All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 152
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Midsummer Madness to begin shooting in March 2006
Vienna/London-basedsales agent EastWest Filmdistributionhas picked up world sales rights on Riga-born Alexander Hahn's comedy Midsummer Madness which was presented atlast week's Baltic Event Co-Production Market in Estonia's Tallinn and set to beginshooting next March.Midsummer Madness will be co-produced by Austria's Fischer Film, the UK's Steve WalshProductions and Latvia's KaupoFilm with ...
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Germans may hear new finance ideas by Christmas
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's new administration may give an indication of their plans to attract private capital to the local film industry before the Christmasbreak.The issue has been top of the local film agenda after the scrapping of media funds last week and all eyes are now on the new ...
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Yves Marmion named chairman of the European Film Academy
French producer Yves Marmion was elected as the new Chairman of the EuropeanFilm Academy (EFA) on the eve of the weekend's European Film Awards ceremony.Marmion has taken over from NikPowell who had been serving as EFA's Acting Chairmansince the sudden and unexpected death of the previous Chairman producer Humbert Balsan ...
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Marmion elected chair of European Film Academy
Frenchproducer Yves Marmion was elected as the new Chairman of the European FilmAcademy (EFA) on the eve of the weekend's European Film Awards ceremony.Marmionhas taken over from Nik Powell who had been serving as EFA's Acting Chairmansince the sudden and unexpected death of the previous Chairman producer HumbertBalsan last February.Marmion,who ...
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Lago weighs in on Lynch's Surveillance
Jennifer Lynch's long-gestating project Surveillance will go into production with Germany's Lago Film backing the $10m production.Previously announced for a 2004 start date, the filmco-written by Kent Harper tells the story of an FBI agent who is tracking aserial killer with the help of three would-be victims, all of whom ...
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Baltic Event launches its first co-production market
New filmsby Latvia's Alexander Hahn, Lithuania's Algimantas Puipa, Norway's MariusHolst, and Romania's Cristian Mungiu are among 12 projects being presented atthe first Baltic Event Co-Production Market to be held in Tallinn from December1-2.Now in itsfourth year, the Baltic Event had originally been launched to present theBaltic Screenings programme of films ...
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New Locarno director announces changes
Locarno's new artistic directorFrederic Maire has announced a series oforganisational and programme changes two months after taking up his post onOctober 1.Speakingat press conferences in Zurich and Bellinzona,Maire revealed that the next edition of the festivalfrom August 2-12, 2006 will no longer stagethe Video Competition and will transform the Film-makers ...
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Charlotte Rampling to be jury president at Berlinale 2006
Britishactress Charlotte Rampling will head up the main juryat next year's Berlinale (February 9-19, 2006). Describingher as a "fascinating woman and brilliant artist", festival directorDieter Kosslick noted that, through her work,[Charlotte Rampling] has come to stand for unconventionaland memorable cinema."Theremainder of the international jury, which will preside over Berlin's main ...
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Nicaragua ready for first production in 16 years
Germany's Shotgun Pictures will co-produce producer-directorFlorence Jaugey's feature debut La Yuma whichwill be the first feature film to be produced in Nicaragua for 16 years. French-born Jaugey, who took upresidence in Nicaragua set up her production company Camila Filmswith Nicaraguan filmmaker Frank Pineda in 1990.Budgeted at Euros 350,000and scheduled to ...
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German-French co-production finds favour with Filmstiftung NRW
TwoGerman-French co-productions attracted the bulk of the $7m (6m Euros)production support allocated by Filmstiftung NRW atits last funding session. Thelargest sum of $3m (2.5m Euros) was awarded to Jo Baier'sadaptation of Heinrich Mann's historical novel, Henri Quatre. Berlin-based Ziegler Filmwill be the producer with France's GTV as a three-partmini-series with ...
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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 ...