Latest – Page 515
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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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Vietnam - Stepping Into The World
In 1981, Fay Kanin, the then president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (Ampas), took Cyd Charisse and other Hollywood luminaries on a trip to China.Films including Charisse-starrer Singin' In The Rain were screened and meetings were held with representatives of the Chinese film industry. The trip ...
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Promotional feature - Locarno - Open doors is open for business
"The Middle East is hot right now," says Nadia Dresti, the director of the industry office at the Locarno international film festival. "This year's Open Doors is going to be particularly interesting."Supported by the Swiss Foreign Ministry's Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC), Open Doors is described by festival director ...
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Analysis: International box-office - Weekend July 20-22 - Harry Potter's new world Order
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix has cast its spell on the international box office, raking in a whopping $100.4m across 56 territories. The fifth instalment of the children's series has made an impressive $353.5m to date in only its second weekend. Transformers lagged far behind in second ...
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Industry moves
Yari veteran Katz joins Gill and Sacker ventureRobert Katz has joined Mark Gill and Neil Sacker in their new independent venture The Film Department as president of production. He had been vice-president of production for The Yari Film Group.Purnell takes UK Culture Secretary roleAs new UK prime minister Gordon Brown ...
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Features
Transformers take over the world
Robots ruled the international box office this weekend as Transformers took the number one spot with $47.1m, for a total of $97.2m to date. Michael Bay's blockbuster was up 30% after expanding in an additional 19 territories. A second weekend also proved helpful for Die Hard 4.0, which was up ...
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Industry moves
Woods to leave ausfilmAusfilm chief executive Mark Woods will leave the government partnership when his two-year contract expires in August. Woods, who was previously chief executive of the Irish Film Board, said he has achieved the two-year plan he had in mind when he took the top job at Ausfilm.Overture ...
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Features
Seasons of change
Vin Bhat, the founder of fast-growing New York-based Indian pay-TV service Bodvod, has been celebrating a successful year for Bollywood movies at the North American box office.Hits in 2006 included Kriish - India's first action superhero film - and Dhoom 2, about a malicious gang of Bombay bikers, which grossed ...
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Industry moves
Three join ParticipantFormer ICM chief financial officer Robert Murphy has joined the US's Participant Productions as chief financial officer and executive vice-president. Bonnie Abaunza and Liana Schwarz have joined as vice-presidents of social action, campaign development and operations.Auffret to head AAM's new Paris officeDigital film services company Arts Alliance Media ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Youth movement
Four years ago, as students at Bournemouth University, Paul Taylor and Teddy Leifer knew they wanted to find a film project to work on together. And what a project it turned out to be: their first documentary, We Are Together (Thina Simunye) is backed by HBO and the Channel 4 ...
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Features
Eastern Europe - Festival watch - Karlovy vary
This year's Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 29-July 7) in the Czech Republic boasts a diverse range of more than 200 films, including nine world premieres.Competition titles from the region include Zoltan Kamondi's Dolina, a tale of an isolated town in the Eastern Carpathians, that picked up an award ...
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Analysis: International box-office - Weekend June 1-3
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End continues to hold on to the top spot despite a 52% drop - it raked in $103.2m from 103 territories bringing its total to a whopping $406.4m in its second weekend. Spider-Man 3 remains firmly in second place, generating $12.6m in its fifth ...
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In focus - Festival Buzz - Cannes Talent Watch
Anamaria Marinca and Laura Vasiliu, actors, 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 DaysThe understated, emotionally nuanced performances from the two young stars of Cristian Mungiu's abortion drama helped propel the Romanian title to the Palme d'Or. "The leads never put a foot wrong, giving remarkably controlled and unaffected performances," is ...
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Thailand - Whirlwind Affair in Bangkok
After two high-profile international co-productions, Invisible Waves and Last Life In The Universe, Pen-ek Ratanaruang has returned to his Thai roots with the $2m Ploy, a riff on The Seven Year Itch. The film played in Directors' Fortnight at Cannes, where critics described it as dark, erotic and funny.Ploy follows ...
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Industry moves
CONI TAKES HELM AT 01Adriano Coni has been named the new president of Italy's 01 Distribution, the distribution arm of RAI Cinema. Coni previously acted as chief of both RAI Cinema's marketing and human resources divisions.MEDIA 8 INTERNATIONAL ROLE FOR ANISIThe US's Media 8 Entertainment has hired Tannaz Anisi as ...
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Features
Distribution - A shorts story about talent
Ask any new film-maker why they made a short and they will likely say they wanted to tell a story and to explore their craft. But it is also true shorts act as a commercial for a film-maker's talent - and in the age of YouTube, getting a calling card ...
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Editorial - Screen says - All franchised out'
The nightmare for everyone involved in any creative industry is that one day the ideas will dry up. More particularly for the international market, it is what happens when all the remakes have been remade, the original books and plays adapted, the sequels drifting off into painful repetition.It's a niggling ...
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United States - Prairie Days
Jennifer Lynch's philosophy of film-making' When you're surrounded by fertiliser, "there's got to be a pony".The 39-year-old director knows something about dealing with adversity. Her new $5.5m feature Surveillance, produced by Lago Film and being sold by Arclight Films, is her first since the now-notorious Boxing Helena, which was greeted ...
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United States - The Next Chapter
As befits a public company with offices in Toronto, Los Angeles and Vancouver, there have been many cogs in Peace Arch Entertainment's machinery.For years, the company has operated successfully as a producer, buyer and distributor of feature, television and home entertainment programming, and now it is ramping up operations in ...
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India - Mother figure
Fresh from The Namesake, prolific Indian director Mira Nair is working on two very different projects. She is set to direct the epic $100m Shantaram on four continents for Warner Bros. An adaptation of Gregory David Roberts' autobiographical novel, it is being produced by Initial Entertainment Group's Graham King and ...