Large MPU – Page 274
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News
Pressman & Schmidt team to form ContentFilm
Veteran producer Edward R Pressman and John Schmidt, a former partner in October Films, have teamed up to form a new company called ContentFilm which plans to finance, produce and arrange distribution on an initial slate of 12 to 15 features to be shot mainly on digital video with budgets ...
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Strand buys two for US - Hush! & Lan Yu
Marcus Hu and Jon Gerrans' Strand Releasing has acquired US rights to two Asian films - Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan's latest picture Lan Yu and Japanese director Hashiguchi Ryosuke's romantic comedy Hush!Lan Yu is set in Beijing just before the Tiananmen Square revolt and tells the story of the ...
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LA Film Fest moves to June, goes international
Independent Feature Project (IFP)/West is moving the Los Angeles Film Festival away from its April timeslot to June and has earmarked June 21-29 for next year's event. In addition, Rachel Rosen, most recently associate director of the San Francisco International Film Festival, has been named director of programming for the ...
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Willi Geike gets expanded role at Warner Germany
Willi Geike, the well-respected head of Warner Bros' theatrical operations in Germany has been promoted and will now also oversee the home video unit for Germany and Austria. His newly created position is vice president & managing director, Warner Bros Pictures Germany and Warner Home Video, Germany & Austria.His expanded ...
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Sony Classics takes North America on Secret Ballot
Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has bought North American rights to Secret Ballot (Raye Makhfi), the Iranian film written and directed by Babak Payami which won the Best Director award at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday. SPC acquired the title from Celluloid Dreams, the prolific French sales company which has ...
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Reviews
Training Day
Dir: Antoine Fuqua. US. 2001. 123min. The essential narrative of Training Day, Antoine Fuqua's gritty, highly-intense crime policier, is quite familiar from other genre films, but there's no doubt that it's his most satisfying and technically accomplished picture to date. Cast as a corrupt cop for the first time in ...
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Reviews
Quitting
Directed by Zhang Yang. China. 2001. 118min.Having one major national hit, Spicy Love Soup (1997), behind him and an international fest favourite, Shower (1999), confirming his talent, Zhang Yang is considered one of the most promising talents to come out of China in recent years. Quitting, a powerful docu-drama tracing ...
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International titles stoke hot box office weekend
The weekend saw a host of titles, and especially local films, performing exceptionally well at the international box office. The Others in Spain, Musa: The Warrior in South Korea, Der Schuh Des Manitu in Germany as well as Moulin Rouge in the UK, all point to a healthy year for ...
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News
Hedwig takes top honours at Deauville
Hedwig And The Angry Inch has won the international critics' prize at the Deauville Festival of American cinema. Hedwig beat 10 other films to the prize, which is open only to independent films. The festival's jury prize went to Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World which stars Steve Buscemi and Thora Birch. ...
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Denmark's Trust Film Sales gets Manic
American newcomer Jordan Melamed's Manic has been picked up by Denmark's Trust Film Sales, which is now presenting the film at Toronto. The tough drama starring Don Cheadle (Swordfish) and Joseph Gordon-Lewitt, deals with a young man trying to cope in a juvenile mental institution, where he encounters a group ...
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News
One Night The Moon tops Oz AWGIES
One Night The Moon, a 55-minute musical that has been picked up by Dendy Films for a local theatrical release on November 8, won the major gold award of the night at the annual Australian Writers Guild Awards (AWGIES) on Saturday September 8. Writers John Romeril and Rachel Perkins also ...
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News
RTL TV signs up with Constantin for distribution
Germany's RTL Television, has signed a theatrical distribution deal with Constantin Film for Germany and Austria. The deal, which comes into force from the beginning of next year, will cover up to 10 titles annually, with RTL covering p&a costs and Constantin handling physical distribution.RTL Group has long been keen ...
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News
UK cinema admissions rise 2.5% in 2nd quarter
Second quarter UK cinema admissions have risen by 2.5% over the same period in 2000, according to according to data from government agency National Statistics.Admissions hit 32.2m over the second quarter, which was significantly bolstered by the success of the early-summer season release of Bridget Jones's Diary, which has earned ...
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News
Private investors acquire Winstar TV & Video
A group of private investors has acquired Winstar TV & Video it was announced by president, Al Cattabiani. The company was previously owned by Winstar New Media, a division of Winstar Communications, a publicly traded broadband services company."We're delighted to have closed the sale," Cattabiani said. "As an independent ...
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News
New Brazilian film body to implement tax policies
A new Brazilian film industry body, the Agencia Nacional de Cinema (ANCINE) was established by president Fernando Henrique Cardoso on Friday September 9, to oversee the implementation of his new film policies for the Brazilian audiovisual industry, many of which impose additional costs on foreign imports.An official ceremony is scheduled ...
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News
Podeswa to direct Fugitive for Lantos
Canadian producers are back in the saddle, putting forward a raft of new projects as the chill placed on feature production by the threat of a SAG strike passes. The possibility of a strike by US actors boosted production in Canada in the first half of the year but dampened ...
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News
Lot 47 acquires US rights to Inuit film Atanarjuat
Lot 47 Films has acquired US rights to the highly acclaimed Inuit film Atanarjuat - The Fast Runner directed by Zacharias Kunuk. The first film ever written in the Inuit language, Atanarjuat won the Camera d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and has played in the Edinburgh, Telluride and ...
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Toronto deals: Miramax close to Sun, Soldiers
Before coming to an abrupt halt, buying was hotting up at the Toronto International Film Festival with Miramax Films close to buying worldwide rights on Walter Salles' Behind The Sun and closing in domestic rights to Gregor Jordan's Buffalo Soldiers. Meanwhile Sony Pictures Classics is circling Jill Sprecher's ensemble piece ...
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Reviews
Last Wedding
Dir: Bruce Sweeney. Canada. 2001. 100minsWriter-director Bruce Sweeney covers well-trodden territory in Last Wedding, a sour reflection on modern love that gathers attitude and edge as it gradually darkens from light comedy to bitter farce. Focusing on three Vancouver couples, it observes the decline and fall of their relationships with ...
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Reviews
Buffalo Soldiers
Dir: Gregor Jordan. UK/USA. 2001. 94mins"When there is peace, the warlike man attacks himself." The Friedrich Nietzsche quote provides the philosophy behind a biting black comedy exploring the military state of mind when the awful pressures of waging war are replaced by the dangerous tedium of keeping peace. The second ...