hot Berlin production outfit X-Filme creative pool which has credits including Run Lola Run, Life ...
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Media Luna launches joint venture sales company
Cologne-based sales agent Media Luna International Film Sales has joined forces with four German production houses to launch an expanded theatrical sales outfit Media Luna Entertainment (MLE).This week's Media Forum NRW in Cologne provided the backdrop for the launch of the new company which will be managed by Ida Martins, ...
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Atlas picks up Constantin's Harte Jungs
Germany's Atlas International has picked up worldwide sales rights to Constantin Film's latest German box office hit, Ants In The Pants (Harte Jungs), directed by Marc Rothemund.The comedy, about a teenage boy's sexual awakening, is being unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival where it will be screened with English subtitles. ...
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Murdoch buys 34% of Germany's TM3 channel
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is buying a 34% stake in German TV-channel TM3 from Germany's Tele-Muenchen Group for $168m, taking over the operation 100%.Despite repeated denials that he was considering the move, Tele-Muenchen managing director Herbert Kloiber is reportedly selling his stake after repeated attempts to find an audience for ...
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Keil calls for revamp of German funding system
Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg chief Klaus Keil has called for a rethink of the German public film funding system in the light of German media companies' successful IPOs.Writing a guest column for the German daily newspaper Die Welt, Keil asked whether films that that can now be "freely financed at any time", ...
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Downtown picks up Belgium's Molokai
UK distributor Downtown Pictures has acquired UK rights to Molokai: The Story Of Father Damien, which screened last week in London at the "United Tastes of Belgium" showcase (March 31-April 5).Downtown is planning an autumn release for the film, about a Belgian priest on the Hawaiian island Molokai, which stars ...
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Hofer surfaces at BW Film Academy
Former Studio Babelsberg Independents (SBI) chief Arthur Hofer has been appointed artistic head at the Baden-Wuerrttemberg Film Academy in Ludwigsburg. He succeeds Albrecht Ade who founded the academy in 1991.Hofer resigned from his Babelsberg post last month citing the resignation of studio boss Friedrich-Carl Wachs as a reason for his ...
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Naumann cuts Export Union funding
The German Film Export Union's efforts to promote German cinema abroad have been dealt a blow by the decision of federal culture minister Michael Naumann to cut its financial support by $104,500 (DM215,000) this year.The Munich-based promotion agency said in press release that the reduction in the culture ministry's contribution ...