Large MPU – Page 1604

  • News

    Primer claims Alfred P Sloan prize at Sundance

    2004-01-26T00:00:00Z

    First-time director ShaneCarruth collected the Alfred P Sloan Prize at Sundance on Saturday (24) for histhriller Primer.The prize carries a $20,000award and goes to a film that either focuses on science or technology as atheme or depicts a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.This year's jury, comprisingNeil LaBute, ...

  • News

    The Last Samurai races past $200m at int'l box office

    2004-01-26T00:00:00Z

    The Last Samurai added an estimated $30.5m for Warner Bros PicturesInternational at the weekend, raising its cumulative score from all itsterritories to an excellent $205.3m.Inthree first-place finishes, the drama took $428,000 from 50 in Norway, an outstanding$459,000 from 111 (including previews) in the Philippines and $278,000 from 62in Argentina.Ittook $643,000 ...

  • News

    The Butterfly Effect opens top for New Line on $17.1m

    2004-01-26T00:00:00Z

    New Line's thriller TheButterfly Effect opened top at the weekend on an estimated $17.1m, provingstar Ashton Kutcher has the chops for more serious acting away from the comedyroles and his former incarnation as a professional prankster.Kutcher plays a man with theability to travel through time who uses his power to ...

  • News

    Strong Paris sales for Wild Bunch

    2004-01-26T04:05:00Z

    French sales house WildBunch will go into Berlin and AFM buoyed by a raft of strong sales followinglast week's Rendez-Vous De Paris market.Its biggest seller wasPierre Salvadori's Apres Vous. The film was sold to Crystal Films forCanada, Alta Films for Spain, Audiovisual for Greece, IIF for Italy, Atalantafor Portugal, Cinema ...

  • News

    Sundance jury passes over audience favourites

    2004-01-26T00:00:00Z

    If the Sundance FilmFestival has drifted to the mainstream from the margins, no one has told thejuries of the 2004 event. In the keystone Dramatic Competition, the juryawarded its prizes to films that generated little buzz through the course ofthe festival while ignoring the films that caused the greater stir. ...

  • News

    Return Of The King, Lost In Translation dominate Golden Globes

    2004-01-26T00:00:00Z

    The 61st Golden Globes awards onSunday (25) were dominated by New Line's The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The Kingwhich took home four prizes including best picture (drama) and director for Peter Jackson andFocus Features' Lost In Translation which won three including best picture (musical orcomedy).Sean Pennwas named ...

  • Reviews

    The Machinist

    2004-01-26T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Brad Anderson. Spain/US. 2004. 98 mins.The Machinist is a sinister and unsettling psychological thriller which has cult favourite written all over it. It's Donnie Darko meets Kafka, Repulsion meets Safe. Talented US film-maker Brad Anderson (Session 9, Happy Accidents) takes the Cold War paranoia re-invading US society under the ...

  • Reviews

    Maria Full Of Grace

    2004-01-26T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Joshua Marston. US/Colombia. 2004. 101mins.Yet further confirmation that HBO Films is now the beating heart of US independent cinema, Maria Full Of Grace is a riveting portrait of drug mules transporting heroin from Colombia into the US which is as much intense thriller as it is powerful social comment.A ...

  • Reviews

    Open Water

    2004-01-26T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Chris Kentis. US. 2004. 79minsBased on a true story about a husband and wife who were accidentally left behind while scuba-diving 18 miles from shore, Open Water, which played in the American Spectrum sidebar at Sundance, is a bargain-basement scary movie that should more than repay its investment. What ...

  • News

    EASTERN EUROPE Production listings - Jan 26 2004

    2004-01-26T00:00:00Z

    RUSSIAPRE-PRODUCTIONELIZABETH AND KLODIL (ELIZAVETA I KLODIL)(Krug Film Studio) Co-prod: Mosfilm (Russia) Backer: Service of Cinematography of the Russian Ministry of Culture. Adventure film about two 15-year old girls - Russian and French - who run away from their families and go to one of the resorts in the South of ...

