All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 162

  • News

    GERMANY 16 November

    2004-11-16T00:00:00Z

    Germany is still in 7Dwarves fever as the comedy held onto the top spot for a third week runningdespite a 33% week-on-week drop in takings. The film has now sold over 4.6mtickets and grossed over $34.2m.Buena Vista's Shall WeDance', meanwhile, swapped places with Fox's Alien vs. Predator whose takings dropped ...

  • News

    Fremaux names new Cannes scout for Germany

    2004-11-15T04:00:00Z

    Munich-based film journalist and author Thilo Wydra has beenappointed by Cannes' artistic director Thierry Fremaux as successor toChristiane Peitz as the festival's correspondent for Germany.Wydra, who works as a freelance journalist for suchpublications as Film-echo/Filmwoche, Der Tagesspiegel and Hamburger Abendblatt, has also published several books on German andFrench cinema, including ...

  • News

    Box office success helps Constantin raises targets

    2004-11-15T04:00:00Z

    German producer-distributorConstantin Film has raised its sales forecast and EBIT target for a second timethis year after the strong performance of Michael "Bully" Herbig's DreamshipSurprise - Period 1 and OliverHirschbiegel's Downfall in thecinemas in the third quarter of 2004.At the end of June, Constantin had raised its salesforecast for 2004 ...

  • News

    Berlinale Talent Campus receives 2,500 applications

    2004-11-15T04:00:00Z

    The third edition of the Berlinale's Talent Campus hasreceived 2,500 applications for the 500 places available at the event (Feb12-17) during next year's film festival.While the number of countries sending entries increased from101 to 104, the total number of entries was more than 25% less than last year's3,500. (The first ...

  • News

    Local films fuel German box office boom

    2004-11-12T04:00:00Z

    Over 115m admissions have been registered atGermany's cinemas in the first nine months of 2004, up 12.7m on 2003's 102.5mfor the same period, according to figures collated by the German Federal FilmBoard (FFA).The FFA noted thatadmissions increased year-on-year by almost 89% in July, 21% in August and 12%in September.Thanks to ...

  • News

    Sci-fi spoof set for Turkey blast off

    2004-11-12T04:00:00Z

    One million tickets have been sold in advancefor the first ever Turkish sci-fi comedy G.O.R.A. which is released byWarner Bros. in 460 cinemas - almost half of the available screens - throughoutTurkey on November 12 (Friday).Speaking to ScreenDaily.com, BirolAkbaba, head of international sales for the film's production company BesiktasKultur Merkezi ...

  • News

    Media Luna picks up The Great Water

    2004-11-11T04:00:00Z

    Ivo Trajkov's labour camp drama The GreatWater, Macedonia's entry for the Foreign Language Film Academy Award, isone of five new titles Cologne-based Media Luna Entertainment has added to thesales line-up.Described as "a powerful and emotionallymoving epic saga of friendship and betrayal between two boys", Trajkov'sfilm will have its world premiere ...

  • News

    Mouawad's Tideline to open Mannheim festival

    2004-11-11T04:00:00Z

    Canadian filmmaker Wajdi Mouawad's feature debut Tideline(Littoral) will open this year's Mannheim-Heidelberg International FilmFestival on November 19.Mouawad's political parable about war, exile andintegration will be competing with another 21 films in the InternationalCompetition which includes Sarajevo Film Festival winner Mila From Marsby Bulgaria's Zornitsa Sophia, Crossing Europe's winner How I ...

  • News

    Swiss producers welcome new Film Foundation

    2004-11-10T04:00:00Z

    Swissproducers have received a welcome boost with the creation of a Film Foundationin Zurich which aims to have an annual funding budget of at least $7.4m(CHF8.8m).The launchmakes the Foundation one of the leading Swiss film funding institutions afterthe Federal Office for Culture and broadcaster SRG SSR idee suisse.The city of ...

  • News

    Berlinale World Cinema Fund jury named

    2004-11-10T04:00:00Z

    French independent distributor Isabelle Dubar of IDDistribution and Zimbabwe-born festival programme consultant and curator KeithM. Shiri will sit on the four-member international jury which will choose theprojects to be supported by the World Cinema Fund (WCF).The other jury members are the Berlinale's festival directorDieter Kosslick, who set up the Fund ...

