All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 184
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News
Flach Pyramide takes on Bosnian Fuse sales
Bosnian director Pjer Zalica's feature debut Fuse (Gori Vatra) which had its world premiere in the Official Competition at the Locarno International Film Festival on August 11, has been picked up for international distribution by Flach Pyramide International.The tragicomedy about a small-town in Bosnia embarking on a race against the ...
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Cuban film-makers pitch projects to Euro financiers
Cuban film-makers pitched a string of projects to potential European co-production partners and buyers at the Locarno International Film Festival over the weekend.Daniel Diaz Torres, Humberto Solas and Humberto Padron were among ten Cuban filmmakers invited to launch the three-year project "Open Doors - World Producers Meet The World Cinema" ...
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Premiere boss ups stake in German pay-TV platform
Georg Kofler, managing director of German pay-TV platform Premiere has more than doubled his shareholding in the subscription service.Kofler's stake has risen from 10.19% to 20.46%, meaning he is now the second largest shareholder after the investment group Permira which will now hold a 54.76% interest.The interests of the other ...
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Calendar Girls packs in Locarno crowd
Boosted by its prime Saturday evening night slot, the world premiere of Nigel Cole's Calendar Girls has proven to be the biggest draw so far at the Locarno International Film Festival. A staggering 9,500 festival-goers packed into Locarno's Piazza Grande town square to watch the film, where seating is officially ...
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News
Calendar Girls packs in Locarno crowd
Boosted by its prime Saturday evening night slot, the world premiere of Nigel Cole's Calendar Girls has proven to be the biggest draw so far at the Locarno International Film Festival. A staggering 9,500 festival-goers packed into Locarno's Piazza Grande town square to watch the film, where seating is officially ...
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Germany secures future of film funds
Germany's Federal Finance Ministry has amended the way German media funds operate, bringing both an end to months of uncertainty about their future and giving investors more control over films in their portfolio.Last year, the future of German funds came under threat after the Finance Ministry proposed tighter regulations governing ...
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Argentinian films hunt for funding at Locarno
The Locarno International Film festival (August 6-16), which kicked off last night, is to hold a co-production workshop focusing entirely on projects from Argentina.New projects by Diego Lerman, director of the Silver Leopard-winning Tan De Repente in Locarno last year, Pablo Trapero (El Bonaerense), Santiago Loza (Extrano) and Juan Manuel ...
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Premiere posts healthier than expected figures
Thanks to substantial growth in revenues and further cost-cutting measures, German pay-TV platform Premiere has revised its predicted operating loss downwards a second time - to less than Euros 40m for 2003.In February, the Premiere had originally forecast a loss of Euros 80m. This was then revised downwards to a ...
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Media Luna picks up Locarno competitor Maria
Media Luna Entertainment has picked up world sales rights for Romanian first time director Calin Netzer's Maria which will receive its world premiere in Locarno Film Festival's Official Competition next Wednesday (August 13).Maria is a co-production by Artis Film Romania with France's Cine-Manufacture and Germany's Pandora Filmproduktion, which will be ...
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Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 returns to profit
Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 Group has posted strong financial results, just days before U.S. investor Haim Saban is likely to sign off on his deal to buy the broadcaster. The ProSiebenSat.1 Group reported a sharp earnings increase in the second quarter of 2003 and posted group pre-tax income for the first six ...
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Bavaria picks up world sales for San Sebastian film
Bavaria Film International (BFI) has picked up world sales rights for Spanish filmmaker Cesc Gay's In The City (En La Ciudad), the follow-up to his internationally successful Krampack.Starring Monica Lopez, Eduard Fernandez and Leonor Watling, the tragicomedy about a group of friends who gradually discover the truth about one another ...
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Locarno shines spotlight on film foundations
Locarno's Film Industry Office is to cast a spotlight on the workings of film foundations such as Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund and Montecinema Verita at this year's festival.Held on August 12, the event will examine the potential role for international sales companies or distributors becoming involved at an early stage ...
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Saban's German bid accepted
KirchMedia's creditors have approved US media mogul Haim Saban's offer to buy a controlling stake in Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 media group.The insolvent KirchMedia announced that its creditor committee had voted unanimously to accept the proposal of insolvency administrator Michael Jaffe to sell KirchMedia's shares in ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG to Saban Capital ...
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Indian film shoots travel to Germany
Germany has hosted a string of Indian shoots in recent months, suggesting that it could follow Switzerland, Austria and Ireland (Screen Daily, July 10) as a destination for Indian film productions."Places like Switzerland and Austria have made it comfortable for Indian units to come and shoot, but the Germans have ...
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Saban submits fresh bid for ProSiebenSat.1
US billionaire Haim Saban is poised to take over 72% of the voting shares in the German broadcasting group ProSiebenSat.1 as part of a bidding alliance with five private equity investors.Sources at the insolvent KirchMedia confirmed press reports on August 4 that a revived bid from Saban would be on ...
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Berlin Talent Campus secures major sponsor, sets deadline
"Let's get passionate about film" is the motto for the Berlinale's second Talent Campus which will be held during next year's film festival from February 7-12.Campus organisers have also revealed that Volkswagen has joined Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the UK's Film Council and the House of World Cultures as one of the ...
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German producer pair relaunch film fund
Producers Eberhard Junkersdorf (pictured) and Dietmar Guentsche have relaunched their media fund Neue Bioskop Germany (NBG) with the support of the Hamburg-based private bank Bankhaus Woelbern to raise private equity for the financing of a raft of German and English language features to be shot in Europe.The original fund, which ...
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Hamburg fest plans Euro hits showcase
A showcase of local European box-office hits is one of the programme innovations being planned for this year's Filmfest Hamburg (Sept 19-26) under the new festival director Albert Wiederspiel.Austria's Poppitz, Sweden's Kops and Italy's Christmas On The Nile (Natale Sul Nilo) are already confirmed for the Eurovisuell sidebar which is ...
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Stuttgart regional body awards film funding
New films by Didi Danquart, Michael Hofmann and Simon Aeby are among the projects supported with a total of Euros 3.1m by the Stuttgart-based regional body MFG Baden-Wurttemberg in its latest round of funding.Euros 500,000 production support was granted for Sophieee!!! filmmaker Hofmann's "impossible love story" Eden, which will be ...
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Cowgirl lines-up Jewish circus artiste co-production
Mark Schlichter and Nicole Kellerhals' Berlin-based production outfit Cowgirl Pictures has acquired the film rights to the journalist Ingeborg Prior's book Der Clown Und Die Zirkusreiterin for Schlichter to direct in summer 2004.Currently under the working title of Circus Girl (Das Leichte Maedchen), the Euros 6m project is being structured ...