  • News

    Eastern Europe production overview

    2004-01-26T00:00:00Z

    For full Eastern European production listings click HEREMost production outfits in the East have hunkered down to complete post-production during the cold, dark winter months after the short and frantic shooting season of summer and autumn.In Russia 2003 was the best year for film production since 1991 with more ...

  • News

    Second UK First Light film awards to be held in Feb

    2004-01-27T04:00:00Z

    The UK's second First Light Film Awards are to be held in London on February 25.The awards are part of a $1.6m initiative launched in May 2001 between UK funding body The Film Council and Birmingham-based Hi8us Projects to give young people aged between 7 and 18 the opportunity to ...

  • News

    UK/IRELAND

    2004-01-26T00:00:00Z

    The UK finally saw a new box office champion last weekend as Scary Movie 3 ended the five week reign of The Return Of The King.Grossing a massive $6.4m (£3.5m) from 418 sites the new life injected into the series by director David Zucker and his cast, including spoof-comedy stalwarts ...

  • News

    Speck speaks up for 'explosive' Panorama programme

    2004-01-27T04:00:00Z

    The Berlinale's Panorama, which opens on Feb 5 with Eytan Fox's Walk On Water, has "a particularly bold, raw and energetic programme this year", according to section head Wieland Speck.Speaking to ScreenDaily.com, Speck cited "such explosive films as Abdellatif Kechiche's L'Esquive which really touches one through its unbelievable energy to ...

  • News

    Merchant eyes Venice festival slot

    2004-01-27T04:00:00Z

    The Merchant Of Venice producer Barry Navidi has confirmed that he hopes to premiere the film at the next Venice Film Festival, which runs from Aug 27-Sep 5."The Merchant Of Venice belongs to Venice," Navidi told ScreenDaily.com from the 15th century villa in the suburb of Mestre where the picture ...

  • News

    Media Luna picks up Panorama pair

    2004-01-26T00:00:00Z

    Media Luna Entertainment has picked up international sales rights for Hilmar Oddsson's Cold Light and Russian directorial duo Olga Stolpovskaya and Dmitry Troitsky's You I Love (Ya Lyublu Tebya) which are both screening in Berlin's Panorama section.Oddsson's contemporary drama, which was the opening film at Gothenburg Film Festival, will show ...

  • News

    Laudadio named director of Rome's Casa del Cinema.

    2004-01-27T04:00:00Z

    Felice Laudadio, director of the Taormina Film Festival and former head of the Venice Film Festival, has been named the director of the "Casa del Cinema", an ambitious new cinema and cultural complex that will be unveiled in Rome in September 2004.The brain-child of Rome mayor and cinephile Walter Veltroni, ...

  • News

    Holy Cross leads sweep of FIPA prizes by Brit shows

    2004-01-26T00:00:00Z

    British productions swept the floor at the awards ceremony of the 17th Festival International des Programmes Audiovisuels (FIPA) in Biarritz, run by former Cannes Quinzaine des Realisateurs director Pierre Henri Delleau.BBC Northern Ireland production Holy Cross, Mark Brozel's debut film about the story of two Belfast families, received the Golden ...

  • News

    South Korean cinema scores record market share

    2004-01-27T04:00:00Z

    South Korean cinema recorded a 53% local market share in 2003 - the strongest on record - according to a report just released by the Korean Film Commission (KOFIC).The nationwide figure is an estimate based on a 49.7% local market share for Seoul (where accurate figures are more readily available, ...

  • News

    CineMedia set to board Becker studio project

    2000-03-14T12:09:00Z

    Aggressively-expanding German post-production group, CineMedia, is in talks to co-produce a $65-75m adaptation of an unnamed best-selling novel, to be directed by City Hall director Harold Becker.The move marks CineMedia's first foray into international feature production and brings the Munich-based company one step closer to its stated aim of becoming ...