All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 149
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Munich to honour Makhmalbafs, Figgis and Levinson
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 ...
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Bavaria takes on sales for Norwegian Critics' Week feature The Bothersome Man
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 ...
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German cinema admisions up 18% over last year
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 ...
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Ascot Elite picks up German-language rights to thriller Unknown
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 ...
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Beta Cinema to handle sales on Falorni feature debut
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 ...
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Klooss joins Constantin Film's production team
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 ...
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Germans dominate at Austrian and Swiss festivals
Germanfilms were the major winners at the Crossing Europe Film Festival, and the Visionsdu Reel Documentary Film Festival at the weekend.IsabelleStever's love triangle drama Gisela won theCrossing Europe Award in the European competition for first or second featurefilms, while Macedonian-born, German-based filmmaker Sergei Stanojkovskireceived the RAY Audience Award for his ...
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Media Luna adds six new films to Cannes sales slate
TheCritics' Week title pingpong,director Matthias Luthardt's feature film debut, isone of six new titles acquired by Cologne-based Media Luna Entertainment forits Cannes sales line-up this year.Dutch-bornLuthardt's family drama was produced by Berlin production house Junifilm with the broadcaster MDR, the Academy for Film& Television (Konrad Wolf) in Babelsbergand KOPP Film. ...
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Bavaria sells Into Great Silence to four more territories
TheUK's Soda Pictures and Australia's DendyFilms are among the latest distributors to have picked up Philip Groening's documentary IntoGreat Silence on life in the legendary Carthusianorder of monks.Salesagent Bavaria Film International has also sold all rights to Canada's Mongrel Media and France's Diaphana,joining previous sales made since the film's premiere ...
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German media funds lobby for access to private capital
The German mediafund lobby group Bundesverband PrivatkapitalFilm & Medien (BPFM) has entered the debate onthe future of film financing in Germany as the Angela Merkel administrationprepares to unveil a new financial instrument by July 1. In a ten-pointplan, BPFM managing director and media lawyer Robert Strassercalled for "a practical regulation ...
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Innsbruck festival honours Tunisian director
TheInnsbruck International Film Festival (May 23-28) will be celebrating its 15thyear with a retrospective and exhibition dedicated to the Tunisian directorNacer Khemir, whose latest film Bab' Azizwill open the festival on May 23.TheInternational Competition of seven titles:Cinema,Aspirins And Vultures by Marcelo Gomez (Brazil)GrainIn Ear by Zhang Lu (China/South Korea)NineEmotions by ...
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MD Herrmann leaves Senator in management shake-up
BenjaminHerrmann, managing director of Senator Entertainment's production anddistribution divisions, is leaving the company "by mutual agreement"on April 30 as part of the group's ongoing management restructuring.Herrmannhad headed up Senator Film Produktion and Senator Film Verleih since 2000 andbeen responsible for such productions as The Miracle Of Bern, TheExperiment, Lammbock and ...
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Swiss hand out $3.6m reward for local film successes
Zurich-basedproduction house Dschoint Ventschr and distributor Frenetic Films were theleading beneficiaries when Switzerland's Federal Office for Culture (BAK) paidout $3.6m (4.6m Swiss Francs) "reference" funding to producers,distributors and exhibitors of successful Swiss films in 2005.DschointVentschr received $217,000 (276,000 Swiss Francs) for seven releases, includingSamir's Snow White, which was the second ...
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SquareOne adds five genre films to theatrical slate
German independent distributor SquareOne Entertainment hasacquired five new high-profile films to boost its theatrical slate:* Roland Joffe's Mark Damon-produced intense thriller Captivity,from a script by Larry Cohen and starring Elisha Cuthbert, Daniel Gillies,Pruitt Taylor Vince and Michael Harney;* Daniel Myrick's horror film Solstice, produced byEndgame Entertainment and starring Shawn Ashmore, ...
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Ten new directors to compete at Crossing Europe festival
GoEast'smain prize-winner Tbilisi Tbilisi by Georgian filmmaker Levan Zakareishvili isamong 10 debuts or second films by promising new directors selected for thisyear's European Competition at the Crossing Europe Film Festival in Austria'sLinz (April 25-30).Theline-up of films competing for prize money amounting to Euros 10,000 are:ColdShowers by Anthony Cordiers (France)Giselaby Isabelle ...
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German media fund acquires Odeon Film
German private media fund GFP Medienfonds has taken a majority stake in the Munich-based TV/film producer Odeon Film.Aninvestment division of the GFP II and GFP III funds acquired the 53.66%shareholding held in Odeon Film until now by the Bavaria Film Group "afterseveral months and long negotiations", according to Bavaria Film ...
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Karlovy Vary creates CenEast Film Event
The latest films fromCentral and Eastern Europe are set to have a new promotional platform at thisyear's Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 30 - July 8) with thecreation of the CenEast Film Event.The new initiative is opento films from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, CzechRepublic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, ...
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Germany gets first download-to-own service
Warner Bros Entertainment and arvatomobile have joined forces to launch in2movies, the first German-languagedownload-to-own platform, for TV series and feature films, simultaneously withtheir release on DVD.The user canchoose from such blockbusters as Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, TheMatrix or The Last Samurai through classicssuch as Gone With The ...
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Tbilisi-Tbilisi takes top prize at GoEast Festival
Georgian filmmaker Levan Zakareishvili's Tbilisi-Tbilisi, a portrait of harsheveryday life in his nation's capital, was the surprise winner of the GoldenLily award for best film at this year's goEastFestival of Central and East European Cinema, which came to a close on Tuesdayevening in Wiesbaden.The international jury,headed by German film historian ...
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Bosnia plans more support for regional films
Bosnia and Herzegovina'snational Fund for Cinematography has reserved $242,250 (Euros 200,000) of its $908,437(Euros 750,000) annual budget to support regional co-productions.Speaking to ScreenDaily.com at this week's goEastFestival, Sarajevo Film Festival director Mirsad Purivatra described thisdecision by the Bosnian Minister of Culture and Sport Gavrilo Grahovac as"a first step towards a ...