All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 165
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Locarno director responds to criticism
Locarno Film Festivalartistic director Irene Bignardi has declared herself "very happy" with herfourth event and has defended herself against criticism from former Locarnodirector Moritz de Hadeln."The final result of thisyear's programme saw us able to paint a picture consistent through all thesections showing that we had chosen the right moment ...
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German home entertainment market hits new high
Turnover in the German homeentertainment market continues to boom with revenues from sell-through andrental videos and DVDs increasing by 14% to Euros 720m in the first half of2004, according to the German Federal Film Board (FFA).The results for videosell-through were particularly impressive with overall turnover rising by 19%from 2003's Euros ...
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Euro cinema foundation suspends operations
The MonteCinemaVeritaFoundation, which was one of the backers of this year's Locarno competitionfilm The Hunter (Okhotnik) byKazakhstan's Serik Aprymov, has suspended operations and laid off coordinatorLaurence Hoffmann in order to restructure its organisation.Over the last ten years, theSwiss Foundation has supported the production and post-production of film projectsfrom the South ...
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New Swiss arthouse distributor launches
A new player has appeared on the Swiss distribution scene with thelaunch of Lucerne-based Cinepix Distribution in collaboration with the KiwiGroup arthouse cinema chain.Speaking to Screendaily.com in Locarno this week,Cinepix's managing director Patrick Riesen said that he plans to release 3-5films per year with a particular - although not exclusive ...
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Splendid Film ordered to pay $2.1m to Gold Circle
The future liquidity ofSplendid Film is in jeopardy following a decision ordering it to pay $2.1m toLos Angeles-based Gold Circle Films.This turn of events cameafter the 100% subsidiary of Cologne-based Splendid Medien was ordered to paythe amount by an arbitration board of the Independent Film & Televisionalliance as an additional ...
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Swiss locations receive promotion boost
Switzerland's profile as alocation for international film productions is set to receive a major boostafter the decision by Film Location Switzerland (FLS) to become a member of thepromotion agency Swiss Films.Commenting on the move, SwissFilms' managing director Micha Schiwow explained in Locarno at the weekend thatthis would "complement the activity ...
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Schwarzenegger doc selling well at Locarno
Sales company MGI International has concluded a raft ofdeals on Alex Cooke's documentary HowArnold Won The West which was screened in Locarno's Filmmakers of thePresent Video sidebar.MGI's Claude Nouchi reported that the film about ArnoldSchwarzenegger's election campaign to become Governor of California had been'very well received by the public and ...
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GERMANY 10 August
Constantin Film's release of the camp sci-fi spoof (T)Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1 waspushed off the top spot by the Will Smith futuristic thriller I, Robot with just 4,000 more ticketsbeing sold (698,696 compared to 694,567): the Fox release grossed $ 5.2m on itsopening weekend compared to (T)Raumschiff's$5m which was ...
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First Locarno deals concluded
After only two days, Locarno had already seen its firstdeals concluded by Friday (August 6) before the festival's first weekend.Celluloid Dreams picked up international distribution rightsfor German director-cinematographer Thomas Riedelsheimer's (Rivers And Tides) new documentary Touch The Sound which had its worldpremiere in Locarno's Critics' Week on Sunday evening (Aug ...
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Talent Campus heads to Far East, Latin America
Following the successful staging of Talent Campuses in Kievand New Dehli, the Berlinale Talent Campus plans to further export its conceptto the film festivals in Pusan and Buenos Aires in 2005.This announcement comes after the first Talent Campus India washeld during last month's Osian's Cinefan Film Festival - from July ...
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Hong Kong, Chinese Locarno titles picked up
Hong Kong's Golden Network has picked up world sales rightsfor Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap's second feature Black Friday which screens in Locarno's International Competitionsection this year.Based on a book of the same name by S. Hussain Zaidi, the filmcentres on the terror blasts of 1993 inMumbai, the business capital of ...
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Generation to open new Hungarian festival
Generation, theomnibus film currently in production by six Central and Eastern Europeanfilmmakers (ScreenDaily.com, April2004), will be the opening film at the new Alba Regia International FilmFestival (ARIFF) which is going to be launched in the Hungarian spa town ofSzekesfehervar from June 6-12 2005.The six shorts are being made by Stefan ...
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German cinema admissions set to rise
Cinema attendancein Germany is set to increase between 5%-10%this year, over 2003's 149m, according to Johannes Klingsporn, managingdirector of the German distributors' association Verband der Filmverleiher (VdF).Speaking toScreendaily.com, Klingsporn said that he regarded this forecast as"realistic" in the light of recent blockbusters like Harry Potter 3, Shrek 2 and Spider-Man ...
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Bavaria Film picks up Bombon
Bavaria Film International (BFI) has picked up internationalrights for Argentinian director Carlos Sorin's latest film Bombon - El Perro (aka LeChien).Produced by Guacamole Films and OK! Films (Argentina) inco-production with Madrid-based Wanda Vision, Bombon - El Perro tells the moving story of how life perks up for asweet-natured car mechanic ...
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French-German co-productions receive funding
New features by Cedric Kahn, Bourlem Guerdjou, Pan Nalin andEmmanuelle Bercot have been awarded over Euros 1m by the Franco-German FundingCommittee as part of the "mini-treaty" co-production fund.The largest amount - Euros 300,000 - was granted by the GermanFederal Film Board (FFA) to Nalin's ValleyOf Flowers which is a German ...
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'Bully' tactics prevent film piracy
Constantin Film andHerbX, distributor andproducer of Michael"Bully" Herbig's currentbox-office hit (T)Raumschiff Surprise- Periode 1,have struck ablow against filmpiracy.Constantin hasreported that a special anti-piracystrategy - developed with HerbX - hasso far prevented any piratedcopies of (T)Raumschiff beingproduced from originalsource material. "Thisshows that throughthe massive reductionand checking ofcontacts in thearea of productionand ...
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Matsutani launches UK-based production outfit
German writer-director Rainer Matsutani has set up a newUK-based production house Red Sun Films.Speaking exclusively to Screendaily.com,Matsutani explained that the company's name was inspired by Terence Young's1971 East-meets-West western starring Charles Bronson, Alain Delon, UrsulaAndress and Toshiro Mifune.Matsutani's partners at the London-based outfit are UKproducer Tim Cranage (who worked at ...
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GERMANY 3 August
Although its takings slipped by 45% the scifi spoof (T)Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1 heldonto the top spot with over 1.1m admissions to reach a total gross of $31.9m(Euros 26.5m).After (T)Raumschiff'srecord-breaking opening, another record was broken this week, but this timewith the entry of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit9/11 at the No. ...
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Locarno announces first Excellence Award
Russian actor Oleg Menchikov (pictured) is to be the first recipient of the Locarno Excellence Award, created by the festival to celebrate the work of an actor or actress.Born in 1960, Menchikov has worked in television and film on such productions as Burnt By The Sun, The Barber of Siberia, ...
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Berlin funding agency dishes out Euros 3m
New films by Andreas Dresen, Eoin Moore, Hans-Christian Schmid,John Stephenson and Sven Unterwaldt are among 12 projects backed with overEuros 3m by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg in its latest round of funding.The largest amount - over Euros 1m - went to Constantin Film'sdrama Siegfried, to be directed by Sven Unterwaldt from a ...