Large MPU – Page 1627
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Cannes to open with Almodovar's Bad Education
Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education (La Mala Educacion) will open the 57th Cannes Film Festival on May 12,the event's organisers announced on Friday.At an impromptu press conference called at the Madrid officeof El Deseo on the same day, Almodovar confirmed that he did not plan tocompete with Bad Education at Cannes."In ...
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Barbarian plunders top Cesar prizes
Denys Arcand's The Barbarian Invasions (LesInvasions Barbares) scooped three key Cesarawards on Saturday night in Paris winning in the best picture, best directorand best screenplay categories.The film, which won acting and writing awards at Cannes last year, is alsonominated for two Oscars next Sunday in the best foreign film and ...
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Medem's Basque Ball sparks UK festival funding row
The Spanish government's Instituto Cervanteshas pulled its contribution of funding to the Viva Spanish Film Festival ofManchester (March 18-28), ostensibly over the inclusion of Julio Medem'scontroversial documentary The Basque Ball: Skin Against Stone in this year's line-up.The documentary, a flash of 70 interviewsaddressing the emotionally-charged issues of nationalist identity and ...
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Dates staves off four wide new openers
Despite four new entries in the top 10 none was strong enough tochallenge Columbia's 50 First Dates, which held on to number one in its second week on $21m for a$72.3m running total.Buena Vista's Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen opened a distant second but performedroughly as executives predicted on ...
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Belgium caught in funding war
An angry war of words has broken out among Belgium's regional and national governments over the thorny issue of funding policies for the audio-visual industry.The Walloon regional government unveiled plans this week to allocate an extra BEF400m (euro10m) each year to support the development of a local audio-visual industry. The ...
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Geopolitics set to shape Berlin festival
Against the background of a possible war in the Middle East in February, the forthcoming Berlin festival (Feb 6-16) looks to be shaping up as a selection of films about how individuals and humanity perform under pressure. While festival director Dieter Kosslick's official theme 'Towards Tolerance' may sound bland and ...
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Bangkok festival gets off to spirited, but shaky start
As the 2003 Bangkok International Film Festival (BKKIFF) gets underway this week (Jan 10-21), local hopes that it will become the premier southeast Asian platform for global filmmaking remain high. But a number of late-stage changes to the proceedings have given the festival a shaky start. Among the upsets are ...
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German cinema admissions slip back in 2002
A combination of an ailing economy, inclement weather and the local industry's home-made crises resulted in German admissions slipping by 5% from 2001's record attendances of 163.1m to 154.5m. Box-office revenues fell by 3.3% from Euros954.2m to Euro 922.7m for 2002, according to figures compiled by Nielsen EDI.The downward trend ...
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Zentropa pulls plug on internet outfit Tvropa
The dotcom ambitions of the low-budget mavericks at Denmark's Zentropa have finally hit the rocks.Internet outfit Tvropa filed for insolvency over Christmas after Zentropa and other investors had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on the company, which launched in 2000 with plans to webcast 3-4 minute programmes about movies, ...
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Twilight Samurai scoops top Japanese film prize
Yoji Yamada's The Twilight Samurai has been voted the best Japanese film of 2002 by the Kinema Junpo critics' poll, while scooping five other awards.Considered the most prestigious honor in the Japanese film industry, the Kinema Junpo poll is now celebrating its 76th year. The best foreign film, according the ...
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Koelmels' Kinowelt takeover hits further delays
The takeover saga of the insolvent Kinowelt Group has continued into 2003, with news that brothers Michael and Rainer Koelmel have still not paid over the Euros32m agreed to acquire Kinowelt's core assets.Insolvency administrator Dr. Wolfgang Ott said that payment by the Koelmels' Neue Spielfilm Vertriebs- und Marketing GmbH ...
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Nineteen actors selected as Berlin's Shooting Stars
Nineteen young European actors and actresses have been selected to participate in European Film Promotion's (EFP) "Shooting Stars" showcase of new acting talent at the forthcoming Berlinale from February 8-11.Among them are the UK's Jamie Sives, lead actor in Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself; German Film Prize-winner Daniel Bruehl (Good ...
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Livolsi takes over as Cinecitta boss
Ubaldo Livolsi, financial partner of Rome-based producer Rita Rusic and head of Italian investment bank Livolsi and Partners, has been named managing director of Cinecitta Holding.Last month, veteran Italian director Pupi Avati was appointed president of the state-owned company. Cinecitta Holding is the parent of Rome's legendary studios as well ...
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Italians laugh all the way to box office over bumper Xmas
Italian box office figures over the festive season - the single most lucrative period for the local industry - were up an impressive 14% to Euros78.83m on last year's Xmas results.Importantly, according to local data body Cinetel, homegrown films also beat out stiff competition from Hollwyood (including Harry Potter) to ...
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Fogelson, Hampe join US indie MAC Releasing
Andrew Fogelson and CarlHampe have joined the new US independent distributor MAC Releasing, it wasannounced today (Jan 9) by partners Craig Baumgarten, Andy Gruenberg and MikeMarcus. Fogelson, who arrives from PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, joins as apartner after serving as a consultant to MAC since its inception in May 2002.Hampe, who ...
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DVD market booming in France
DVD sales are expanding rapidly in France according to report from local trade body Syndicat de l'Edition Video (SEV). The report found that DVD sales accounted for 16.8% ($83.6m) of French video distributors' sell-through revenues in 1999 compared to just 2.5% in 1998.In total 4.5 millions DVDs were sold in ...
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Sarasota Film Festival kicks off Jan 24 with Kiss The Bride
The fifthSarasota Film Festival (SFF), which runs from Jan 24-Feb 2 with a programme ofinternational and US independent features, shorts, documentaries, student filmsand educational events, will open with Vanessa Parise's romance-drama KissThe Bride, starringAmanda Detmer, Sean Patrick Flanery and Talia Shire. Announcing the line-uptoday (Jan 9), event organisers said they ...
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Antwone Fisher wins PGA Stanley Kramer Award
The ProducersGuild of America (PGA) will present Antwone Fisher producers Todd Black and DenzelWashington with the second Stanley Kramer Award at the 14th Annual PGAwards onMar 2 in Los Angeles. The accolade was established to honour a producer whose work'illuminates provocative social issues in an accessible and elevatingfashion'. The picture, ...
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Julian Levin's role expanded at Fox
Julian Levin, executive vicepresident of digital exhibition and special projects at 20th CenturyFox, has expanded his role at the studio to encompass non-theatrical sales anddistribution and large screen (70mm) and IMAX presentations. His new title isexecutive vice president for digital exhibition and non-theatrical sales anddistribution.Levin, well-known in theinternational community as ...
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Universal scores powerful 8 Mile opening in Germany
Universal began theinternational roll-out of rap drama 8 Mile in emphatic style over the weekend, grossing $7.3m from 597 theatres inGermany, Austria, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Germany the Eminem starrer took amighty $6.1m from 455 venues. It was Universal's fifth biggest opening ever inthe territory behind American Pie 2, ...