Large MPU – Page 3251
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News
Silence Is Golden tops prizes at Rushes Soho Short Festival
The ninth Rushes Soho Short Film Festival ended its week-long event last night in London, with the Ascent Media Short Film Award going to Chris Shepherd's Silence Is Golden. The runners up in that category were James Larkin's Interior Bedsit Day and Simon Ellis' Soft. The Era Animation Award went ...
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Editorial opinion: the gathering storm
By feeding the studios' hunger to greenlight every half-baked idea they possess, financiers are surely contributing to an even bigger cataclysm, argues Colin Brown.The US film industry is just months away from another talent strike. Unless there's a dramatic breakthrough in the studios' rancorous negotiations with the Writers Guild of ...
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Comic-Con: geek power
The desire to tap into Comic-Con's powerful nerd demographic is luring Hollywood to the San Diego event - at the expense of ShoWest. Jeremy Kay reports. The flurry of key studio casting announcements on 2008 tentpoles that emanated from Comic-Con last week will have been closely monitored by industry watchers. ...
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Liberty buys stake in Sony's Game Show Network
Liberty Digital, a subsidiary of the US' Liberty Media Corp, is acquiring a 50% stake in Sony Pictures Entertainment's (SPE) Game Show Network (GSN) for $275m. The two partners said they are joining forces to create what they describe as "the first game-based interactive TV network." The deal is expected ...
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Britdoc: international incidents
This year's Britdoc festival underlined why UK documentary film-makers are turning to the international market. Wendy Mitchell reports. Oxford's Britdoc festival hopes to distinguish itself from other UK festivals by setting its sights on the international market for feature documentaries. This year's event (July 25-27), with increased ranks of US ...
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Amitabh Bachchan: Indian summer
Bollywood idol Amitabh Bachchan tells Chris Evans why his days of singing and dancing are behind him as more challenging roles beckon. 'The Indian economy is opening up and as a result the country's culture, food, dress and industry are suddenly becoming very attractive. Investment is coming from all parts ...
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Features
Canada - Ten years in the making
On September 14, Jan Miller's baby turns 10. Strategic Partners (SP), the co-production market she founded in 1998 will begin a new decade.Based in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada as an adjunct of the Atlantic Film Festival, the three-day event has developed a reputation as a no-nonsense destination for producers ...
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Features
Industry moves
MURRELL ELECTED TO HEAD BENEVOLENT FUNDThe UK-based Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund (Ctbf) has elected David Murrell as its president. He joined the Ctbf council in 2000 and had been vice-president since last year.WAILES MOVES TO VERTIGO SALESVertigo Films has hired Michael Wailes in its head of sales post. He ...
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Middle East in the Midwest
As a slew of Iraq-themed films are readied for wide US theatrical release, Patrick Z McGavin talks to two film-makers about the appetite for the subject among financiers and audiences. After the breakout success of his second feature, The Illusionist, director Neil Burger had an enviable freedom when choosing his ...
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Gary Tam: touching the sun
Composer-turned-director Gary Tarn is breaking new ground with his approach to film-making. He talks to Chris Evans about his first film, Black Sun, and the dangers of his next project. 'I had to film in Beirut through the tinted window of a bulletproof car. It was eerie, as all around ...
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Margery Bone: contenders shift stage to screen
Margery Bone is using her contacts in theatre to develop new talent and feature projects. Wendy Mitchell reports. Producer Margery Bone knows first-hand how one career can morph into another. She started as an actress in her teens and 20s before moving into producing shorts and features.And now she is ...
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Film investment: bursting with cash
The global film business is being revolutionised as billions of dollars of bank finance pours into the sector. Richard Brass explores why institutions are more willing to embrace risk, and asks banking luminaries whether they are taking on too muchThe dramatic developments in film financing over the last few years ...
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'Our focus now is much more on the slate facilities' - Anthony Beaudoin on film financing
The global film business is being revolutionised as billions of dollars of bank finance pours into the sector. Anthony Beaudoin, senior vice-president and manager, film finance, Bank of Ireland, gives Richard Brass his assessment.Until four years ago, the Bank of Ireland had no involvement at all in the film industry, ...
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'Right now, there's a perfect storm in film' - Laura Fazio on film financing
The global film business is being revolutionised as billions of dollars of bank finance pours into the sector. Laura Fazio, formerly managing director and North American group head for corporate finance and origination's media industry practice, Dresdner Kleinwort, gives Richard Brass her assessment of the situationOne name close to the ...
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Total Film Group buys Nebenzal's Lion Cult
Gerald Green's LA-based production outfit Total Film Group has acquired film rights to Harold Nebenzal's third novel The Lion Cult, a thriller set in Zurich about a group of foreign companies who all share a lake-front mansion who are thrust into danger by the greed of competing cartels, Swiss banks ...
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'There's only a handful of banks now that are willing to do the smaller deals' - Adrian Ward on film financing
The global film business is being revolutionised as billions of dollars of bank finance pours into the sector. Adrian Ward, vice-president of the entertainment, sports and media group, Israel Discount Bank, gives Richard Brass his assessment.Not every film financier is abandoning the single-picture deal and piling into multi-picture slate deals ...
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Bourne to run
The Bourne series was one of the first major productions to put its international financing structure on screen. As Universal gears up for the global roll-out of The Bourne Ultimatum, John Hazelton explores the benefits of such globe-trotting. Even for an international man of mystery, Jason Bourne really gets around. ...
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Bollywood box-office: for better or for worse
Why are Bollywood distributors optimistic despite recent local flops' Udita Jhunjhunwala reports.India has seen a slow start to 2007 despite earlier predictions from the Indian film industry of a buoyant first six months. 2006 was the most successful year in a decade for Hindi films in the territory and while ...
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Features
Crowds flock to Bart exhibition
The Simpsons Movie raked in the international doh! this weekend as Fox's much-awaited film opened with $82.5m over the three-day period. The Springfield gang amassed a total of $96.8m across 71 territories on 5,527 screens for a whopping $14,925 average. The fifth Harry Potter instalment slipped by 51% to second ...
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Bergman and Antonioni: through a lens darkly
Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni both challenged audiences and understood the power of film, saysLen KladyEarlier this week a US television commentator, in marking the passing of Ingmar Bergman, referred to him as the greatest film-maker of all time. He didn't use any qualifiers and his tone evinced not the ...