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Conservatives to outline UK film policy at Screen finance summit
Jeremy Hunt, UK shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport, will outline the Conservatives alternative film policies in a keynote speech at Screen International's annual UK Film Finance Summit.Hunt's speech at London's Waldorf Hotel on Thursday will focus on an 'alternative blueprint for a sustainable UK film industry.'Click ...
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UK producer Mark Shivas dies age 70
British producer Mark Shivas has died aged 70 from cancer, it was confirmed today.Shivas was an immensely popular producer who was Head of Drama and then Head of Films at the BBC. He worked with many of the best British directors of his era as well as with several international ...
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The Blue Tower takes top UK prize at Raindance
Writer-director Smita Bhide's feature debut The Blue Tower has been named top UK feature at indie festival Raindance. The Southall-set film stars Abhin Galeya, Alice O'Connell, Indira Joshi in an intriguing cross-cultural thriller.Marcos Jorge's Estomago Rio award-winning melange of food, sex and power took the top international prize.The prizes were ...
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Met Film School launches four new industry degrees
Ealing Studios-based Met Film School has launched four new two-year degrees in film-industry specialist subject areas.The move follows last year's success with an intensive two-year BA in film-making.The new degrees are: BA Film & Television; BA Film & Digital Media; BA Film, Visual Effects & Animation; and BA Film & ...
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Preview: The Times BFI London Film Festival
There is a fierce debate about the future and the identity of The Times BFI London Film Festival (LFF). Stewart Till, chairman of the UK Film Council (UKFC) has made no secret of his desire to see the LFF transformed into a 'bigger, louder festival' with 'more impact on the ...
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BAFTA rejects new best feature doc category
BAFTA has ruled out a new Best Feature Documentary category at this year's Orange British Academy Film Awards.With the growth of interest in the theatrical documentary, some film-makers have been calling for their own award. That sense of missing out has been exacerbated by BAFTA's decision to introduce an 'animated ...
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UK industry gathers for Screen film finance conference
Screen International will bring film-makers and financiers together to consider newly-emerging finance structures and how to maximise funding and commercial opportunities in an ever-tougher market at its annual UK Film Finance Summit. The conference on October 16 at London's Waldorf Hilton comes at a critical time for the independent industry ...
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Ghent Festival honours Richard Jenkins
Veteran actor Richard Jenkins will be honoured at the 35th Ghent International Film Festival with their Special Achievement Award.It will be presented after the Benelux premiere of The Visitor in Ghent, Belgium on Oct 7. Jenkins, along with co-stars Haaz Sleiman and Danai Gurira will attend the screening.In Overture's The ...
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In Focus: How To Lose Friends & Alienate People.
Journalist Toby Young has a reputation for being an obnoxious cad with few likeable qualities - this is a man who brought a stripper to the office on Bring Your Daughter To Work Day. So reinventing Young for a big-screen version of his memoirs How To Lose Friends & Alienate ...
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In Focus: The UK's micro wave
Just as the European Union apparently had its butter mountain and wine lake, since the early days of National Lottery funding for film in the mid-1990s, the UK has supposedly had its own surplus of unreleased movies, spurned by distributors and gathering dust on shelves. The production fever of the ...
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Loveridge joins Eastwest Filmdistribution
International film industry stalwart Helen Loveridge has joined the sales team of EastWest Filmdistribution working out of its London office.Speaking to Screendaily at this week's Zurich Producers Forum, Eastwest's co-founder Sasha Wieser explained that Loveridge will be working alongside the head of sales Alan Rudoff and be responsible for sales ...
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Abbott Vision in talks to acquire Tightrope Pictures
Writer's think-tank Abbott Vision, headed by Paul Abbott, aims to buy out producer Hilary Bevan Jones from her share of their independent production company Tightrope Pictures and rename it Abbott Productions.Abbott, creator of Shameless, aims to expand Abbott Vision through production of new drama and other content, for which Tightrope ...
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First Branchage Jersey Film Festival heralds possible tax credit
The first Branchage Jersey Film Festival (Sept 25-28) kicked off last night with a gala screening of the multiple-festival-winning Man On Wire at the Jersey Opera House.Following the screening, producer Simon Chinn revealed that he isworking on another documentary project with Man On Wire director James Marsh.The festival aims to ...
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UK government won't bail out digital cinema stragglers
The UK government will not bail out cinemas left behind in the switch to digital cinema, Stewart Till, chairman of the UK Film Council has warned.Speaking at Screen International's annual digital cinema summit, Till said public money could not and would not pay for the installation of digital equipment at ...
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Screen opinion: Balancing finance, talent and distribution
In film, we have buckets of creative talent but scarcely any business capacity,' Patrick McKenna, chairman of Ingenious Media Group, told a meeting at Bafta in London this week. This relatively brief aside, specifically about the UK, came during a generally upbeat talk about the prospects for the British creative ...
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UKagencies seize 8,000 counterfeit DVDs and arrest 17
Four UK law enforcement agencies joined forces earlier this week to target illegal immigrants also suspected of producing and selling counterfeit DVDs. The agencies seized 8,000 counterfeit DVDs, including current cinema release Tropic Thunder and the yet to be released Death Race.17 Chinese nationals were arrested on suspicion of immigration ...
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UK's independent film sector still failing, warns Ingenious Media boss
Ingenious Media chairman Patrick McKenna has warned that UK film lacks the business model to match a wealth of creative talent.Delivering the Annual Television Lecture at BAFTA, the entrepreneur and financier, warned that film was stuck in the same rut identified five years ago in a highly-critical select committee report ...
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High Point takes on Pieter van Hees' debut horror Left Bank
High Point Films has taken on world rights outside of Benelux to Pieter van Hees' debut feature Left Bank.The psychological horror film, in the vein of Rosemary's Baby and The Wicker Man, is about a young athlete who moves into her new boyfriend's disturbing apartment block.The film showed in Edinburgh, ...
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Speech: Ingenious boss Patrick McKenna on the digital future
Ingenious chairman Patrick McKenna has spent 30 years on the finance and business side of the UK film and television industries. His BAFTA Annual Television Lecture looks at the landscape for the creative sector in a rapidly changing business environment.I'd like to discuss four interconnected subjects but in no particular ...
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BBC Films says it's 'business as usual' despite Tranter's move
BBC Films contends it will be 'business as usual' despite the news earlier this week that BBC Head of Fiction Jane Tranter will leave the UK to join BBC Worldwide in Los Angeles next January.Joe Oppenheimer, Executive Producer BBC Films, said day-to-day operations at BBC Films wouldn't be impacted by ...