All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 144
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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 ...
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Bavaria boards new films by Randau and Thalheim
Secondfeature films by award-winning filmmakers Felix Randauand Robert Thalheim have been picked up at productionstage for world sales by Bavaria Film International.Randau's tragicomedy Die Anruferin is about a young womanlonging for human warmth and devotion who calls total strangers on the phone.Valerie Koch (from Stefan Krohmer's They've Got Knut)and Esther ...
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Swiss study finds more funding but lack of box-office success
TheSwiss film industry is likely to have mixed feelings after reading the FederalOffice for Statistics' (BFS) latest study "Filmproduction in Switzerland 1995-2004'.Appearingahead of Locarno Film Festival's first Swiss Day (Aug8), which will showcase national filmmaking, the BFS study notes, on the onehand, that public and private funding for local production ...
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Schloendorff plans Kazakhstan shoot for Ulzhan
Germandirector Volker Schloendorff will be reunited withactor David Bennent, the child star of his 1979Oscar-winning film The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel) as Oskar Matzerath, for his next feature Ulzhan which begins shooting in Kazakhstan from September.TheFrench-Kazakh co-production between Regis Ghezelbash'sFly Times Pictures and the Kazakh Film Studio is based on ...
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X Filme launches unit for international co-productions
Berlinproduction powerhouse X Filme creative pool, whoserecent international production credits include Maria Schrader's Love Life and BilleAugust's Goodbye Bafana,has launched a subsidiary company X FilmeInternational to concentrate on the production of one to two internationalco-productions per year for the global market. The newWolfsburg-based outfit, which will be managed by X-Filme'sHead ...
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Locarno president talks of 'budgetary worries'
On the eve of this year'sLocarno International Film Festival, which will open on Wednesday (August 2)with Michael Mann's Miami Vice,the festival's president Marco Solari has spoken out about the financialchallenges facing Locarno for this year and for the future.In an interview with theSwiss daily newspaper Der Bund atthe weekend, Solari ...
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Lionsgate takes US and UK rights to Blood Trails
Lionsgate Films has picked up the German horror film Blood Trails by Robert Krause for distribution in the US and UK in the first quarter of 2007. Krause's film won the audience award at the recent Dead by Dawn Film Festival in Scotland and screened at the Madrid Fantasy Film ...
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Sarajevo's CineLink partners with The Netherlands
TheNetherlands will be the countrypartner of Sarajevo's CineLink(August 23-27) after the co-production market's previous collaborations with Austria in 2004 and Germany in 2005.Adelegation of around two dozen representatives from film institutions,production companies, distributors, broadcasters and sales companies will betravelling to Sarajevo to meet filmmakers from South Eastern Europe whose projects ...
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Locarno drops Israeli sponsor in bombings protest
As aresponse to Israel's bombing of Lebanon, the Locarno International Film Festivalhas decided to drop the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs as one of thesponsors of this year's Leopards of Tomorrow sidebar. A group offilmmakers, including Palestinian directors Elia Suleiman, Sameh Zoabi,Annemarie Jacir and Lebanese-born Elie Khalife and Myrna Maakaron, ...
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Gravehopping takes best film at European Film Festival
Slovenian director JanCvitkovic's Gravehopping (Odgrobadogroba) took home the Golden TowerAward for best film in the main programme of the 13th European Film Festival inPalic (July 15-21).The Palic Tower Award forUnique Artistic Approach went to Berlin-based filmmaker Detlev Buck'shard-hitting urban drama Tough Enough (Knallhart) which had itspremiere at the Berlinale in ...
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Locarno buyers grow to 150 from 28 countries
Distributors from the UK, US, Russia, Spain and Romania are among theincreased numbers of internationalbuyers attending this year's Locarno Film Festival (August 2-12).Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily.com,Nadia Dresti, head of the festival's industry office, revealed that more than25 new companies will be coming to Locarno for the first time in 2006, ...