All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 141
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Germany's Schlingensief starts feature about Princess Di
German"enfant terrible" Christoph Schlingensief has grabbed the headlinesonce again, this time with the announcement that he plans to make a featurefilm about the last hour in the life of Diana, Princess of Wales. Speaking toGermany's leading tabloid Bildjust two days before the ninth anniversary of Diana's tragic death in Paris, ...
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Promising Romanian director killed in road crash
The Romanian film industry was in shock this weekend on hearing the news that director Cristian Nemescu, one of its most promising young filmmakers, had been killed in a traffic accident in Bucharest early on Friday morning.A graduate of the Romanian National Academy of Drama, 27-year-old Nemescu had directed several ...
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Tanovic lines up first feature shot in his Bosnian homeland
Oscar-winning Bosnian director Danis Tanovic (No Man's Land) is planning his firstBosnian-shot film.The project is an adaptation of Croatianjournalist Ivica Djikic'sdebut novel Circus Columbia. Speaking after presenting his secondfeature Hell at the Sarajevo FilmFestival, Tanovic explained that fellow Bosnian directorDino Mustafic (whose feature debut Remake appeared in 2003) had intended ...
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Tanovic lines up first feature set in his Bosnian homeland
Oscar-winning Bosnian director Danis Tanovic (No Man's Land) is planning his firstBosnian-set film.The project is an adaptation of Croatianjournalist Ivica Djikic'sdebut novel Circus Columbia. Speaking after presenting his secondfeature Hell at the Sarajevo FilmFestival, Tanovic explained that fellow Bosnian directorDino Mustafic (whose feature debut Remake appeared in 2003) had intended ...
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Onoma takes on sales for Ferenc Torok's Overnight
French sales company Onoma International has taken on the world sales forHungarian filmmaker Ferenc Torok'snew film Overnight.The project has been shooting in Budapest since July 14 and will be moving to Germany on Aug 30 before a final stage of shooting in Bombay.Overnightis the final film in Torok's trilogy about ...
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Beta Cinema on board for Quinn's 32A
Germany's BetaCinema has taken on world sales for Marian Quinn's bittersweet comedy 32A which is now in principalphotography in Ireland. The film, about 13-year-old girls in 1979 Dublin, starsthe director's brother Aidan Quinn along with Ailish McCarthy, Orla Brady,Jared Harris, Sophie Jo Wasson, Orla Long and Riona Smith.The$1.9m (Euros 1.5m) ...
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Constantin sales up 25% in first half of 2006
German producer-distributor Constantin Film generated sales of $159m (Euros 124m) inthe first six months of 2006, an increase of 25% over the same period in 2005,and remains on track for its planned sales target of $321m (Euros 250m) for thefull year.The increased sales volumewas largely achieved with the Constantin Group's ...
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Intertainment settles legal battle with Samaha, Franchise
Germanlicence trader Intertainment has settled its longstanding legal battle withElie Samaha, former chief executive of Franchise Pictures, and productioncompany Sidonian Holdings (formerly Glickson Investments International).TheMunich-based company had been forced into insolvency after failing to recoupdamages of $121.7m awarded by a court against Samaha, Franchise Pictures andSidonian and 15 further production ...
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Match Factory takes on Venice competitor Euphoria
Cologne-basedThe Match Factory has picked up world sales rights for the Venice competitiontitle Euphoria by Russian writer-directorIvan Vyrypaev. Theromantic drama produced by Russia's First Movie Partnership is Vvrypaev'sfeature debut and won a special diploma at the Kinotavr Open Russian FilmFestival in Sochi at the beginning of June, where it had ...
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Deckert gets Swiss documentary Zeit Des Abschieds
Deckert Distribution has picked up world rights for Mehdi Sahebi's documentary Zeit Des Abschieds, which had its world premiere in Locarno's Critics Week sidebar last week and won the SRG SSR idee suisse Prize. The film, which charts the last months in the life of AIDS victim dying of ...
