All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 151
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German producers look to the Balkans for success
Champagnecorks may have popped in Sarajevo after Jasmila Zbanic's debut feature Grbavicawon the Golden Bear at last month's Berlinale - but celebrationswere not confined to Bosnia and Herzegovina.Therewas also cause for jubilation in Germany: Didi Danquart's Karlsruhe-based noirfilm was one of the co-producers, along with Austria'scoop99, Zbanic's own company Deblokadaand ...
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Garpastum picks up best film at Sofia Film Festival
AlekseiGerman Jr.'s story of four friends on the eve of theFirst World War Garpastumwon the Stella Artois Grand Prix for Best Film at theSofia International Film Festival 10th anniversary edition which ended on March18.In itsmotivation, the International Jury headed by Russian critic Andrei Plakhov said that the film "deals in ...
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Strong documentary presence at Diagonale
The documentary genre willbe particularly strong at this year's Diagonale - Festival of Austrian Cinemawhich is being opened in Graz on March 21 with FlorianFlicker's No Name City about a WildWest town theme park south of Vienna.Among the 22 newdocumentaries selected to screen are Elisabeth Scharang'sTintenfischalarm (which had its world ...
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Sofia Meetings co-production forum unveils line-up
Tensecond feature film projects have been selected for this year's third editionof the Sofia Meetings co-production forum (March 17-18). During the two day event,filmmakers will have an opportunity to pitch to more than 50 internationalproducers and film funds.The line-upincludes three filmmakers who have films screening in Sofia International Filmfestival's International ...
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Aardman's double triumph at European animation awards
TheUK's Aardman Animations scored a double triumph by taking home two of theCartoon Movie Tributes voted on by representatives of the European animationindustry attending this year's co-production forum at the Babelsberg Studiosfrom March 9-11.Thefilmmaking duo Nick Park and Steve Box were named Best European Director of theYear for Wallace & ...
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Eurimages puts more than $4.2m into nine projects
Strasbourg-based pan-European co-production fund Eurimages has backed nineprojects with more than $4.2m (Euros 3.6m).The first funding selection of 2006 includes new features by the Taviani brothers, Carlos Saura, Nana Djordjadze, and Milcho Manchevski. The largest sum, $772,849 (Euros 650,000) was awarded tothe Tavianis' story of the massacre of the Armenianpeople ...
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Vienna Film Fund puts $1.6m into 10 projects
New featurefilms by Antonin Svoboda, Michael Glawogger,and Rupert Henning are among 10 projects awarded over $1.6m (Euros 1.4m) bythe Vienna Film Fund.The largestamount $542,609 (Euros 455,000) went to first-time director Rupert Henning'sadaptation of the satirical play Friendship(Freundschaft) which will be produced by Danny Krausz and Kurt Stocker's DOR-Film with Henning ...
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Brisk sales continue for Golden Bear winner Grbavica
Michael Weber's salesoutfit The Match Factory has closed a raft of deals for Jasmila Zbanic's GoldenBear winning Bosnian drama Grbavica in addition to previous sales to Germany, Switzerland and Italy.TheAustrian-Bosnian-German-Croatian co-production has now been picked up by Golem(Spain), Cinemien (Benelux), Kinoswiat(Poland), Ost for Paradis(Denmark), Budapest Film (Hungary), Folkets Bio(Sweden), Providence ...
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Dardenne brothers' The Child to open Sofia Film Festival
The Dardenne brothers' Golden Palm winner The Child will open the 10th anniversary edition of the SofiaInternational Film Festival (SIFF) on March 9.Among theinternational filmmakers expected in the Bulgarian capital between March 9-19are Bent Hamer (Factotum),Craig Lucas (The Dying Gaul) Alexey Fedorchenko (First On The Moon), Volker Schloendorff (The TinDrum), ...
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Intertainment founder resigns from supervisory board
Ruediger "Barry" Baeres,the founder of beleaguered German licence trader/producer Intertainment,has stepped down from his position as chairman of the company's supervisoryboard "for personal reasons" "with immediate effect."Baeres founded Intertainmentin 1993 and took the company to the Neuer Markt stock exchange in 1999 as the Chairman of the Boardof Management. Baeres ...
