All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 172
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GERMANY 29 June
The highest new entry this week - and the film with thehighest screen average ($4,263) - was Tobis Film's release of Mindhunters which grossed over $660,000in its first four days, but the German box office is still dominated by the toptwo films - Harry Potter 3 and The Day After ...
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Thirty buyers lined up to attend Munich Previews
FineLine, Miramax, France's MK2, Sweden's Nonstop Entertainment, Hungary's BudapestFilm and Australia's SBS are among over 30 international film distributors andTV film buyers attending the Export-Union of German Cinema's Munich Previews,which are being held for the first time during the Munich Film Festival fromJune 27-30.Othercompanies confirmed as coming to Munich are ...
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Babelsberg Film looks to board Macdonald's Last King
Germany's BabelsbergFilm is in negotiations to become a co-producer on Oscar-winning documentaryfilmmaker Kevin Macdonald's fiction feature film debut The Last King OfScotland.ScreenDaily.com has learnt exclusively that the Studio BabelsbergMotion Pictures' production unit - whose previous credits included serving asco-producer on Roman Polanski's Oscar-winning The Pianist, City Of God director Fernando ...
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New blow for Hamburg film fund
FilmFoerderung Hamburg (FFHH) has suffered another blow withthe news that public broadcaster ZDF will terminate its cooperation agreementand annual contribution of Euro 1m at the end of this year.The development is a direct result of Culture Senator Karinvon Welck's proposal to cut the city's contribution to FFHH by 50% to ...
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Edukators star signs for World War II feature
Julia Jentsch, lead actress in HansWeingartner's Cannes competition film The Edukators, has been cast asthe German resistance figure Sophie Scholl in Marc Rothemund's World War IIdrama Sophie Scholl - Die Letzten Tage (Sophie Scholl - The Last Days)which began shooting in Munich on June 12.The screenplay for the World War ...
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GERMANY 24 June
Despite the Football Championship in Portugal Harry Potter held up for its thirdweekend with over 600,000 admissions and another $4.8m takings to gross $35.1mso far. With around 4.5m admissions, HarryPotter 3 is set to be the first release this year to pass 5m admissions.Olga Film's sequel to its Girls On ...
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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 ...
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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, ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...