All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 178

  • News

    Rosenstrasse producer joins Canada's True West

    2003-11-26T00:00:00Z

    Germany's Henrik Meyer, one of the producers of Margarethe von Trotta's Venice prize-winner Rosenstrasse, has joined Elizabeth Yake's British Columbia-based production outfit True West Films as a vice president and partner.Speaking to ScreenDaily.com at this year's Mannheim Co-Production Meetings, Yake explained that they had both been looking for international partners ...

  • News

    Denmark's Ost takes trio from Brussels AVE

    2003-11-26T00:00:00Z

    Danish distributor Ost for Paradis has picked up all rights to three titles handled by Belgian-based Brussels AVE, in a deal struck at this week's Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival.The films are Mannheim-Heidelberg's International Competition film I Always Wanted To Be A Saint (J'ai Toujours Voulu Etre Une Sainte) by Luxembourg ...

  • News

    Diagonale dismisses Austrian film curator

    2003-11-26T00:00:00Z

    With just over three months to go, the beleaguered 'official' Diagonale 04 festival has given its Austrian films curator Wolfgang Ainberger his marching orders after his criticism of the festival's directors was made public in the Austrian media last week (ScreenDaily.com, 24 Nov 2003).In an official statement, the Diagonale's director ...

  • News

    Oz group plans Kieft & Kieft takeover

    2003-11-25T04:00:00Z

    Australia's Amalgamated Holdings (AHL) is planning a complete takeover of Germany's largest exhibitor Kieft & Kieft.According to press reports AHL, whose subsidiary Greater Union has had a 50% stake in Kieft & Kieft since 1998, has issued a letter of intent indicating that it is interested in acquiring the remaining ...

  • News

    Koelmels face charges for bankruptcy delay

    2003-11-25T04:00:00Z

    The spectre of the former Kinowelt's demise is coming back to haunt brothers Michael and Rainer Koelmel with news that Munich's public prosecutor's office may bring charges against the brothers for delaying the declaration of the bankruptcy of Kinowelt Medien.The prosecutor's spokesman Anton Winkler told the news weekly Focus that ...

  • News

    GERMANY

    2003-11-25T00:00:00Z

    Finding Nemo exceeded even the wildest hopes of exhibitors, who are in desperate need of a good fourth quarter, by scoring over 2m admissions (without previews) and Euros 13.3m in box office takings from its 1,004 prints. Not only was the Buena Vista release the best opening of 2003 ...

  • News

    'Original' Diagonale squares up against 'official' Diagonale

    2003-11-24T04:00:00Z

    The supporters of Austria's 'original Diagonale' have unveiled their plans for a four-day event in Graz between March 3-7, 2004 while the 'official' Diagonale O4 under the management of Tillmann Fuchs and Miroljub Vuckovic seems to be on the verge of imploding."The 'original Diagonale' will take place because it has ...

  • News

    German exhibitors rage at funding proposals

    2003-11-21T04:00:00Z

    German exhibitors are considering taking legal action against the new Film Funding Law (FFG) which is set come into effect on January 1, 2004.The law means that cinemas will be obliged to contribute an average of 2.7% of their gross turnover to the financing of the Federal Film Board (FFA), ...

  • News

    Highlight figures paint mixed picture of Constantin takeover

    2003-11-21T00:00:00Z

    Highlight Communications' takeover of Germany's Constantin Film has had mixed results, according to the Swiss media concern's nine-month figures.On the one hand, profits dropped. Highlight reported a 41% contraction in operating profit to $11.3m (CHF 14.7m) due to the net loss contributed by Constantin. Revenues, however grew. Following the takeover ...

  • News

    Germany rides DVD boom

    2003-11-21T00:00:00Z

    Germany's home entertainment market has posted record results for the first nine months of 2003 thanks to the ever increasing popularity of the DVD.New figures published by the trade association BVV (Bundesverbandes audiovisuelle Medien) show overall turnover for the sector grew year-to-year by 10.4% from Euros 888.5m to Euros 981m.This ...