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Constantin subsidiary acquires rights to children's book
Just aweek after acquiring the film rights to Michael Ende'sJim Button children's classic for anEnglish language screen adaptation German producer Christian Becker has nowbought the rights to the late Max von der Gruen's 1976 children's book, The Suburban Crocodiles (Die Vorstadtkrokodile).The storyof a paraplegic boy being integrated into a children's ...
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NewsSenator Films looks set to pull cannibal film
German distributor Senator Film looks set to pull its March 9 release of Butterfly -A Grimm Love Story (Rohtenburg), after a court in Kassel granted Armin Meiwes a temporary injunction on Friday preventing the film being shown on German screens.
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Stefan Ruzowitzky's new feature to shoot at Babelsberg
Another film about eventsfrom the Second World War will use sound stages at Studio Babelsbergonly three months after shooting wrapped on Paul Verhoevens Black Book just before Christmas.The production centre nearPotsdam willbe host to part of the shoot for Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky's TheCounterfeiter(Der Faelscher)which is based on the true ...
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Bavarian fund backs family entertainment and Wixxer sequel
Three familyfilms and a sequel to the 2004 box office hit Der Wixxer are among seven feature projects awarded over $4.8m (Euros4.1m) by Bavaria's regional film fund FFF Bayernat its latest sitting.The largestamount $1.6m (Euros 1.4m) - went to Uli Limmer's Collina Filmproduktion for HerrBello which reunites the successful producer ...
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Aardman director duo nominated for Cartoon Movie Tributes
Directorialduo Nick Park and Steve Box, the UK's Aardmananimation studios behind their Wallace& Gromit: The Curse Of TheWere-Rabbit, and Italian distributor Mikado Film are among the nominees forthis year's Cartoon Movie Tributes which will be announced at the eighthedition of the Cartoon Movie co-production market at the BabelsbergStudios in Potsdam ...
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Rat Pack plans English-language family film based on bestseller
ConstantinFilm subsidiary Rat Pack Filmproduktion has secured the film rights to thefamily bestseller Jim Button And Luke TheEngine Driver for an English language adaptation aimed at the internationalmarket.ProducerChristian Becker has "regular" collaborator Sebastian Niemann(Hui Buh Das Schlossgespenst, Das Jesus Video) attached as director for thelive-action feature film version of TheNeverending ...
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Golden Bear winner finds more buyers
Jasmila Zbanic's Golden Bear winner Grbavica has been picked up byVentura Film for theatrical release in Germany later this year, while Switzerland's Trigon-Filmplans to release the mother-daughter drama in the aftermath of the Bosnian warthis autumn.TheAustrian-Bosnian-German-Croatian co-production will be opened by Polyfilm in Austria next week on March 3 with ...
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Germans join forces for $47.7m English-language slate
Production outfit Schmidtz KatzeFilmkollektiv and the Berlin-based developmentcompany mediacontentfactory (mcf)have joined forces to initiate a $47.7m (Euros 40m) slate of English-languagegenre films for the international market.According to thejoint venture's partners, the slate of six to seven thriller,fantasy or adventure feature films will either be based on successful novels,games and/or creative ...
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Kosslick delight at record-breaking Berlinale
"Spectacularlyunspectacular" is Dieter Kosslick's personal verdict on the fifthBerlinale under his direction which came to end this weekend with the awardingof the Golden Bear to Bosnian film-maker Jasmila Zbanic for Grbavica."Nothingwent wrong - except perhaps for the heating in the Martin-Gropius-Bau (MGB),"Kosslick remarked in an exclusive interview with ScreenDaily."Notone single ...
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Mockert steps down as head of German media fund MBP
Rainer Mockert has stepped down from the German private media fund MBP which he founded in 1999 and has handed over management of the MBP KG I and MBP KG II funds to financing expert Kai Grueneke. Over the last seven years, Mockert had involved the MBP funds in the ...