All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 166
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Euros 50m German fund lines up US indie projects
US independent producers Inferno Distribution, Bob YariProductions and Internationalmedia are being lined up as possible sources ofprojects for a new Academy Film Fund launched by ABN Amro's private bankDelbrueck Bethmann Maffei (DBM).The Academy Film Fund aims to have a volume of at leastEuros 50m and would finance the production of ...
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Berlinale launches World Cinema Fund
After three years ofpreparation, the Berlinale's World Cinema Fund (WCF) has been launched with anannual budget of Euros 500,000. The funds are to be provided over the nextthree years by the German Federal Cultural Foundation to support the productionand distribution of films from Latin America, Africa, and the MiddleEast/Central Asia.According ...
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GERMANY 5 October
Constantin's The Downfall - Germany's entry for theForeign Language Oscar - held on to the top spot for a third week in a row andpassed the 2m admissions barrier with a total gross of over $18.3m.With Les Choristes slipping out of the Top10, another Constantin release - Franziska Buch's family ...
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Molfenter named as Babelsberg managing director
Babelsberg's new owners have appointed Henning Molfenter asmanaging director of Studio Babelsberg Motion Pictures (SBMP).It is the first major personnel decision made by CarlWoebcken and Christoph Fisser since they officially took over the German studiosfrom Vivendi Universal on September 1.Molfenter replaces Thierry Potok, who attempted anunsuccessful management buyout of the ...
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Bier's Brothers wins again
Susanne Bier's Brothershas won the Hamburg Film Critics' Prize, which was awarded at theFilmfest Hamburg for the first time this year. The win comes just days after Brothers won two best acting Golden Shells at the SanSebastian film festival.The critics' jury - which included representatives ofthe Der Spiegel and Stern ...
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Bavaria takes on (T)Raumschiff Surprise sales
Bavaria Film International will handle theinternational sales for Michael "Bully" Herbig's local blockbuster (T)RaumschiffSurprise - Period 1 which has been seen by over nine million cinema-goersin Germany this year. It is currently the territory's most successful releasewith a box-office gross of over Euros 50m.The sci-fi spoof will have its market ...
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US studios return to tap German funds
20th Century Fox, New Line and Universal Studiosare looking to benefit once more from three new placements by German privatemedia funds this autumn.German fund specialist DCM Deutsche CapitalManagement (DCM) is launching a new fund to raise Euros 150m for projects to beproduced at 20th Century Fox.DCM has previously collaborated withInternationalmedia ...
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GERMANY 28 September
Oliver Hirschbiegel's TheDownfall easily defended the top spot from new releases in its second week,increasing its box-office takings by 18% and admissions by 20% with a screenaverage of $ 10,582 from 483 prints. After ten days in the cinemas, the WorldWar II drama has been seen by more than 1.36m ...
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Solo takes German rights to Bier's Brothers
Germany's Solo Film Verleih has picked up Susanne Bier'spowerful and moving drama Brothers (Brodere)which won two Silver Shells for lead actors Connie Nielsen and Ulrich Thomsenat the San Sebastian Film Festival at the weekend.Bier and the film's screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen willbe coming to the Filmfest Hamburg for the German ...
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Germany names Downfall as Oscar contender
Oliver Hirschbiegel's World War II drama The Downfall(Der Untergang) has been selected as theGerman entry to compete in the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Filmcategory.The independent jury charged with selecting the film saidthat it succeeded in achieving a 'powerful and demystifying cinematicrealisation of the last days of Adolf Hitler and ...
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German funder dishes out Euros 4.2m to co-productions
A film about aclassical music love triangle and a feature about World War 1 nurses are among13 international co-productions awarded over Euros 4.2m in support byDuesseldorf-based Filmstiftung NRW in its latest round of funding.The largest amount - Euros 1m - went to HelmaSanders-Brahms' costume drama Clara about the love triangle ...
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GERMANY 22 SEPTEMBER
It was not surprising afterall the media buzz surrounding the portrayal of Hitler's last days in thebunker that Constantin Film's release of Oliver Hirschbiegel's The Downfall(Der Untergang) should come in at number one.The $ 4.3m four-day grossfrom 405 screens was the second strongest opening for a German film this yearfollowing ...
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ProSiebenSat.1 launches inhouse sales outfit
Germany'sProSiebenSat.1 group has launched an in-house sales outfit SevenOneInternational which will have its market premiere at the forthcoming MIPCOM(October 4-8).The new company will be headed by Jens Richterwho was managing director of KirchMedia's international sales operation BetaFilm from 2000 until May this year. Since leaving Beta Film, Richter has beenworking ...
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Senator unveils details of post insolvency plans
Senator Entertainment plans to focus its futureoperations on the core business of its three 100% subsidiaries Senator FilmProduktion, Senator Film Verleih and Central Film Vertriebs once it has beendischarged from insolvency proceedings.However, it will selloff its interest in LA-based international sales outfit Senator Internationalas part of the insolvency plan drawn ...
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Senator saved as creditors agree restructuring plan
The future of SenatorEntertainment has become much brighter after the producer-distributor's100-plus creditors agreed unanimously at a meeting in Berlin today (Wednesday)to accept the insolvency restructuring plan drawn up by the court-appointedreceiver Rolf Rattunde.Rattunde said that the plan meant that the filmconcern's existing range of services - encompassing production, distributionand world ...
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GERMANY 14 September
The first four days of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village was the strongest openingever for one of his films in Germany and the weekend's best screen average of$7,370. The Buena Vista release toppled the Vin Diesel vehicle The Chronicles Of Riddick which had onlyheld on to the top position for ...
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Record summer for German box office
Germany has witnessed a box office boom over the summermonths, with new figures showing admissions and takings to be at an all timehigh for the key May-August period.Box office takings of Euros 302.7m and admissions of 51.8mare more than 30% higher compared to the same period last year (Euros 216.6mand ...
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Revamp for Export-Union of German Cinema
The international representation of German filmsreceived a boost this week with the Export-Union of German Cinema opening itsdoors to six new shareholders in a revamped agency called German Films Service+ Marketing.The existing shareholders of the Association ofGerman Feature Film Producers, the Association of New German Feature FilmProducers, the Association of ...
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Swiss films target international audiences
At the beginning of thisyear, Andrea Willson, the head of former Deutsche Columbia PicturesFilmproduktion, was recruited by the Swiss rights trader/distributor FalcomMedia Group to manage the company's expansion into German language production.The plan was for Willson toconcentrate on the development and production of feature films for the Germanspeaking area and ...
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Mila From Mars delights Sarajevo
Bulgarian first-time filmmaker Sophia Zornitsa's Mila From Mars (Mila Ot Mars) was thesurprise winner of the Euros 25,000 Best Film Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival's Regional Competition, beating offopposition from the festival audience favourites of Albanian Gjergi Xhuvani's Dear Enemy (I Dashur Armik) and CroatianArsen Anton Ostojic's A Wonderful ...