All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 146
-
News
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) ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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. ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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, ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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, ...
-
News
Hermann and Groenewold launch new producer-distributor
Former Senator Filmexecutive Benjamin Herrmann and media fund manager David Groenewoldhave launched an as-yet-unnamed new theatrical distribution company andproduction house to handle primarily commercial German films.The distribution arm's firsttitles are:Philipp Stoelzl's Nordwand, starring Johanna Wokalek and Benno Fuermann in a drama about the failed first ascent of thenorth wall of ...
-
News
Locarno plans collaboration with Buenos Aires Lab
Next month's Locarno International Film Festival hasforged a new collaboration with the Buenos Aires Lab (BAL), theLatin American co-production market for independent cinema within the frameworkof the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival and TyPA (Teoria y Practica delas Artes), to allow selected filmmakers and producers from Latin America tomeet potential ...
-
News
Heimat Fragments expected to premiere in Venice
Veteran Germandirector Edgar Reitz's fourth Heimat film, Heimat Fragments (Heimat Fragmente), isexpected to have its world premiere at this year's Venice Film Festival.This willcontinue a tradition which saw Reitz's ground-breaking first Heimat premierein Venice in 1984, followed by Heimat 2 in 1992,and Heimat 3 - A Chronicle ofEndings and Beginnings ...
-
News
German co-producer required for tax scheme, says fund chief
Non-German producers are likely to need a local partner if they want to benefit from the tax rebate to be introduced in Germany next year.Speaking at a film financing roundtable on the eve of this year's Munich Film Festival, Klaus Schaefer, chief executive of the Bavarian Film & Television Fund ...