  • News

    Kosslick 'confident' Berlinale will meet sellers demands

    2004-11-09T04:00:00Z

    The Berlinale is"absolutely confident" that it will be able to cater for theincreased demand from sales companies at the European Film Market (EFM) nextFebruary in its "transition year" before moving into its new venue atthe Martin Gropius Building from 2006.Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily.com, festival director Dieter Kosslick said that"if the ...

  • News

    Illusive Tracks takes double top at Nordic Film Days

    2004-11-09T00:00:00Z

    The Swedish film IllusiveTracks (Skenbart) by Peter Dalle proved a big hit with both the jury andaudience at this year's Nordic Film Days in Luebeck.The jury gave the Euros 12,500 NDR Promotion Prize toDalle's "frivolous black comedy" for an "excellent screenplay[which] forms the basis for an exceptionally good cast and ...

  • News

    GERMANY 9 November

    2004-11-09T00:00:00Z

    UIP's release of 7 Dwarves attracted another 1.2m cinemagoers in its second weekendto bring the admissions tally up to 3.5m so far and a box office gross of$26m-plus.The comedy, which is already now moresuccessful than Otto's previous film outings - Otto - Der Katastrofenfilm and Otto- Der Liebesfilm -, again ...

  • News

    Schizo takes top prize at Cottbus festival

    2004-11-07T00:00:00Z

    Guka Omarova's feature debut Schizo(Schiza) picked up the Main Prize for Best Film at this year's FilmFestivalCottbus - Festival of East European Cinema (November 2-6).TheRussian-Kazakh-French-German co-production, which was previously awarded prizesat festivals in Sochi, Copenhagen and Haifa, also won the InternationalFederation of Film Societies' Don Quixote Prize. (For Schizo review, ...

  • News

    German exhibitors angered by window wavering

    2004-11-05T04:00:00Z

    The German exhibitors association HDF has calledon distributors to honour the six-month window for theatrical releases afterseveral cases of films appearing on DVD/video before six months had elapsed.HDF managing director Andreas Kramer said that'the six month exploitation window for feature films must remain a basicconstant factor. A general reduction will ...

  • News

    GERMANY 3 November

    2004-11-03T00:00:00Z

    UIP's release of 7Dwarves (7 Zwerge - Maenner Allein Im Wald) blasted into the German Top 15at No. 1 taking over $ 11.7m with a tremendous $ 15,076 screen average from its777 screens.Starring the creme de la creme of German comic talent suchas Otto Waalkes, Atze Schroeder, Christian Tramitz and ...

  • News

    European regional funding network swells its ranks

    2004-10-27T04:00:00Z

    The UK's Screen South, Sweden's Film I Vast and Spain's IVACLa Filmoteca are among eight regional film funders who have swelled the ranksof the Cine-Regio network of European funding agencies to bring the membershipup to 13.Part-financed by the European Union's Interreg IIICprogramme, the Cine-Regio network was launched at the beginning ...

  • News

    Emmerich strikes first look deal with German fund

    2004-10-26T04:00:00Z

    Director Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow) has signed a "first look" agreement withthe German private media fund VIP for his own in-house developed film projectsas opposed to those offered to him by Hollywood studios.As part of the agreement, the German-born director and VIP'sAndreas Schmid are planning to set up ...

  • News

    Czech features dominate Cottbus market

    2004-10-26T04:00:00Z

    New Czech feature projects dominate this year's ConnectingCottbus East-West co-development market which will be held during theFilmFestival Cottbus - Festival of East European Cinema (Nov 2-6) from November4-5.Five of the 13 projects selected from nine countries for themarket will be pitched by Czech production houses, including Bionaut Films (TheCarp), Endorfilm ...

  • News

    Bavaria closes further Bombon sales

    2004-10-26T04:00:00Z

    Bavaria Film International (BFI) has closed further sales onArgentine director Carlos Sorin's Bombon - El Perro following its market screening at MIFED.Deals for all of the Germanspeaking territories were concluded with Alamode Film (Germany), Poly Film(Austria) and Trigon Film (Switzerland), while all rights were also sold toMikado Film (Italy), Arthaus ...