All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 156
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Switzerland to rejoin Media Programme
Swiss filmmakers will be able to participate fully in the EuropeanUnion's MEDIA Programme from January 1, 2006 after being excluded for the lastthirteen years. Swiss media professionals had been barred from MEDIA after the Swisspopulation voted in December 1992 against membership of the European EconomicArea (EEA). Subsequently, in an effort ...
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Maire to replace Bignardi as Locarno artistic director
Frederic Maire is to succeed Irene Bignardi as artistic director for the Locarno FilmFestival from the 2006 edition.Originally, the festival hadintended to announce the successful candidate on August 14, a day after thisyear's event wraps. But an apparent leak has led to news of the appointmentbeing widely reported on Swiss ...
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North African countries launch Maghreb promotional body
Filmmakers from Tunisia, Algeria and Moroccohave joined forces to launch Maghreb Cinemas, an international promotional bodyfor the three countries' film industries.The initiative was unveiled during this year's Open Doorsworkshop in Locarno where 25 filmmakers from the Maghreb region presented newfeature projects to potential production partners from Western Europe.Maghreb Cinemas will ...
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Shortlist narrows in search for new Locarno director
With less than a week to go beforeLocarno's board makes a decision on the successor to Irene Bignardi as thefestival's artistic director, the news on the festival grapevine is that thechoice will be between two names: Jean Perret, director of the Nyon DocumentaryFilm Festival "Visions du Reel", and Frederic Maire, ...
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Higuchi named head of licensing at Constantin
Yoko Higuchi has been promoted to the post ofhead of licensing at Munich-based Constantin Film.She will work closely with Constantin's CEO Fred Kogel onall licensing and sales activities and also oversee international acquisitionsin tandem with Kogel and Herman Weigel.Over the past two years, Higuchi played a key role in theacquisition ...
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Swiss film chief calls for end to 'watering can' funding
Nicolas Bideau,the incoming head of the film section at Switzerland's Federal Office ofCulture (BAK) from October 1, has called for concentration of funds into fewerprojects and an improvement of Swiss cinema's image at home and abroad.Speaking at the weekendat the Locarno Film Festival, Bideau said that he was looking to ...
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AUTLOOK Filmsales racks up Crash Test Dummies sales
AUTLOOKFilmsales has clocked up the first sales on Joerg Kalt's Crash Test Dummies which had its worldpremiere in Berlin's International Forum sidebar and was shown in Karlovy Varylast month. AUTLOOK'smanaging director Peter Jager told ScreenDaily.com that Kalt's debutfeature has been sold to Germany's Stardust Filmverleih and Poland's AgainstGravity, while he ...
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Axel Springer takes over ProSiebenSat.1 Media
Germanpublishing empire Axel Springer has acquired a majority stake in theProSiebenSat.1 Media to create the only listed media group in Germany withactivities both in the print media and television sectors.Inan Euros 2.5bn acquisition subject to anti-trust and media authority approval,Springer intends to increase its existing shareholding in ProSiebenSat.1 fromthe present ...
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Locarno hit by hotel room shortage
As the Locarno Film Festival begins its 58thedition this week, the event's organisers are having to address the deepeningcrisis in the Swiss lakeside town's hotels. This year, the festival has 153 fewer hotelrooms to draw on in Locarno for guests after the closure of Hotel Zurigo andBeau Rivage and the ...
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Kinowelt offers new rental terms to exhibitors
Distributor Kinowelt has entered the debate on the lengthof theatrical "windows" by offering exhibitors a new arrangement forthe calculation of rental charges.In principle, Kinowelt intends to hold fast to asix-month "window" before a film can appear on video and DVD. In theevent of one of its new films having an ...
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Intramovies takes on Locarno competitor Keller
Intramovies has taken on internationaldistribution for Austrian filmmaker Eva Urthaler's feature debut Kellerwhich will have its world premiere in Locarno's International Competition onAugust 4.Described byLocarno's artistic director Irene Bignardi as 'an anguished portrait oftwo adolescents violently and despairingly seeking for their moral and sexualidentity', the Austrian-German-Italian co-production between Novotny &Novotny ...
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Locarno lands BAK support for the next three years
Switzerland's Federal Office of Culture (BAK) hasannounced that it will extend its annual $935,000 (CHF 1.2m) support to the Locarno International Film Festival for another threeyears.The news comesshortly before this year's event opens on August 3 with KetanMehta's TheRising - Ballad Of Mangal Pandey.The grant represents12 percent of the festival's ...
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Green light for Germany's $110m venture capital fund
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has greenlit a $110m(Euros 90m) venture capital fund for the German film industry and will reservethe necessary financing in his planned national budget for 2006. According to guidelines which have just been made public,the fund would be able to grant conditionally-repayable loans of up to 20% ...
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MDC falls in love with Max Hansen Story
MDC International has picked upinternational distribution rights for Douglas Wolfsperger'shistorical documentary The Max HansenStory - Did You Ever Fall In Love With Me' (War'n Sie SchonMal In Mich Verliebt')which will have its world premiere in the Critics Week sidebar at next week's Locarno International Film Festival (August 3-13, 2005).The co-production ...
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German politicians eye UK sale and leaseback model
The UK sale and leasebackmodel has been identified as an incentive to emulate by Germany's FreeDemocrats (FDP) who could become the junior partner in a new administrationunder the CDU/CSU's Angela Merkel after September's general election.Launching itselection manifesto, the FDP stated that there was a need for "innovativemodels which, alongside state ...
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Locarno adds two features to official competition
Irene Bignardiis pulling out all stops for her last outing as Locarno's artistic director byselecting another two films for the official competition and bestowing aLocarno Excellence Award on the US actress Susan Sarandon.The twolatecomers just confirmed for the International Competition are Canadian LouiseArchambault's feature debut Familia, which is described ...
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Media Luna takes on sales for Three Degrees
Media Luna Entertainment has picked up international distributionrights for Florian Hoffmeister's Three Degrees Colder (3° Kaelter) whichwill have its world premiere in the forthcoming International Competition atthe Locarno Film Festival.Starring Bibiana Beglau, Sebastian Blomberg, Meret Becker, Johannvon Bülow, Katharina Schüttler, and Alexander Beyer, the drama among a group offriends reacting ...
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Emmerich, VIP project wins FFF Bayern backing
MarcoKreuzpaintner's first English language feature Welcome To America is one of 34 projects to receive atotal of Euros 5m in the latest round of funding by the Bavarian Film &Television Fund (FFF Bayern).Welcome ToAmerica is one of thefirst productions from the Reelmachine outfit formed at the end of 2004 byRoland ...
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Kinowelt picks up Palme d'Or winning Child
This year's CannesGolden Palm winner, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's The Child, has beenpicked up by Kinowelt for theatrical release in Germany.Kinowelt has also acquired the homeentertainment and television rights to the drama for Germany and Austria.Meanwhile, German rights for U-CarmeneKhayelitsha, the Golden Bear winner at the Berlinale in February, havebeen ...
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Locarno boasts 12 premieres in competition line-up
LocarnoInternational Film Festival's Irene Bignardiis promising a journey into "uncharted territories"forher final year as artistic director with 12 world premieres in its 15-titlecompetition line-up of films.Whileadmitting that 2005 was "undoubtedly a complex and difficult year forinternational production", Bignardi told Screendaily.com that she"very happy that we discovered a number of films ...