All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 118
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Swiss cinema continues decline in first half of 2008
Swiss cinema's market share has continued its downward trend, according to provisional figures for the first half of 2008, with local films only clinching a 2.3% slice of the box-office compared to last year's 7% and 2006's record 11.6%.Statistics collated by the industry body Procinema showed that the ambitious animation ...
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Projects by Fliegauf, Alvart, Sax receive backing from German funds
New productions by Benedek Fliegauf, Christian Alvart, and Geoffrey Sax are among 35 projects receiving over $12m in support from the German Federal Film Board (FFA) and Leipzig-based Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung (MDM).At its latest sitting the Berlin-based FFA supported such projects as Hungarian director Fliegauf's first English language production, Womb, produced ...
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Match Factory handles Venice competitors Jerichow, Teza
Cologne-based The Match Factory will handle international sales on two Venice competition titles - Christian Petzold's Jerichow and Haile Gerima's Teza - screening as world premieres at the festival.Jerichow marks The Match Factory's second collaboration with Petzold after his Berlinale 2007 competition film Yella which won lead actress and Petzold ...
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John Goodman, David Wenham confirmed for Pope Joan
US actor John Goodman and Australian-born David Wenham have joined the cast of Soenke Wortmann's adaptation of Donna W. Cross' bestselling novel Pope Joan, which begins principal photography in Germany's Saxony-Anhalt next week.Goodman will play the part of Pope Sergius - the role he had also been expected to play ...
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Locarno to honour Chahine with Destiny screening
The Locarno International Film Festival will pay tribute to the Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, who died last weekend at the age of 82,with a special screening of his film Destiny (Al Massir) on the Piazza Grande on August 7.This film had also been shown eleven years ago at the festival ...
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Locarno adds new films from Francois Rotger, Sean Baker
New films by Francois Rotger and Sean Baker have been added to Locarno's official selection a week before the festival opens on Aug 6 with Brideshead Revisited on the Piazza Grande.Rotger's French-Canadian co-production StoryOfJen, starring Laurence Leboeuf, Marina Hands and Tony Ward, will screen as a world premiere in the ...
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Schmid stirs up Storm with Berlin shoot starting today
Shooting begins in Berlin today for German filmmaker Hans-Christian Schmid's first major international English-language project Storm (Sturm) [working title] with a cast including Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca, Stephen Dillane, Rolf Lassgard and Alexander Fehling.Fox plays a prosecutor at the war tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia in The Hague who is trying to ...
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Studio Babelsberg hopes 2008 will be as strong as last year
Studio Babelsberg is optimistic that this year's operations will generate comparable results to 2007 which was the most successful financial year since the production complex's privatisation in 1992.Last year, the group's consolidated turnover had jumped from $25.6m (Euros 16.4m) in 2006 to $135.9m (Euros 87.1m) last year with a positive ...
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Torsten Koch and Oliver Koppert to head Constantin's distribution arm
Torsten Koch and Oliver Koppert have been appointed as managing directors of Constantin Film's theatrical distribution arm Constantin Film Verleih with effect from Oct 1.Koch, who has been Marketing & Publicity Director for Constantin Film since 1999, will serve as Marketing/Distribution Managing Director for Constantin Film Verleih, while Koppert will ...
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Locarno Critics Week world premieres include Mr December
Locarno's Critics Week sidebar will present four world premieres and three international premieres in this year's programme of creative documentaries.The complete lineup of seven titles is:Apology Of An Economic Hitman, dir: Stelios Koul (Greece), international premiereBill - Das Absolute Augenmass, dir: Eric Schmid (Switzerland), world premiereFour Wives - One Man, ...
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Maire's replacement search to start after Locarno festival ends
The search for a successor to Frederic Maire as Locarno Film Festival's artistic director will be launched once this year's edition has ended on August 16.In response to rumours circulating within the Swiss press about possible candidates for Maire's post, festival president Marco Solari stressed: 'Everything is still open. We ...
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Local hits drive German box-office boom
Thanks to such local hits as Til Schweiger's romantic comedy Rabbit Without Ears and Dennis Gansel's school drama The Wave, box-office takings for German films increased year-on-year by almost 50% in the first half of 2008.While German films posted $ 103m (Euros 64.4m) in the first six months of 2007, ...
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Kinowelt's distribution chief Miros leaves company
Georg Miros, head of marketing and sales at Leipzig-based Kinowelt Filmverleih since 2003, has left the company as of today to pursue new professional challenges.Miros had been responsible for the successful release of such films as Deep Blue, Million Dollar Baby, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The March of the Penguins, ...
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Locarno adds Paskaljevic, Brakni to international jury
The members for Locarno's International Competition jury are now complete with the addition of French actress Rachida Brakni (The Over-Eater) and Serbian filmmaker Goran Paskaljevic to the previously announced line-up of directors Masahiro Kobayashi (Japan), Dani Levy (Switzerland), and Paolo Sorrentino (Italy), and Mexican producer Bertha Navarro.Meanwhile, Argentina's Albertina Carri ...
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Houellebecq to present premiere of feature debut in Locarno
Bestselling French writer Michel Houellebecq's feature film directorial debut The Impossibility Of An Island, adapted from his 2005 novel of the same name, will have its world premiere in Locarno's Play Forward sidebar which is dedicated to all contemporary forms of audio-visual experimentation and creation.The $10.3m (Euros 6.5m) futuristic drama, ...
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Europe, Latin America take centre stage in Locarno programme
European and Latin America cinema will have a high profile at this year's Locarno Film Festival which will open on August 6 with the European premiere of UK director Julian Jarrold's Brideshead Revisited and close August 16 with the world premiere of Solveig Anspach's Icelandic-French co-production Back Soon on the ...
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Jerry Cotton, Flucht Aus Tibet gets top funding from FFF Bayern
New feature films by Joseph Vilsmaier, Margarethe von Trotta, Rainer Matsutani and Maria Blumencon are among the projects awarded a total $10m (Euros 6.26m) by the Bavarian regional fund FFF Bayern at its latest sitting.The largest amount - $ 1.1m (Eu 700,000) - went to Phillip Stennert and Cyrill Boss’ ...
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Switzerland's Ascot Elite picks up 8 titles including Milk and Red Cliff
Leading Swiss independent distributor Ascot Elite Entertainment has announced eight new acquisitions for its release lineup. As part of a strategy to consolidate its market position, theZurich-based company has secured all rights for Focus Features' HarveyMilk biopic Milk, directed by Gus van Sant and starring Sean Penn andJosh Brolin, the ...
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Yerevan plans second Regional Co-Production Forum
Eight features and four documentary projects from Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Moldova, Turkey, Ukraine are being pitched to potential co-producers and financiers at the Directors Across Borders' (DAB) second Regional Co-Production Forum (July 15-17) during this week's Golden Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan.The low-budget projects include the family drama Before ...
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Sasha Buehler moves from SquareOne to Constantin
Film and TV veteran Sasha Buehler is to join Constantin Film's acquisitions and licensing team from Oct 1 after spending the past three years as head of acquisitions for Munich's SquareOne Entertainment.American-born Buehler started her career in the industry in 1990 with news production at broadcaster ProSieben, later working for ...