Latest – Page 509
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Features
United States - Machinima man
"Machinima is a real threat to CGI animation," says Paul Marino, co-founder of the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences. "Within the next decade the majority of animation films produced will be machinima."It is a bold claim, considering that most people are still unfamiliar with the machinima concept. But it ...
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Features
Greece - History in the making
Two unprecedented things recently took place at the ancient Acropolis of Athens. One was the transfer of the marble friezes of the Parthenon to the new museum at the foot of the Acropolis hill. The other was the shooting of the US production My Life In Ruins inside the historic ...
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Features
Portugal - 'Thirty years of contacts'
When details were first announced of the inaugural European Film Festival Estoril (November 8-17) in Portugal, predictably some on the festival circuit were unenthusiastic about another autumn date. Nonetheless, under the direction of Portugal's best-known producer, Paulo Branco, the new event looks set to attract plenty of big-names.Branco was first ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Flying Free
Jonathan Cavendish is in a position most independent producers would envy. In addition to running his own successful production company, Little Bird, with partner James Mitchell, he has served as producer-for-hire on some of Working Title's most illustrious projects.Aware of his track record for piloting the development process and for ...
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United kingdom - Going Ape
Ceri Levy was smart enough to recognise he was in the right place at the right time. He was a long-time friend of Damon Albarn of the band Blur (for which Levy produced the 1994 Starshaped documentary), and Levy was present at the kitchen table when Albarn and Jamie Hewlett ...
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Features
Awards Countdown People - Awards People
STEVEN KNIGHTThe writer of David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises tells Edward Lawrenson about a 'painless' experience working with the Canadian masterAfter 2002's Dirty Pretty Things, which explored the twilight existence of London's illegal immigrants, and Eastern Promises, which portrays the Russian gangster underworld in the city, Steven Knight is well known ...
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Features
Indie India - A parallel reality
Just as the US has film-makers working outside the studio system, India has a whole army of directors and producers attempting to carve a niche away from the vast and all-consuming Bollywood film industry.Theoretically, these film-makers have strong export potential as they are outward-looking, open to alternative financing methods, including ...
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Features
Indie India - The faces of a new generation
RAJNESH DOMALPALLIVanajaRajnesh Domalpalli's first film, Vanaja, won the best debut award at Berlin this year. It has been accepted into 92 film festivals in 38 countries and won 19 awards so far. With world sales picked up by Emerging Pictures, this arthouse film centring on South Indian folk and classical ...
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Features
Promotional Feature - Encounters - Taking the long view on shorts
The 13-year-old Encounters Short Film Festival boasts an impressive range of past alumni. UK film-makers including Lynne Ramsay, Damien O'Donnell and Bille Eltringham all had their first shorts screened at Encounters. And the event remains a major talent discovery hotspot on the industry calendar.Held in Bristol, in the south west ...
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Features
Promotional feature - Films and film-makers to watch
DADDir: Daniel MulloyMulloy has impressed with his emotional shorts. His third film, Antonio's Breakfast, was selected for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win a Bafta for best short film.Mulloy's latest film, Dad, is about a sexually active elderly couple and their disgusted son. Produced by Sister ...
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Features
Documentaries - IDFA - And nothing but the truth ..
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa) (November 22 to December 2) in the Netherlands will celebrate its 20th anniversary in some style with five world premieres in its feature competition line-up and what are bound to be some very heated debates.Among the special guests at this year's event, which ...
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Features
International - Indian winter
Indian films came up blazing in this weekend's international top 40 with two films - Om Shanti Om and Saawariya - together taking $31.5m and accounting for more than 20% of the chart's total revenue.Eros International's Om Shanti Om was the highest earner over the three-day period, taking $18.2m in ...
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Features
Analysis: International box-office - Weekend November 9-11
ANALYSIS: INTERNATIONAL BOX-OFFICE - WEEKEND NOVEMBER 9-11(Last3-dayweek)Film (origin)gross $ScrsCume $Terr1NewOm Shanti Om (Ind)$18,174,6371048$18,174,637172NewSaawariya (Ind)$13,348,401899$13,348,401123NewLions For Lambs (US)$10,339,5612675$10,339,561444(1)Ratatouille (US)$9,291,2843680$388,577,782305(4)The Heartbreak Kid (US)$8,727,0801762$41,255,273236(3)Stardust (UK-US)$5,798,9932327$83,502,885487(2)Resident Evil: Extinction (Aus-Ger-UK-US)$5,436,3201726$79,517,214398(11)Lust, Caution (Ch-HK-Tai-US)$4,998,295782$27,894,056129(15)30 Days Of Night (US)$4,928,8971227$10,986,7921110(12)The Bourne Ultimatum (US)$4,805,582982$195,736,6062511(5)Saw IV (US)$4,056,8371506$32,823,1922412(13)Sky Of Love (Jap)$4,001,120287$11,875,709113(10)Always - Sunset On Third Street 2 (Jap)$4,000,922382$13,676,716114(9)Elizabeth: The Golden Age (UK-US-Fr)$3,983,481966$14,259,089815(17)Le ...
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Features
United states - Fairy-tale project
It has been more than a decade since Barry Josephson first brought Enchanted, Walt Disney Pictures' big release for the forthcoming US Thanksgiving holiday weekend, to the studio.At the time, Josephson was starting out as a producer after his stint as Columbia Pictures' president of worldwide production. So he understood ...
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United states - Dance partners
With its uplifting story and cinematic style, War/Dance has won a shelf-ful of festival honours, including the Sundance documentary directing award, and looks likely to be in the running for this year's documentary feature Oscar.Directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine say the most important beneficiaries will be the children ...
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Features
South Africa - Durban legend
A nant Singh is a busy man. In the US, he has just wrapped production on AmericanEast, his 62nd film and director Hesham Issawi's first, described as "Do the Right Thing for the American Muslim community".In South Africa, Singh is in post-production with the docu-drama More Than Just A Game, ...
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Features
Israel - Rude awakenings
Actor-turned-director Tzahi Grad is a household name in Israel as a star of local film and television. With a reputation as a serious and self-assured actor, he decided to move behind the camera in 2001 to make his debut feature, Giraffes, in order to "control the language of cinema" as ...
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South Africa - On location - Double appeal, half the cost
Filming in South Africa was buoyant before the Department Trade and Industry's rebate scheme - a 15% tax rebate that kicks in above $3.5m of South African spend - was launched in 2004. But in terms of creating jobs and local revenue streams through international co-productions, the rebate is viewed ...
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South Africa - Production - Support for rising talent
South Africa's indigenous films often do well at the box office; the biggest star Leon Schuster's broad slapstick comedies, for example, regularly trounce Hollywood competition. Yet local production virtually ground to a halt last year when the National Film & Video Foundation's (Nfvf) $5.6m (r37m) budget was slashed by a ...
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Features
International - The rising of Japan
A slew of Japanese films made a powerful dent in the international top 40 this weekend, collectively taking more than $13m and accounting for 8.9% of the chart's total revenue.Ensemble drama Always - Sunset On Third Street 2 was the highest new entry over the weekend, taking $4.7m from 330 ...