All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 168
-
News
Studio Hamburg threatens to move to Berlin
In a reaction to the Hamburg Senate's planned cut to itsfilm funding budget, Studio Hamburg - which is currently negotiating a takeoverof the Babelsberg studios - has threatened to move its production apparatus toBerlin.Speaking to of Die Welt, Studio Hamburg chief Martin Willichsaid that "on 23 July our supervisory board ...
-
News
Leigh named as Sarajevo jury president
UK director Mike Leigh is to serve as the president of theInternational Jury at this year's Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF) (August 20-28).He will be joined in judging up to 10 films from eightcountries - ex-Yugoslavia, Albania, Romania and Bulgaria - in the RegionalProgramme by the Tribeca Film Festival's Peter Scarlet, ...
-
News
Akin's Head-On dominates German Film Awards
Fatih Akin's Golden Bear-winning Head-On (Gegen DieWand) was the big victor at this year's German Film Awardsin Berlin on Friday evening (June 18).The film bagged five Golden Lolas in total - for bestfilm, best direction, best lead actress (Sibel Kekilli), best lead actor (BirolUenel) and best cinematography (Rainer Klausmann).Silver Lolas ...
-
News
Cinerenta boss quits to launch own production outfit
Marco Mehlitz is leaving his job as CEO andmanaging director of Munich-based production fund Cinerenta to set up his ownproduction outfit.Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily.com,Mehlitz explained that his Berlin/Babelsberg-based company would focus on internationalEnglish-language feature films to be financed via private placements and funds.The as-yet-unnamed company will develop projects for production ...
-
News
Senator shareholders agree restructuring plan
The restructuring plan for the insolvent SenatorEntertainment negotiated its first hurdle at an extraordinary AGM convened bythe court-appointed receiver Rolf Rattunde in Berlin on Thursday (June 17).At the meeting in Hotel Berlin, the shareholdersagreed to a capital reduction of 90% and a subsequent capital increase in orderto clear the way ...
-
News
Hamburg film fund rocked by budget cut plans
Hamburg's film scene has been rocked by plans unveiled bynewly appointed Culture Senator Karin von Welck to slash the city's support ofFilmFoerderung Hamburg (FFH) from Euros 7m to Euros 3.5m for 2005/6.FFH currently has an annual budget of around Euros 9m madeup of contributions from Hamburg itself and public broadcasters ...
-
News
Berlin launches film fund for developing countries
The Berlinale has been awarded Euro 1.5m initially for the next three years to set up a World Cinema Fund for the support of filmmakers from developing countries and to increase the profile of their films in German cinemas.The funding from the Federal Cultural Foundation(Kulturstiftung des Bundes) is the result ...
-
News
GERMANY 16 June
Its takings may have slipped week-on-week by 35%, but Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban easilyheld on to the top spot with over 1.2m admissions - more than the rest of theTop 15 put together - .and a screen average of $8,018 from its 1,214 screens.The weekend's best screen ...
-
News
Berlinale mourns passing of Werner Gondolf
The Berlinale is mourning the passing of Werner Gondolf, thefestival's chief programmer for over 30 years, at the age of 61 after a longillness.In a tribute, festival director Dieter Kosslick said Gondolfwas "an institution at the Berlinale and nobody knew its ins and outs aswell as he did. Respected by ...
-
News
Intertainment, Franchise judgement expected next week
The final judgement in the damages lawsuitbetween Germany's Intertainment and Franchise Pictures is now expected to bemade sometime next week at the earliest.In a press statement, Intertainment explained thatquestioning of the witnesses had been completed on Tuesday (June 8) and thefinal summing up by the lawyers of both parties was ...
-
News
Senator unveils details of bankruptcy rescue plan
The restructuring of German producer/distributorSenator Entertainment could be completed by the end of September, according toplans which will be presented at an extraordinary shareholders assembly nextweek by the court-appointed receiver Rolf Rattunde.The restructuring plan would, in a first step,see the shareholders agreeing to a capital reduction of 90% in order ...
-
News
Schloendorff in favour of MBO option for Babelsberg
Former Babelsberg studio boss Volker Schloendorff has spokenout in favour of the bid by the current management under Thierry Potok for thehistorical production centre as talks continue with Vivendi Universal on thestudio's future.In an interview with the German daily newspaper Die Welt,Schloendorff expressed doubts about the feature film ambitions of ...
-
News
GERMANY 9 June
Unsurprisingly, the third instalment of the Harry Potterfranchise had the best opening weekend of the year so far. Launched with 1,204prints, the film posted the sixth best-ever opening weekend and the best everopening outside of the months of November and December.Askaban's 2m-plusadmissions (including Wednesday evening screenings) were, however, some way ...
-
News
Berlinale calls on film-makers to shoot football films
The Berlinale Talent Campus has launched a shortfilm competition - Shoot Goals! Shoot Movies! - for film-makers toillustrate their passion for the game of football as well as the fans and theculture it generates in their respective countries.According to the guidelines of the competition,submissions in either dramatic, documentary or animated ...
-
News
Munich fest to open with Pearl Earring
Peter Webber's Oscar-nominated Girl With A Pearl Earringwill be the opening film at this year's Munich Film Festival which begins onJune 26.The eight-day festival, which is the first under the management ofAndreas Stroehl, will also include screenings in of such films as WalterSalles' The Motorcycle Diaries, Ivan Fila's King Of ...
-
News
Raggy Boy wins top Emden festival prize
Aisling Walsh's Song For A Raggy Boy was presented with theEuros 10,000 Bernhard Wicki Prize at this year's Emden-Aurich-Norderney FilmFestival in the north-western corner of Germany.Second and third prizes in this competition for feature films fromthe German-speaking countries and North-Western Europe went to Ben Sombogaart'sTwin Sisters and Paul Morrison's Wondrous ...
-
News
German distributors take Les Choristes, Kontroll
Germany's Constantin Film has acquired thetheatrical and DVD/video rights for Germany and Austria for ChristopheBarratier's French box-office sensation Les Choristes from veteranproducer Arthur Cohn.Constantin will release Les Choristesunder the German title of Die Kinder Des Monsieur Mathieu on August 26.Meanwhile, German rights trader Tiberius Filmhas picked up all German language ...
-
News
GERMANY 3 June
German-born director Roland Emmerich's disaster epic The Day After Tomorrow became the secondrelease this year after Wolfgang Petersen's Troyto clock up over 1m admissions on its opening weekend as it entered at No. 1.The 20th Century Fox release, which was the only new entryinto the weekend's Top 15, posted over ...
-
News
German producer urges local cinema to get global
Just three weeks before the German Film Awards on June 18,X-Filme creative pool's Stefan Arndt has called for German film producers toshow more self-confidence and a greater global approach.In a guest commentary for the Berlin daily newspaper DerTagespiegel, Arndt writes "producers are not particularly popular inGermany. The first larger financing ...
-
News
German home entertainment market hits new heights
The German home entertainment market has postedrecord turnover in the first three months of 2004 thanks to the ever increasingpopularity of DVDs.According to GfK Panel Services ConsumerResearch, the turnover from the sale and rental of DVDs and video cassettessurpassed the previous record of 2003's Euro 334.3m by 8.1% with Euro ...