All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 144

  • News

    Kinotavr honours Serebrennikov's Playing The Victim

    2006-06-13T10:12:00Z

    Kirill Serebrennikov's Playing The Victimwon the Grand Prix at this year's Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.The black comedy about a university graduate who earns money playingcrime victims in the reconstruction of events for police investigations was abig favourite with the festival's foreign guests ...

  • News

    Christmas comes early for mdc

    2006-06-09T12:57:00Z

    mdc Internationalhas taken on the international distribution for the Bulgarian-Germanco-production Christmas Tree Upside Down,which will have its world premiere in official competition at the forthcoming Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.Directed by Ivan Cherkelov and Vassil Zhivkov, thefilm consisting of seven episodes aboutthe elementary things of life and their relation to ...

  • News

    Inaugural St Petersburg Film Festival cancelled

    2006-06-08T14:13:00Z

    The St Petersburg International Film Festival -- which was due to beheld for the first time from July 18-31 in the historical Russian city -- willnot now go ahead after all.The news broke at a masterclass given by actor-director Fedor Bondarchuk during this week's Open Russian Film Festival"Kinotavr" at the ...

  • News

    Kinowelt books strong sales at Cannes

    2006-06-05T10:18:00Z

    Kinowelt International had a busy Cannes market selling packages from its back catalogue aswell as finding customers for its new acquisitions.Head of World Sales Stelios Ziannis reported that theFassbinder Collection was sold to Finland, while another package of films by Fassbinder and Adlon were pickedup by pay TV for Israel. ...

  • News

    Beta does brisk sales for The Lives Of Others

    2006-05-31T11:57:00Z

    Beta Cinema had itsbest-ever Cannes Market this year with Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Stasi thriller TheLives Of Others (Das Leben Der Anderen) now sold to 30countries.Apart from selling NorthAmerican rights to Sony Picture Classics, Beta concluded deals on the film withsuch distributors as Japan (New Select), France (Ocean Films), Spain ...

  • News

    EEAP's Cannes buys include Saw III and My Blueberry Nights

    2006-05-30T12:23:00Z

    Berlin-based EasternEuropean Acquisition Pool (EEAP) went on a shopping spree at last week's CannesFilm Market, picking up titles from Lionsgate, 2929Entertainment, Studio Canaland Darclight for East European territories.After having a huge successreleasing Saw II earlier this year inPoland, the Baltic states, ex-Yugoslavia and CIS, EEAP sealed a deal with Lionsgate ...

  • News

    Cannes selections top BFI festival sales

    2006-05-29T20:00:00Z

    BavariaFilm International (BFI) finished this year's Cannes by announcing numeroussales for Stefan Krohmer's Directors' Fortnight film Summer '04and Norwegian Jens Lien's International Critics' Week title The BothersomeMan.Krohmer'sdrama was sold to Austria (Filmladen), South Korea (Sejong Communications) andVenezuela (Blanco y Travieso), with a distributor deal imminent for France,while Lien's black comedy ...

  • News

    Maria Koepf to leave X-Filme to set up own company

    2006-05-18T20:19:00Z

    Maria Koepf, co-managingdirector of X-Filme creative poolsince 2000, is leaving the Berlinproduction house to set up shop with herownoutfit MagnetFilmproduktion.Koepf started at X-Filme asa line producer in 1995, working with Tom Tykwer as line producer on Wintersleepers, as executive producer onRunLolaRun, and producer on The PrincessAnd The Warrior, Heaven and ...

  • News

    Germany's FFA awards $4m to new projects

    2006-05-16T04:00:00Z

    Sequels of this year's local box-office hits Wild Soccer Bunch 3 and WildChicks are among eight projects backed with more than $3.97m (Euros 3.1m)production funding by the German Federal Film Board (FFA) at its latestsitting.The largest amount - $768,569 (Euros 600,000) - went to SamFilm's fourthinstalment in The Wild Soccer ...

  • News

    Alonso and Musaluppi recruited for Locarno juries

    2006-05-15T04:00:00Z

    Leadingfigures from the New Argentine Cinema have been invited to serve on new jurieswhich are being established at this year's LocarnoFilm Festival under the new artistic director Frederic Maire.FilmmakerLisandro Alonso, whosedirecting credits include La Libertad, Los Muertos and the as-yet-unreleased Fantasmas, will be a jury memberof the new Leopard for ...

