All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 161
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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, ...
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Germany moves forward with sale and leaseback plans
Germany's adoption of a UK-style sale and leaseback (S&L) fundingmodel has come one big step closer after a meeting between German filmproducers and Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder yesterday morning. According to one of the producers attending, a working group will becreated to draft a concept for a sale and leaseback ...
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Locarno to honour Jeremy Thomas
Britishproducer Jeremy Thomas will be presented with the Raimondo Rezzonico Prize forindependent producers at this year's Locarno International Film Festival (August 3-13).Commentingon the selection of the producer of such films as The Last Emperor, The Hitand The Sheltering Sky, Locarno's festival director Irene Bignardi said:"Jeremy is one of those producers ...
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X-Filme, Promedia toon up with Robbers
Berlin-based X-Filmecreative pool and private media fund manager Promedia have launched a newanimation company, Animation-X, with a full-length traditional animation calledThe Three Robbers (Die Drei Rauber), to go into production in July ofthis year.Animation-X plans to makebetween two and three projects a year, both traditional and CG animation.Animation-X has brought ...
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Meirelles to produce Brazilian football documentary
City Of God director Fernando Meirelles is producinga feature length documentary called Ginga, about the relationshipbetween Brazilians and football.The documentaryis being made through his company O2 Filmes as a co-production with Nike andWieden Kennedy Entertainment.Meirellles hassecured three directors to co-write and shoot the documentary: Marcelo Machado,Hank Levine and Tocha Alves ...
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Instant replay for German version of Finnish football film
In an unusual move,Hamburg's Wueste Filmproduktion will remake the Finnish football comedy FCVenus before the movie is even in theatres at home.Finnish production companyTalent House will start shooting the Joona Tena-directed Venus at theend of May, while the German remake, to be directed by Ute Wieland, will beginfilming at the ...
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Kinowelt acquires Warner titles from Epsilon
German distributor Kinowelthas taken rights to a package of films headed by Warner Bros titles MillionDollar Baby and Mr & Mrs Smith. Clint Eastwood'sOscar-nominated Million Dollar Baby has been widely advertised as beinghandled by Warner's German branch with a release date of March 3. Kinowelt'sBertil Le Claire said the company ...
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X-Filme launches in-house world sales division
Berlinproduction house X-Filme creative pool has set up an in-house world salesdivision to handle the international distribution of Dani Levy's box office hitGo For Zucker - An Unorthodox Comedy (Alles auf Zucker!). PreviouslyX-Filme's titles have been handled on a deal-by-deal basis by Bavaria FilmInternational and Beta Cinema, amongst others.X-FilmeWorld Sales ...
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Eichinger voted 'most important player' in German film
Producer-distributor Bernd Eichinger has been voted as themost important player in the German film business in an industry surveypublished on Sunday.Industry veteran Eichinger saw his production of OliverHirschbiegel's Hitler bunker drama Downfallreceive a nomination in the Academy Awards' Foreign Language Filmcategory last month.A jury of leading film critics, TV executives, ...