All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 150
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Tele Muenchen AFM Pickups
New films by Roberto Benigni and Woody Allen are among a collection of new titles acquired by Germany's Tele Muenchen Group (TMG) at the recent American Film Market (AFM). German speaking rights were bought for Benigni's latest box-office sensation The Tiger And The Snow; Allen's romantic comedy Scoop, starring Scarlet ...
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Sterk's Turning hits the right notes in Mannheim
The mainaward of this year's Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival went to Tuningby Slovenia's Igor Sterk.Theinternational jury, including Istituto Luce's Claudia Bedogni, Swiss Films'Micha Schiwow and Austrian producer Veit Heiduschka praised the film's"precise use of film language."The juryawarded the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Prize to Perry Ogden's Pavee Lackeen,which also received the ...
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New German culture minister offers first-day handouts
New films by Christian Petzold, Stanislaw Mucha, AndreasKleinert and Thomas Grube are among 17 projects and screenplays backed to thetune of $1.9m (Euros 1.64m) byGermany's new State Minister for Culture Bernd Neumann on his first day inoffice. The largest sum of $226,00 (Euros 225,000 was awarded toMartin Theo Krieger's Beautiful ...
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Production milestone for Nigerian film industry
Productionis being planned next year for the first Nigerian film to be shot on 35mm for20 years with an adaptation of the late Ken Saro-Wiwa's novel Lemona's Tale.Johannesburg-basedCapitol International Productions' project Lemona, to be directed by Kinshasha-born Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda, was revealed at this week's MannheimMeetings co-production market by Nigerian-born scriptwriter-producer ...
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Macedonia plans to establish national film fund
Macedonia is to set up a national film fund by the end of next year to support film-making from screenplay development through production to distribution and promotion.Speakingexclusively to Screendaily.com in Mannheim, Branko Petrovski, head of the Filmand Theatre Department at Macedonia's Ministry of Culture, explained that theproposed fund "would be ...
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Kinowelt snaps up Epsilon from insolvency
DistributorKinowelt has taken over the Munich-based film financier and licence traderEpsilon Motion Pictures GmbH and its Zurich subsidiary Epsilon Motion PicturesAG from Kirch Media's insolvency administrator Michael Jaffe.The dealis part of Kinowelt's new expansion strategy. Thecompany had cultivated a closer business relationship with Epsilon aftersigning a package deal during this ...
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Germans confirm media funds demise
The old-style media funds have at last come to the end of the road after the first cabinet under Germany's new Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel.The new Minister of Finance Peer Steinbrueck was able to keep to his plan of retaining the original cut-off point of November 11 for the changes ...
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New German culture minister raises hopes for film finance
Hopesfor a swift resolution of the German film funding crisis following thescrapping of media funds have been raised with the appointment of Germany's newState Minister For Culture, Bernd Neumann.The63-year-old has taken a strong interest in film finance issues. Earlier thisyear argued that support "doesn't have to be the funds in ...
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Schloendorff under fire from Solidarity heroine
Oscar-winning director Volker Schloendorff has comeunder fire from the mother of Poland's Solidarity movement Anna Walentynowiczfor his latest film Die Vergessene Heldin which began shooting atoriginal locations in the Baltic port of Gdansk at the end of October. In an interview with the Polish dailynewspaper Rzeczpospolita, 76-year-old Walentynowicz said that ...
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Franco-German call for extension to film fund
Frenchand German producers and distributors want the $3.5m (Euros 3m)"mini-traite" co-production fund to be extended to include thesupport of the theatrical distribution in the two countries.Thecall came at this year's French-German Cinema Rendez-Vous in Cologne but faces significant obstacles if it is top succeed.Although a French-German distribution agreement is in ...
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Darwin's Nightmare proves to be an Austrian dream
When the InternationalDocumentary Film Festival Amsterdam opens in the Dutch capital on Thursday (Nov24) it will feature two documentaries from the same country on the same topic.The overlap is not due tosome error by the selection committee: the films in question - each Austrianand dealing with food politics - are ...
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Vandierendonck set to take leading role at Eurimages
Belgium'sJan Vandierendonck is set to take over from Renate Roginas as ExecutiveSecretary for the Council of Europe's pan-European co-production fund Eurimagesfrom the beginning of January.Vandierendonckis currently the Director of International Relations and European Affairs atthe Flemish Audiovisual Fund. Duringhis career in the film industry, which began in the mid-1980s, he ...
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Constantin raises sales forecast but theatrical still down
German producer-distributor ConstantinFilm has raised its forecast for the current financial year to a sales targetof around $235m (Euros 200m) for 2005.But the good news was largely due to home entertainmentandTV service production operations rather than theatrical.In its third-quarter results,Constantin did report an improvement in the performance of its theatricaldivision ...
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Record numbers apply for Berlinale Talent Campus
The Berlinale Talent Campus (BTC) has received a record3,516 applications from 121 countries for its fourth edition to be held fromFebruary 11-16.The number of entries is up 1,105 on last year and includesfirst-time applications from countries as far flung as Benin,Madagascar, Tajikistan Gambia, Fiji and Nepal. In addition, the number ...
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Fifteen films compete for Swiss Film Prize
Michael Steiner's comedy Mein Name Ist Eugen, which with 500,000 admissions has become the third most successful Swiss film in the last 30 years, is among the nominated films for the 2006 Swiss Film Prize.A nine-person nomination commission selected 15 films for the best feature film, documentary and short film ...
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Film-makers to pitch 55 projects at Mannheim Meetings
New feature projects by Ireland's Johnny Gogan, Georgia's Nana Djordjadze, Poland's Robert Glinski and Nigeria's Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda are among 55 films from Europe, Canada, Latin America and Africa with a total production volume of Euros 84m being pitched at this year's Mannheim Meetings co-production market. From November 21-25, 600 pre-arranged ...
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European industry event hopes to build East-West links
The Belgrade International Film Festival FEST is to launch a forum to boost links between film professionals from Western and Eastern Europe and neighbouring countries with a strong European influence and heritage.Speakingexclusively to Screendaily.com, project manager Miroslav Mogorovic explained the focus of the B2B Industry Meetings (March 3-5, 2006) would ...
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Final hopes for German media funds are dashed
German media funds are now all but dead, with the incoming government announcing it will backdate reforms to last week.Some German media fund managers had hoped to continue signing up investors until new Chancellor Angela Merkel officially begins business next week.But FinanceMinister designate Peer Steinbrueck says he intends to retain ...
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German-Polish alliance creates pioneering film fund
Thenewly-created Polish Film Institute and the two German regional funds haveestablished a Polish-German Co-Development Fund.The agreement was reached during this year's ConnectingCottbus market forum.The fund'sannual budget will be $175,000 (Euros 150,000.)Theinitiative aims to encourage the development of Polish-German scripts that willhelp increase the number of co-productions between Polish producers and ...
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BFI crosses more bridges with Akin music doc
Afterconcluding an all-rights US deal with Strand Releasing for FatihAkin's music documentary Crossing The Bridge - The Sound Of Istanbul at the recent AFMmarket, Bavaria Film International (BFI) has now also sold the film to Brazil'sImovision, Bulgaria's Art Fest Ltd, and Japan's Alcine Terran.Inaddition, a deal has been signed with ...