  • News

    Stasi thriller takes seven Lolas at German Film Awards

    2006-05-14T07:00:00Z

    FlorianHenckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives Of Others (Das Leben Der Anderen)was the big winner at this year's German Film Awards in Berlin.The Stasithriller picked up seven Golden Lolas for best film, best direction, best leadactor (Ulrich Muehe), best supporting actor (Ulrich Tukur), best productiondesign (Silke Buhr), best cinematography (Hagen Bogdanski), ...

  • News

    Germany's Beta and Telepool add to Cannes lineups

    2006-05-11T04:00:00Z

    Germansales companies are busy adding new titles to their sales lineupsa week before the beginning of this year's Cannes Market.Inaddition to the previously announced HeartOf Fire, Beta Cinema has taken on another sevennew titles for its Cannes slate.Thislineup is headed by the international market premieres of FlorianHenckel von Donnersmarck'sthriller The ...

  • News

    German director Uwe Boll plans to take Boll AG public

    2006-05-09T16:55:00Z

    Onthe eve of this year's Cannes Film Market, German film director/media fundmanager Uwe Boll has unveiled plans for his group ofcompanies under the mantle of Boll AG to be listed in the Frankfurt StockExchange's Entry Standard before the summer.Accordingto a company announcement, the injection of fresh cash through a stock ...

  • News

    Sokurov to receive Locarno's Leopard of Honour

    2006-05-08T11:51:00Z

    Locarno Film Festival's Leopard of Honour will be awarded inthe first edition under the new artistic director Frederic Maireto the Russian master Alexander Sokurov.Sokurov has a special fondness for the Swiss festival sincehis first film The Lonely Human Voice wasawarded the Bronze Leopard there in 1987 and, ten years later, ...

  • News

    Munich to honour Makhmalbafs, Figgis and Levinson

    2006-05-05T11:32:00Z

    Thisyear's Munich Film Festival will be dedicating its retrospective to the Makhmalbaf family and a tribute to UK filmmaker Mike Figgis, while the 2006 CineMeritAward for his services to cinema will be presented to veteran US director BarryLevinson.Accordingto the festival organisers, this will be the first time that the films ...

  • News

    Bavaria takes on sales for Norwegian Critics' Week feature The Bothersome Man

    2006-05-04T16:19:00Z

    BavariaFilm International has added International Critics' Week title The Bothersome Man (Den BrysommeMannen) by to its Cannes sales slate. Norwegianfilmmaker Jens Lien's second feature, which is described as 'a fantasticand bitingly funny fable that bears echoes of The Truman Show, will have its world premiere in Cannes and thenopen wide ...

  • News

    German cinema admisions up 18% over last year

    2006-05-04T15:58:00Z

    Germanexhibitors are on the rebound as cinemas reported a 17.89% year-on-yearincrease in admissions and 18.08% rise in box-office takings for the first fourmonths of 2006.Accordingto Jan Oesterlin, managing director of Zukunft Kino Marketing (ZKM), cinema attendance andreceipts this year even surpassed the strong beginning of 2004, with admissionsup 5.92% and ...

  • News

    Ascot Elite picks up German-language rights to thriller Unknown

    2006-05-04T00:00:00Z

    Onthe eve of this year's Cannes Film Market, Swiss independent distributor AscotElite has announced the acquisition from GreeneStreetFilms International of Simon Brand's high-concept thriller Unknown forGerman-language territories Germany, Austria and Switzerland.Thefilm stars Jim Caviezel, Barry Pepper, Greg Kinnear, Peter Stormare andBridget Moynahan. The Weinstein Company will bereleasing the film in ...

  • News

    Beta Cinema to handle sales on Falorni feature debut

    2006-05-03T10:45:00Z

    Beta Cinema hastaken on international sales on Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Luigi Falorni's fiction feature debut Heart Of Fire based on SenaitMehari's international bestseller of the same name.Published in2004 as Feuerherz,Mehari's memoirs recount how she was given away byher despotic father to the Eritrean Liberation Front to become a child soldierat ...

  • News

    Klooss joins Constantin Film's production team

    2006-05-02T16:06:00Z

    Reinhard Klooss has joined Constantin Film's production team with a brief to developprojects in the area of family entertainment with a focus on CGI animated feature films.Klooss comes to Constantinfrom Bavaria Pictures where he had most recently produced the animated feature Urmel Aus Dem Eis, whichwill be released by Falcom ...