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Locarno gives Golden Leopard to Das Fraeulein
AndreaStaka's fiction feature debut Das Fraeulein has become the first Swiss film to win Locarno'sGolden Leopard in more than 20 years, since the top honour went to Fredi M.Murer's Hoehenfeuer in 1985. TheSwiss-German co-production between Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion and QuinteFilm of Staka's drama about three women coping with life far ...
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Frederic Maire already looking forward to 60th Locarno
With his firstedition as artistic director coming to a close on Saturday (Aug 12), Locarno's Frederic Maire isalready looking ahead to the festival's 60th anniversary in 2007.Speakingexclusively to ScreenDaily.com, Maire revealed thatthe festival will be organizing a tour of 30 important competition films frompast years by such directors as Spike ...
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La Consultation lands French and Swiss deals at Locarno
Helen de Crecy'sfirst feature-length documentary LaConsultation on the world of private medicine has been sold to Xenix Filmdistribution for Switzerland and to Ad Vitam for France.The dealsfor the film, which is showing in Locarno's Filmmakers of the Present section, was negotiated byCaroline and Stephane Rousselfor the Arturo Mio production company ...
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Albert drops out of Locarno jury over Fraeulein involvement
Austrian filmmaker-producerBarbara Albert has stepped down from Locarno FilmFestival's International Jury "to prevent any discussion about theindependence of the jury" after a local newspaper suspected a cover-up bythe festival about Albert's involvement in the screenplay for Andrea Staka's Das Fraeulein, the only Swiss film in this year's OfficialCompetition.In an official ...
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Swiss grants go to projects from Indonesia and Malaysia
Two projects from Indonesia and one from Malaysia were selected from the 11 South-East Asian filmprojects presented at this year's Open Doors in Locarno to receive development and production grantssponsored by the Swiss Foreign Ministry's Agency for Development andCooperation (DEZA).The decision on the winnersof two grants of $40,874 (CHF 50,000) ...
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Swiss cinema market share grows to 18%
A current wave of local box-office successes provided a welcome stimulantfor Locarno Film Festival's first Day of SwissCinema, which is being held today. Accompanied by Jean-Frederic Jauslin,the head of the Federal Office for Culture (BAK), and the Film Section chiefNicolas Bideau,Switzerland's Interior Minister Pascal Couchepinrevealed that the Swiss cinema's market ...
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European partners start new initiative for minority film-makers
The Locarno Film Festival has joined France's CNC, theUK's British Council, bfm International Film Festival, Screen East andGermany's Goethe Institut among the initial partners for a new European film developmentinitiative, Babylon. Fiona Howe and Gareth Jones of the UK production houseScenario Films and Thierry Lenouvel of France's Cine-Sud Promotion unveiled ...
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Locarno pays tribute to late Daniel Schmid
TheSwiss filmmaking community is in mourning after the news at the weekend of thedeath of one of its internationally best-known filmmakers Daniel Schmid at theage of 64 from cancer. TheLocarno Film Festival, which awarded Schmid an Honorary Leopard in 1999 inrecognition of his work, reacted to the news by programming ...
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Carla's List has buying buzz ahead of Locarno premiere
Swissdirector Marcel Schuepbach's documentary Carla's List about the work of Carla Del Ponte, the prosecutor ofthe International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), wascreating a buzz among international buyers ahead of its world premiere at theweekend in Locarno's Piazza Grande open-air prorgamme, according to the film'ssales agent Wide Management. ...
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Mike Eschmann stars shooting $4.9m Tell
Swissdirector Mike Eschmann, whose last comedy Achtung, Fertig, Charlie! is the most successfullocal film of the past 25 years, begins shooting his next feature Tell, a parody of the Swissnational hero Wilhelm Tell, in the Bernese Alps from today (Aug 7).The$4.9m (Euros 3.8m) Swiss-German co-production between Lucerne-based ZodiacPictures, Impuls Home ...