All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 183
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German veterans launch Living Pictures fund
Veteran fund initiator Rudolf Wiesmeier and Gerhard Schmidt's Cologne-based production house Gemini Film have joined forces to launch a Euros 150m fund to back a portfolio of internationally marketable English-language feature films.According to Schmidt the fund, called Living Pictures, is in negotiations with Danny de Vito's Jersey Films and Jan ...
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Diamant to launch sales company with Lamping
X-Men 2 screenwriter Dan Harris' directorial debut Imaginary Heroes will be the first film to be handled by new international sales outfit Signature Pictures International (SPI) - a subsidiary of Moshe Diamant's production outfit Signature Entertainment Inc. Diamant and Jan Fantl's Cologne-based Quality International are the investment partners in SPI, ...
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Telepool to conduct sales for musical pair
Telepool has picked up international sales on two theatrical music documentaries: Thomas Riedelsheimer's Heartbeat and Gandulf Hennig's Fallen Angel - Gram Parsons.Riedelsheimer, who received a Golden Lola at the German Film Awards this year for his internationally successful documentary Rivers And Tides, has been working since autumn 2002 on ...
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Senator still in red despite Good Bye, Lenin!
German producer-distributor Senator Entertainment has posted an operating loss of Euros 6.9m for the first six months of 2003.Earlier this year, Senator posted a massive net loss of Euros 178.2m for the 2002 financial year Turnover in the first six months of 2003 stood at Euros 25.8m - down Euros ...
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German cinema admissions plummet
Admissions and box-office takings in German cinemas fell year-on-year by 11.3% and 12.5% respectively in the first half of 2003, according to the latest figures from the country's Federal Film Board (FFA).However, German films recorded their highest market share -16.1% - for six years thanks to the huge success of ...
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ProSiebenSat.1 strikes Paramount output deal
Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 Group has concluded an exclusive output deal with Paramount Pictures for the free TV rights to the US major's films from 2002-2005.The package includes such feature films as Mission: Impossible 3, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Star Trek - Nemesis, The Core, and Changing Lanes ...
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Locarno winning producers unveil Unlimited slate
Unlimited, the pan-European producers network behind Pakistani director Sabiha Sumar's Locarno winning film Silent Waters, has unveiled a new slate The slate includes new projects by Mikhail Kobakhidze (Georgia), Didi Danquart (Germany), Haile Gerima (Ethiopia), and Shaji N. Karun (India)."Silent Waters is a kind of pilot project for Unlimited and ...
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Wind blows to UK and Switzerland
Tom Barman's Any Way The Wind Blows, which had its international premiere in Locarno's competition, has been picked up by Axiom Films for the UK and Agora Films for Switzerland. The film, which will be screening at the forthcoming Montreal World Film Festival, will be released in the Netherlands by ...
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Sea Of Silence, Dutch Light to open Benelux Screenings
World premieres of Stijn Coninx's Sea Of Silence and Pieter-Rim and Maarten de Kroon's documentary Dutch Light will open the newly established Benelux Screenings of the Holland Film Meeting at the Netherlands Film Festival on September 26.The Dutch-Belgian-German-Danish co-production Sea Of Silence was pitched at the Netherlands Production Platform of ...
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Silent Waters makes a splash at Locarno
For a second year running, the winner of Locarno's Golden Leopard took everyone by surprise: Pakistani filmmaker Sabiha Sumar's Silent Waters (Khamosh Pani) came away with the top honour after festival-goers had been putting their money on Korea's Kim Ki-Duk going for gold with his latest film Spring, Summer, Fall, ...
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Kinowelt and Ottfilm mull collaboration plans
A closer working collaboration between German distributors Kinowelt and Ottfilm looks to be on the cards.The two are planning to jointly release Lone Scherfig's Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself on September 18, with Filmwelt acting as an agency to handle the film's physical distribution. Kinowelt's Georg Miros told ScreenDaily.com that ...
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Bignardi counters 'lack of glamour' criticism
"We are not here for promoting films, but to make a festival", festival director Irene Bignardi declared in response to BVI Switzerland Roger Crotti's criticisms early this week of the Piazza Grande open-air programme and of the absence of glamour at the festival.In an exclusive interview with ScreenDaily.com, Bignardi observed ...
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Locarno Piazza programme comes in for criticism
Locarno's Piazza Grande open-air programme has come under harsh criticism from Roger Crotti, general manager and vice president of Buena Vista International (Switzerland) - whose world premiere screening of Nigel Cole's Calendar Girls was seen by an audience of 9,500 on Saturday (Aug 9).In an interview with the Swiss daily ...
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Swiss producers set for broadcaster boost
Swiss public broadcaster SRG SSR plans to inject an additional US$11m (CHF15m) into the local film industry between 2004-2007.SRG SSR director-general Armin Walpen revealed at the Locarno Film Festival this week that the TV station proposes to provide an additional US$2.7m per year on top of the current annual budget ...
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Kim's Spring, Summer gathers Locarno heat
Prolific Korean film-maker Kim Ki-duk's Locarno competition film Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...And Spring has been picked up by Israel's United King Films. "Strong interest" has also been reported from Brazil by sales agent Bavaria Film International after Wednesday's press show and ahead of today's public world premiere screening.The tale about ...
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Currency crunch hits Internationalmedia
Internationalmedia(IM) - parent company of Intermedia - has blamed currency imbalances between the Euro and the Dollar for a 5.7% year on year revenue fall in the first half of 2003.IM's CEO Moritz Borman said that "had the Euro and the Dollar maintained their comparative values from a year ago, ...
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Swiss producers set for government funding boost
Swiss Federal President and Minister of Culture Pascal Couchepin has proposed that the national cinema funding budget should be increased by up to 15%. At the same time, however, he called on Swiss producers to be more commercially minded in the future.Speaking during the weekend at the Locarno International Film ...
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Constantin figures show sales plunge
Germany's Constantin Film has cut its sales forecast for 2003, blaming factors such as the hot summer weather and the 'shakeout of the German media market' for the revision.Releasing its half-yearly and second quarter figures today (Aug 13), the Munich-based producer-distributor announced sales of Euros 36m, compared to Euros 63.4m ...
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VIP Group fund backs first German film
Munich-based media fund VIP Group boarded its first local German-language project, co-producing the latest feature film with German comic Otto Waalkes, Sieben Zwerge - Maenner Allein Im Wald (Seven Dwarves - Men Along In The Forest), directed by Sven Unterwaldt.The comedy, which is currently being shot in the Cologne MMC ...
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Universal looks to tap new German fund
Universal Studios is set to benefit from a private media fund being prepared by Munich-based Hannover Leasing with a fund volume of up to Euros 250m.If all goes according to schedule, the fund will be brought onto the market at the end of August, inviting private individuals to invest a ...