Latest – Page 516
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Features
United Arab Emirates - Gulf of opportunity
Jon Fitzgerald's career has taken him from Park City to Santa Barbara via the Bahamas and Florida - and now to the Gulf, where he has been appointed director of Abu Dhabi's inaugural Middle East International Film Festival (Meiff).Invited by the Abu Dhabi Film Commission's Abed Awad, Fitzgerald was initially ...
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Finland - The war zone
Marko Makilaakso is a tenacious film-maker. When film school turned him down, he started making his own short films and music videos, eventually establishing an award-winning career.A few years later, when the Finnish Film Foundation refused to fund his debut feature on the grounds it was a horror film, Makilaakso ...
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United Kingdom - East meets west
A chance meeting on holiday set Donal Fernandes on the previously untrodden Estonian route to Cannes.The first-time producer was on a trip to the Eastern European country when he bumped into local film-maker Kadri Kousaar, who was struggling to produce her first feature, Magnus.He had previously met her in 2006 ...
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Industry moves
PPI FILLS KEY POSTSParamount Pictures International has hired new executives in two key territories. Ichiro Okazaki, who comes from BVI, will take up the role of president of Paramount Pictures Japan from September 1. Pierre Auger will become general manager, Paramount Pictures Spain, from December 2007.ODD LOT BOOSTS TOP LINEOdd ...
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The little black book
When deciding where to locate a shoot, the crucial factors might seem cut and dried. What are the tax breaks' Are there decent production facilities' Is there a skilled local workforce' What locations are needed'But such hard-headed considerations overlook an aspect of film-making that has a major impact on the ...
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Locations - 'I've always tried to enjoy wherever I go'
When it comes to hardened veterans of international film production, they don't come much more experienced than Anthony Waye.Executive producer of Casino Royale, he has worked on no fewer than 10 Bond films, and his remarkable record includes working as assistant director on the original Star Wars, The Elephant Man, ...
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Montreal World Film Festival - Second life
Serge Losique is on the phone and he is laughing. The president of the Montreal World Film Festival (Mwff) is not unlike the captain of a storm-tossed ship now entering safe harbour. The distributors who refused to give him films are now providing top titles (see sidebar). The agencies that ...
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MWFF 2007: World competition
WORLD PREMIERES1 Day (Une Journee) (Switz-Fr)Dir Jacob BergerSales Vega Film, (41) 44 384 80 90The Other Side (A Outra Margem) (Port-Br)Dir Luis Filipe RochaSales Madfilmes, (351) 21 325 58 00Ben X (Bel-Neth)Dir Nic BalthazarSales MMG NV, (32) 2 453 03 04The Other Boy (Der Andere Junge) (Ger)Dir Volker EinrauchSales Josefine ...
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Creating the legend
In the next month or so, film festivals in Montreal, Venice and Toronto will debut hundreds of new films. Some will be world premieres; others will be the first screenings outside the country of origin; and still others will be a picture's North American or European premiere.Many of these films ...
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Yellow fever still contagious
Springfield's favourite family held on to the top spot as The Simpsons Movie generated $24.1m in its third week, pushing it well past the $200m mark. Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix trailed behind, taking $23.8m over the three-day period for $548.4m to date. And Disney's Ratatouille continued ...
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International box office - That rising feeling
Japan's overall box-office earnings for the first half of 2007 totalled $778.2m (Yen92.5bn), a tiny 0.7% increase from the same period last year, according to data from Japan's top 13 largest distributors.Toho, Japan's largest distributor, topped the list with earnings of $194.1m (Yen23.8bn), but managed only 75% of last year's ...
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Is the summer market flooded'
The summer box office is an unforgiving battlefield. This year, the pre-season war cry was more aggressive than ever: 2007 would be the summer to beat all summers. Major worldwide releases such as Spider-Man 3, Shrek The Third, Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End and Harry Potter And The ...
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Alternative view - Which local films have withstood the blockbusters'
In North America, the vast majority of non-blockbuster product has not lasted more than two weeks on screen this summer. There have been exceptions, including Universal's Knocked Up and MGM's horror 1408. And there was good news for a few niche movies including Waitress, La Vie En Rose, Sicko, Once ...
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Canada - A catalogue of innovation
An Oscar, two prizes at Cannes, two top feature awards at the Hot Docs documentary film festival in Toronto, the GSM Award for original mobile content and a nomination for an International Interactive Emmy Award: Tom Perlmutter reels off the successes of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), the ...
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Features
Belgium - Sacrifices made for the gods
The news their debut feature Small Gods has been selected for Venice's Critics' Week will have come as a huge boost to the Karakatsanis brothers. Dimitri and Nicolas, who come from a Greek-Belgian background, have not had an easy ride with their movie, which took three years to complete. Like ...
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United Kingdom - Capture the zeitgeist
Film4 is grabbing headlines as its biggest film yet, Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones, gears up to shoot this autumn. It is just one of 12-14 films that Channel 4's film division is making this year - even more that the usual six to eight per year.Peter Carlton ...
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United Kingdom - Straight to Market
In contrast to major film studios, book publishers have been reluctant to use consumer research to trial content or marketing approaches. But that is changing and the new properties emerging through such research could be fertile ground for TV and film producers seeking proven formulas.Children's publishers, with their closely defined ...
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Features
Why buy British'
UNITED STATES'I'm a huge fan of British film' - Tom Quinn, head of acquisitions, Magnolia Pictures"Acquiring films is about what's available on the circuit and giving ample priority to our native tongue. I've always been a huge fan of British film. There's traditionally been a typical type of British film, ...
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Best of British: the Michael Powell Award
Named in honour of one of Britain's most original film-makers and judged this year by an international jury, including Sundance Film Festival director Geoff Gilmore and author Jonathan Coe, the Michael Powell Award carries a cash prize of £5,000. Since its inception in 1993, it has singled out some of ...
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Ecce Homer
The Simpsons Movie held the top spot for a second week as it continues to lay siege to the international box office, driven by a robust $6.9m top slot in Mexico. Transformers, closing fast on $300m overseas, added $30m from 6,118 venues in 53 territories to move into second. Ratatouille ...