Latest – Page 495
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Features
United Kingdom - There will be blood
It is mid-June in London, and James Corden is sweating in a yellow raincoat as he runs through a foggy forest, carrying a condom full of holy water. Director Phil Claydon calls out his instructions: "Vampire fighting formation, please!"This is the set of Lesbian Vampire Killers. "The title tells you ...
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Features
Viva la republic
Content Republic sounds like a new nation state, but in fact it is a new state of mind about digital distribution.Teun Hilte, who co-founded the company with Michel Peters, explains the concept: "We're licensing films to internet platforms," he says. "For companies like iTunes which have the ambition to work ...
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Features
Deauville Festival of american film - America's french connection
As the summer winds down and the French film industry makes its way back from holiday, the Deauville Festival of American Film has established a strong niche in the industry calendar.A bevy of US studio films as well as independent fare will be screened in the seaside town, which acts ...
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Festival talk - 'Eclectic cinema that pushes the limits'
What are your favourite film festivals'I go to Berlin, Cannes, Pusan and those that I organise. (Deauville's festival programmer) Jerome Lasserre goes to Sundance. I prefer Cannes.What's the blueprint for a good festival'A welcoming town where everything can be done on foot, a policy of assuming cultural choices, a demanding ...
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Features
Flashback to 2007
Live!Dir: Bill GuttentagDist: Pretty Pictures130,207 admissionsWaitressDir: Adrienne ShellyDist: 20th Century Fox41,449 admissionsTeethDir: Mitchell LichtensteinDist: TFM40,237 admissionsBroken EnglishDir: Zoe CassavetesDist: Eurozoom31,061 admissionsGrace Is GoneDir: James C StrouseDist: TFM20,446 admissionsNever ForeverDir: Gina KimDist: Surreal Distribution15,984 admissionsThe Dead GirlDir: Karen MoncrieffDist: ARP15,320 admissionsFor Your ConsiderationDir: Christopher GuestDist: CTV International761 admissionsNo French distribution: Factory ...
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Features
International - Batman battles on
Warner Bros' The Dark Knight's worldwide gross is still ticking off the key box-office milestones, crossing $400m in international markets and $500m domestically.The $1bn worldwide gross is tantalisingly close and the film held on to the top spot of Screen's international chart.The highest new entry in this week's chart is ...
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Features
In focus - Small pond, big ripple
The stacks of recycled business cards are piling up after nearly two years of seismic shifts in the Canadian distribution business. The faces have remained the same - almost all the key executive are still in positions of power - but the dynamics have changed.First came last year's $2.3bn sale ...
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Features
Germany - Partner in climb
German writer-director Philipp Stolzl is famous for music videos for such talents as Madonna, Mick Jagger and German metal band Rammstein, and he directed the video for James Bond theme song The World Is Not Enough.Yes, he acknowledges, he has worked with difficult and temperamental performers but none was as ...
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Features
Festival talk - 'The audience was in for a special moment'
Which festivals do you rate highly and enjoy visiting' On that basis, what makes a strong festival'Of the big festivals, I love going to Cannes and Berlin. You know you are going to see a wide range of new films, and reconnect with many friends in the international film industry.Cannes ...
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Features
Flashback to 2007
My WinnipegGuy Maddin's My Winnipeg is a personal portrait of the Canadian maverick's home town and was originally produced by the Documentary Channel. It had its world premiere at Toronto last year, where it won the Toronto City award for best Canadian feature. In the wake of the festival it ...
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Features
International - Metal crashes top 40
The $34.3m take for The Dark Knight in 62 territories was the biggest story of the week for the international box office. Despite a prohibitive 16-rating, major successes include the $9.8m German debut on 754 screens. The Batman film now has a total of $377.6m.But Toho's Detroit Metal City was ...
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Features
Editorial - The lessons that count
A striking feature of the international film industry that deserves more attention is the willingness of those at the top to share their experiences with those on the way up. Workshops, courses and mentoring schemes are everywhere and, while they vary in quality, they can nearly always draw on serious ...
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Features
Bosnia and Herzegovina - Out of the rubble
Now the most important festival in the Balkans, the Sarajevo Film Festival was launched in 1995 during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It began by screening a selection of films from the Edinburgh and Locarno festivals in Sarajevo's Obala Arts Centre which, perhaps surprisingly given the circumstances, proved very ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Supercharging
You cannot really label B3 Media a film company - there is much more to it than that.Marc Boothe, one of the producers of Saul Dibb's Bullet Boy, founded Brixton-based B3 - which stands for 'Beats, Bytes and the Big Screen' - in 2000 based in a sprawling complex off ...
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Features
Buzz Films - A strong year for Norwegian film is reflected in the world premieres at Haugesund
99% HONESTDir: Rune Denstad Langlo99% Honest is a theatrical documentary based on a Norwegian TV series about four musicians from different ethnic backgrounds who form a hip-hop band. Director Rune Denstad Langlo and producer Sigve Endresen of Motlys produced both the TV series and the film, which will be released ...
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Features
Flashback 2007
The world premiere of Nic Balthazar's Belgium-Netherlands co-production Ben X, about teenage bullying, was the toast of last year's festival, picking up the main competition prize, known as the Grand Prize of the Americas, ex aequo with Claude Miller's A Secret. Ben X also won the audience award and the ...
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Features
International - Kinng reigns supreme
India and China are the hotspots in this week's international box office, with the former's Singh Is Kinng becoming the biggest Bollywood opener of 2008 after debuting in 21 territories, and the latter witnessing Red Cliff break Chinese box-office records - even in a week when the Olympics overshadowed the ...
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Canada - Fantastic Forum
It's sure not your Uncle Walt's Fantasia. Swedish vampires, contagious Spanish cannibals, feudal female Korean crime-solvers and general Japanese insanity have never been a big part of the Disney world, but they are the meat and potatoes (mostly meat) of Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival, the 12th edition of which ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Taking The Chair
The UK film industry can breathe a sigh of relief - it is not losing one of its most experienced producers and financiers, but gaining a friend. As of July, David Parfitt, a producer at Trademark Films and co-founder of the Limelight Fund, has taken over as chairman of the ...
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Features
Feature - Locarno's Latin passion
Celebrating its sixth year, the Locarno International Film Festival's annual Open Doors Factory (August 9-13) has become established as an important co-production event.Backed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SOC), each year Open Doors targets a key region and 2008 is the turn of the lesser-known Latin American ...