All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 159
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News
GERMANY 16 March
Sony Pictures' release of the Will Smith comedy Hitch held on topole position for its second week with a total gross of $ 17.5m and admissionsnow topping the 2 million mark.Further down the chart, there was considerable movement with no lessthan six new entries to the Top 15 last weekend, ...
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GERMANY 9 March
Sony Pictures Releasing's (SPR) Hitchentered the charts at the top of the pile with an impressive $11,145 screenaverage from its 796 screens and became the first release so far this year tohave attracted more than 1m cinema-goers in its first weekend. SPR also proudlyreported that the Will Smith comedy garnered ...
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Eurimages injects Euros3.4m into Euro co-prods
New features by Portugal's Teresa Villaverde (Transe),Germany's Maria Speth (Madonnen) and Bulgaria's Georgi Stoev-Djaky (FlyBy Rossinant) are among ten projects which have been awarded a total ofEuros 3.4m by the Council of Europe's Eurimages co-production fund in itslatest funding session.The line-up of supported films also includes Dutch theatreand film actress ...
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Kinowelt acquires KirchMedia's 5,500-title library
Germany's Kinowelt has become the operator of the one ofEurope's largest film libraries with its acquisition of all of the theatricaland DVD rights to KirchMedia's 5,500-title back catalogue for the period untiland including 2012. The deal for the KirchMedia library, which includes 150previously acquired Kirch titles, boosts Kinowelt's film holdings ...
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Media Luna announces EFM sales
Cologne-based Media Luna Entertainment has announced anotherraft of deals signed at the recent European Film Market in Berlin.Theatrical and video/DVD rights were picked up by Salzgeber& Co. for Claes Lilja's documentary Beyond Vanilla, while WVT Overseasbought Christopher Munch's drama The Sleepy Time Gal for Bulgaria,Romania and Moldova, and the UK's ...
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German public funds back Cinelink co-production market
German public regional funds Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung(MDM) and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg are to serve as partners at thisyear's CineLink co-production market during the Sarajevo Film Festival (August19-27)."Last year, we had a similar agreement with the Vienna FilmFund and Austrian Film Institute who brought over a dozen producers to meetwith their opposite numbers ...
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GERMANY 2 March
Meet TheFockers onlyfaltered slightly on its second weekend, but was still far ahead of the fieldwith a gross that was more than the next two releases combined - Constantineand The Wild Soccer Bunch 2 . The Ben Stiller-Robert de Niro comedy'stotal gross of $ 12.4m makes the UIP release the ...
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German media funds still tilt heavily to Hollywood
German media funds raised Euros 1.5bn from private investorslast year, 15% less than 2003's total of Euros 1.76bn, according to a marketanalysis by fund specialist Stefan Loipfinger's Fondstelegramm.For the first time this year, the analysis showed where theGerman private equity was being invested and fuelled the criticism that themedia funds ...
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International network of casting directors launched
Fifteen feature film casting directors from seven countrieshave founded the International Network of Casting Directors (INCD).The idea for an informal international network was floatedduring a meeting of casting directors during European Film Promotion's ShootingStars event at the Berlinale. Until now, casting directors have only been organised innational associations, but INCD ...
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Perfume, Klimt awarded German funds
New features by Tom Tykwer, Raoul Ruiz and Tomy Wigand areamong five projects awarded over Euros 4.6m by Bavaria's Film & TelevisionFund FFF Bayern in its latest round of funding.Tykwer's adaptation of Patrick Sueskind's bestselling novel Perfumefor Constantin Film Produktion received the largest amount - Euros 1.6m - withan additional ...
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German-Turkish culture clash comedy makes Connection
Hamburg-basedproduction house Wueste Film has signed the first deals with distributors fromAustria, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Turkey for Anno Saul's KebabConnectionTheculture clash comedy, starringDenis Moschitto and Norah Tschirner, had its internationalmarket premiere in the Berlinale's German Cinema section last week.Buyers includedSwitzerland's Cineworx and Turkey's R Films - both of whom released ...
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Berlinale trio seal German distribution deals
HerbertKloiber's theatrical arm Concorde Filmverleih has acquired the French film TheBeat That My Heart Skipped, which screened in Official Competition at last week's Berlinale.JacquesAudiard's film, an homage to James Toback's 1970s' classic Fingers, went on to win the SilverBear for Best Film Music (by Alexandre Desplat).Inaddition, Concorde picked up directorial ...
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German home entertainment market doubles over five years
Turnover in the German home entertainment market has more than doubled since 1999, when DVDs firstregistered significant business in Germany, according to figures compiled byGfK Panel Services Consumer Research for the video trade association BVV.Revenues from sell-throughand rental videos and DVDs increased by 103% from 1999’s Euros 860m to a ...
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Germany, Brazil sign co-production treaty
Germany and Brazil have signed a treaty to formalise theco-production of films between the two countries. Films co-produced by German and Brazilian companies under thetreaty will qualify as 'national films' and consequently have access toreciprocal benefits such as the German public funds as well as equivalentsources in Brazil.A co-production will ...
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Eastern European Acquisition Pool adds Slovenian partner.
Berlin-based Eastern European Acquisition Pool (EEAP) has expandedits influence in the Central and East European market with the Slovenian mediacompany Cinemania Group coming onboard as a new shareholder with a 26% stake.The agreement was signed by Cinemania's general manager SretenZivojinovic with EEAP's other shareholders, Berlin-based A Company Consulting& Licensing and ...
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GERMANY 22 February
Last weekend Germany's boxoffice received a welcome shakeup with the arrival of three new releases MeetThe Fockers, Constantine and the local family film Die Wilden Kerle 2- at the top of the chart, toppling the local animation feature Felix - EinHase Auf Weltreise which had itself pushed The Aviator off ...
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Berlinale Golden Bear winner takes everyone but the jury by surprise
Mark Dornford-May's U-Carmen eKhayelitsha has become the first African film in the history of the Berlinale to be awarded the top honours of the Golden Bear by the International Jury led by German director Roland Emmerich. The jury's choice of Dornford-May's version of Carmen's Bizet set in a South African ...
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Germany's Priamos kicks off with Zanzibar project
WithBerlin awash with projects involving football, the island of Zanzibar hasjoined the team: Berlin-based production company Priamos Film is to launch withThe Dream Of Zanzibar set on the African island.Budgetedat $1.1m, the Dream Of Zanzibar will mark both the directing debut ofAlisan Saltik and the first project from Stephan Ottenbruch's ...
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Reelmachine sets slate with Emmerich
Germany'spowerful VIP media fund and Berlin Jury president Roland Emmerich have set thefirst four films to go in to production from their newly-formed Reelmachineoutfit.Emmerichwill direct the first: a UK-based film with an all-British cast called SoulOf The Age. Scripted by John Orloff and exploring the origins ofShakespeare's plays, it is ...
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Bavaria Film closes deals on Sophie Scholl
Bavaria Film International(BFI) has closed the first deals for Marc Rothemund's Sophie Scholl - TheFinal Days. The gripping drama on thelast six days of resistance figure Sophie Scholl has been sold to Japan(Kinetique), Spain (Lola Films), Scandinavia (Future Films), Mexico (QualityFilms), Portugal (Ecofilmes), former Yugoslavia (Discovery) and Peru (GatenoFilms).The UK, ...