  • News

    Germany funds new projects from award winning directors

    2003-11-21T00:00:00Z

    New projects by Christian Petzold and Iain Dilthey are the among new features awarded a total of Euros 1.48m by State Minister for Culture and Media Christina Weiss in her ministry's latest round of film funding.Petzold, who received the top German Film Award for The State I Am In two ...

  • News

    Fresh blow for Graz's Diagonale festival

    2003-11-20T04:00:00Z

    The future of Graz's Diagonale festival under the new management of Miroljub Vuckovic and Tillmann Fuchs has been dealt another blow with the news that Graz's city council has decided to also provide funding for the rival event being planned by the filmmaking community (ScreenDaily.com, 29 Oct).According to the Austrian ...

  • News

    GERMANY

    2003-11-18T00:00:00Z

    Matrix Revolutions may have held on to the top spot for a second weekend, but the Warner Bros release saw admissions slide by 60% compared to the opening four days and the chances of matching the performances of the first two Matrix films fading into the distance. The German-US co-production ...

  • News

    Rebic's Donau to open Mannheim-Heidelberg

    2003-11-18T00:00:00Z

    Goran Rebic's 'river movie' Donau, Dunaj, Duna, Dunav, Dunarea will open this year's Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival (Nov 20-29).The festival's 23-title International Competition includes the Oscar entries from Uruguay (El Viaje Hacia El Mar by Guillermo Casanova) and Luxembourg (J'ai Toujours Voulu Etre Une Sanite by Genevieve Mersch). Over a ...

  • News

    7 Brothers wins Luenen's Kinofest

    2003-11-17T00:00:00Z

    The documentary 7 Brothers (7 Brueder) by first-time filmmaker Sebastian Winkels picked up this year's Luedia at Luenen's Kinofest for German films (November 13-16).In addition to the Euros 7,500 cash prize, Winkels will have his film subtitled in English by the German Federal Film Board and receive a prominent Saturday ...

  • News

    German fund commits to two new projects

    2003-11-14T04:05:00Z

    The production fund Studio Hamburg WorldWide Pictures (WWP) has boarded another two projects - the family film Chestnut: Hero Of Central Park and the fantasy adventure Dungeons & Dragons: The Sequel - as part of a slate of up to seven English language features with budgets between $5m-$20m.Chestnut, which is ...

  • News

    Local films buck Germany's downward admissions trend

    2003-11-14T04:05:00Z

    Cinema admissions and box office takings continued their downward trend into the third quarter of 2003, according to figures published by the German Federal Film Board (FFA). While the second quarter had seen a 11.7% drop in admissions over the same period in 2002, this grew to 12.1% in the ...

  • News

    Winterbottom, Chereau, Kaurismaki to speak at EFA conference

    2003-11-13T04:05:00Z

    Directors Michael Winterbottom, Patrice Chereau and Mika Kaurismaki and Isabelle Coixet as well as producer Nik Powell - in his new incarnation as the UK's National Film & Television School chief - are among the speakers recruited by the European Film Academy (EFA) for its conference "Let's Talk About Content!" ...

  • News

    75% more entries for 2nd Berlinale Talent Campus

    2003-11-13T04:05:00Z

    The Berlinale Talent Campus has received 75% more applications for next year's event with 3,500 entries coming from 101 countries, compared to 2,000 from 70 countries for the first edition last February.Talent Campus project manager Christine Dorn told ScreenDaily.com that applications had come from countries like Mali, Azerbaijan, Syria, Senegal ...

  • News

    German blockbuster opens London festival of German cinema

    2003-11-12T00:00:00Z

    Germany's current blockbuster The Miracle Of Bern, which has grossed over $ 14.5m in its first four weeks of release in German cinemas, will open this year's Festival of German Cinema in London on November 27 with director Soenke Wortmann and lead actors Peter Lohmeyer and Louis Klamroth (who are ...