Large MPU – Page 480
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News
National Film Board Of Canada hires Din, Van Beusekom
The National Film Board ofCanada has appointed Ravida Din as executive producer of the Quebec Centre andMichelle van Beusekom as assistant director general of English Programming. Din was previously assistantdirector general for English programming and was associate producer on themulti-award winning NFB title The Tree That Remembers. In her new ...
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Telefilm Canada funds four films through Quebec office
Telefilm Canada's Quebecoffice has agreed to fund four projects, including Capitalisme Sentimental, the first feature of writer-director Olivier Asselinsince 1997's The Seat Of The Soul. Three projects will beFrench-language and one in English. Funding is through Telefilm's Low BudgetIndependent Feature Film Assistance Program, which provides support up to$176,000 (C$200,000) per ...
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News
AMPAS elects six new governors including Brooks, Epstein
Six new governors, three of them serving for the first time, havebeen elected to represent their branches on the Board of Governors of theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.The newcomers are Rob Epstein, documentary branch; Mark Goldblatt,film editors; and James L Brooks, writers. Returning to the board after a ...
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News
Babenco to start shooting The Past on Monday
Argentinian-bornBrazil based director Hector Babenco will start shooting his long-awaited ninthfilm, The Past, on Monday inBuenos Aires. Based on thebest-selling 551-page novel by Alan Pauls, winner of the prestigious HerraldePrize, The Past centres on acouple who decide to split up after 12 years. While the man, Rimini, played byMexican star ...
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News
Syntek acquires stake in slate of films from Ed Pressman
Private equity investment company Syntek Capital is acquiring a stake in a slate of filmsbeing lined up by New York-based Edward Pressman Film Corp.Syntek will also acquire Pressman's shares in ContentFilm, as the producerseeks to devote himself entirely to producing. He established the company withJohn Schmidt in September 2001, and ...
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News
Roy promoted to artistic director in Hamptons restructuring
Hamptons International Film Festival director of programmingRajendra Roy has been promoted to artistic director and programming associateJosh Koury will now serve as programming manager/shorts programmer as part of amajor restructuring.Roy will oversee all programming and the entire artistic focus ofthe festival's year-round activities. He will continue to work closely withexecutive ...
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News
Hong Kong action maestros set to draw Triangle
Three of Hong Kong's leadingaction directors - Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Johnnie To - are gearing up to worktogether on an innovative action thriller with the working title Triangle. Each of the three directorswill be responsible for around 30 minutes footage of the $5m film, withoutforewarning the others what ...
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News
Golden Harvest to raise $13m for mainland cinemas
Hong Kong's Golden Harvest Entertainment plans to raise $12.9m(HK$100m) through the sale of convertible debt to fund its new cinemas anddigital screen advertising business in mainland China. Half the notes will be soldto existing shareholder Hanny Holdings while Golden Harvest chairman RaymondChow and another investor, Li Ka-shing, will each buy ...
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News
Giffoni festival competition includes Opal Dream
ElijahWood, Kathy Bates and Anna Paquin are among the guestswho will be attending the 36th edition of the GiffoniFilm Festival, one of the world's leading events for children's films.Filmsscreening in competition at Giffoni (July 13-22) includePeter Cattaneo's OpalDream about a girl who lives in a small Australian opal mining town ...
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News
New Cinema Fund backs Roeg's Puffball
The UK Film Council's NewCinema Fund has given funding to two film-makers at very different stages intheir careers: 78-year-old Don't Look Now veteranNicolas Roeg and first-time feature director PaulAndrew Williams. The fund, which aims tosupport "unique ideas, innovative approaches and new voices," awarded $1.2m (£664,214)of National Lottery funding to Roeg's ...
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News
Arts Alliance takes stake in La Banque Audiovisuelle
UK-based digital film services company Arts Alliance Media (AAM) has announced an investment in Paris-basedLa Banque Audiovisuelle,managers of French video-on-demand (VOD) portal VODEO.TV. AAM also has the option to acquire thecompany within the next 12 months.The deal will allow both companies to further their work in VOD, download-to-own and digitalcinema. ...
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News
Screen, HFF name jury for Hollywood World Award
Screen International and TheHollywood Film Festival have named the panel of international judges assembledto decide on the nominations of this year's Hollywood World Award. The Award, now in its thirdyear, will be presented to the best film in world cinema and presented at theHollywood Awards ceremony at the Beverly Hilton ...
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News
Film Sales Company picks up festival hit Dirty Laundry
The Film Sales Company has picked up worldwide rights to Maurice Jamal'scomedy Dirty Laundry.A favourite at the Urban World Film Festival in New York andFrameline Film Festival in San Francisco, Dirty Laundry stars Loretta Devine asthe matriarch of a small town Southern family whose returning son Sheldonreveals he is gay.The ...
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News
Pirates, Superman take on the world
Now that the World Cup is over, Hollywood's overseas distributors arelooking to dominate the entertainment arena once again this weekend with widereleases for Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Superman Returns.Pirates 2stands at $66.4m after barely one week in release in seven territories andBuena Vista International (BVI) executives ...
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News
Weinsteins launch African American comedy co with RLJ
The Weinstein Company (TWC) has signed a deal with BET founderRobert L Johnson's RLJ companies to create a venture to produce African-Americancomedies.Our Stories Films will launch shortly in Los Angeles with officesin New York City. Dimension Films will distribute all titles theatrically andTWC's home entertainment partner Genius Products will handle ...
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News
Korea's Puchon festival wins back industry support
The 10th PuchonInternational Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) opened yesterday amid signs thatit's winning back industry support. This year's new festivalhead and programming team have been working for reconciliation with the localfilm industry after the ninth edition was widely boycotted over festivalpolitics. Festival director Lee Jang-ho said that being able to ...
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Ascot Elite acquires six new films
Swiss distributor AscotElite, whose forthcoming release of Christopher Smith's horror comedy Severance will be screened as part of Locarno's Piazza Grande open-air programme next month, hasacquired Laurence Malkin's psychological thriller Five Fingers, starring Laurence Fishburne and Ryan Philippe, and Wilson Yip's Hong Kongaction film SPL for Germany, Austriaand Switzerland.In addition, ...
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Kirch set to take over SAT1
The Kirch group is poised to take full control of Germany's populist commercial channel SAT1 in a deal worth upwards of $700m, according to local reports.Kirch is expected to buy the 41% stake in SAT1 which is owned by publisher Axel Springer. While Kirch offered no comment, Springer confirmed that ...
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Reviews
Lady In The Water
Dir: M Night Shayamalan.US. 2006. 110 mins.An unusual setting,eccentric characters and a wry sense of humour partially compensate for asimplistic story and lack of mystery in M Night Shyamalan's Lady in theWater, a film that'sentertaining despite its shortcomings.Many fans of thewriter/director's past hits will find this modernist bedtime story/New Ageyempowerment ...
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News
India's Cinefan opens with Valley Of Flowers
The 8th Osian'sCinefan (July 14-23) held its opening gala in Delhi on Saturday night, followedby the world premiere of France and India-based director Pan Nalin's Valley Of Flowers.A co-production between India, France, Japan and Germany, the film is a love story that spans two centuriesfrom the early 19th century to ...