All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 186
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News
Sony strikes 'three digit million' German TV deal
Sony Pictures Entertainment's (SPE) latest blockbusters Terminator 3, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and Spider-Man are among 80 feature film titles acquired by Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 Group in an exclusive free-TV deal for all of SPE's output from 2001-2003.The package, which was concluded with Sony Pictures Television International for a reported three ...
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Cottbus focuses on new Russian cinema
New Russian cinema will be in the spotlight at this year's Filmfest Cottbus (November 4-8) and the Connecting Cottbus market forum (November 4-5).The festival focus will feature programmes of contemporary young Russian cinema and leading productions of the past decade. There will also be showcases of video art and co-productions ...
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Germany benefits as kids stay in the picture
Although the German box office is significantly down for the first six months of this year, there is one bright spot: German market share has climbed up to 14.3% from an overall 11.9% for 2002 (Screen Daily, July 11).Part of this upswing is being driven by an unlikely source: German ...
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Berlin signs up with European Film Festival network
The Berlin International Film Festival has become the first A-list festival to sign up as a member of the European Coordination of Film Festivals (ECFF), a network of over 200 festivals across Europe dedicated to the promotion and circulation of European cinema.ECFF President Thom Palmen told Screen Daily said that ...
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Wenders wrests back control of back catalogue
Wim Wenders is understood to have successfully taken back control of the copyright to his own back catalogue of some 20 films, such as The American Friend and Paris, Texas.Earlier this year, it looked as if Wenders may lose the copyrights to the films, after Das Werk - parent company ...
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Intertainment results hit by Franchise dispute
German licence trader and producer Intertainment has blamed its failure to return to profit in the 2002 financial year on the "ongoing negative effects" of its dispute with US producer Franchise Pictures.Intertainment's spat with Franchise has been dragging on since 2000, when the company alleged that Franchise and its principals ...
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German exhibitor files for bankruptcy
North Rhine-Westphalian exhibitor Gerd Politt has become the latest prominent figure in the German media scene to file for insolvency proceedings. The insolvency affects his screens in Soest and Recklinghausen and the five-screen Cineworld complex in Luenen, which only opened its doors in 2001 and has served since then as ...
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German box office, admissions fall sharply
German cinema admissions and box office revenues fell by 10.9% and 12.2% respectively in the first six months of 2003 compared to the same period last year, according to statistics compiled by Nielsen EDI.Around 67.46m cinemagoers were registered until June 29 - compared to 75.2m in 2002 - while box ...
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German tax incentives could double local production spend
The introduction of tax incentives similar to the UK's sale and leaseback model or the Canadian tax credits system could result in a doubling of production expenditure in Germany over the next five to seven years, according to the producer pressure group film20.In a study commissioned from the economist and ...
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UK to have strong presence at CARTOON Forum
Animation shorts from the UK and France have been nominated to the final five for this year's Cartoon D'Or prize which will be presented at the CARTOON Forum in Varese, Italy (September 17-20).The five nominees are: Dog by Suzie Templeton (UK)Ligne De Vie by Serge Auedikian (France)NSPCC: Cartoon by Russell ...
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New German production outfit targets Czech talent
Pandora Filmproduktion's Karl Baumgartner has launched a new production outpost, Pallas Film, in the east German town of Halle to focus on projects with filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe.One of Pallas Film's first projects will be a feature film entitled Happiness by Czech director Bohdan Slama whose quirky Wild ...
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CineMedia shares soar as Tele Muenchen ups stake
CineMedia Film's shares soared by over 29% on Tuesday from 93 cents to Euros 1.20 on the news that the Tele Muenchen Group (TMG) has reached agreement with Amsterdam-based German Equity Partners BV (GEP) to acquire all of its 905,000 shares.This transaction, which is expected to be completed in the ...
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Arndt to produce Roehler's Agnes
X-Filme creative pool's Stefan Arndt, named European Producer of the Year at last month's Cinema Expo in Amsterdam, wasn't planning to produce any features this year after the demanding production history of Wolfgang Becker's Good Bye, Lenin!But Arndt was tempted back into the producer's chair by Oskar Roehler's next feature ...
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OpenPictures and Intertainment seal strategic partnership
Intertainment and Munich-based development, production and distribution company OpenPictures have concluded a strategic partnership which includes a co-operation on jointly financing and marketing international feature films with US major studios and legal financing against Franchise Pictures and other parties involved in a $100m litigation.In a statement, Intertainment said "OpenPictures concurs ...
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German distributors pay back subsidies
Thanks to the commercial success of such releases as the Oscar-winning Nowhere In Africa, scifi horror pic Resident Evil and 2002's top local film Bibi Blocksberg, producer-distributor Constantin Film has been able to pay back more than Euros 1.5m in production and distribution subsidies to the Bavarian public fund FFF ...
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Germany's Helkon Media sells remaining assets
German media group Helkon Media is now practically nothing more than a name after the insolvency administrator Axel W. Bierbach sold the bulk of the film library to the Hamburg-based investment company Aurum Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungs GmbH. The asset deal was greenlit by Helkon's creditor banks and the creditors ...
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Eurimages backs 10 co-productions
New features by Thomas Vinterberg (Dear Wendy), Auli Mantila (Ystavani Henry) and Robinson Savary (Bye-Bye Blackbird) are among ten projects supported with a total of Euros 3.8m by the pan-European co-production fund Eurimages in its latest round of funding decided at a committee meeting in Riga.The complete list of projects ...
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Stuttgart film festival reveals competition line-up
Paula van der Oest's Zus & Zo, the opening film of this year's Filmfest Stuttgart Ludwigsburg (July 10-15, 2003), Lukas Moodysson's Lilya 4-ever, Karim Dridi's Rage and Sandra Goldbacher's Me Without You are among 14 films from 14 European countries competing for around Euros 70,000 in prize money.The international jury ...
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High Hopes Award goes to French producing duo
French producers Jean-Philippe Andraca and Christian Berard of Paris-based Les Films A4 have received the Euros 25,000 High Hopes Award, donated by the German collection society GWFF, for their production of Robert Kechichian's feature debut Aram, which was co-produced with StudioCanal and BAC Films.In its decision, the jury of distribution ...
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Guild of German arthouse cinemas fete Good Bye, Lenin!
Wolfgang Becker's runaway hit Good Bye, Lenin! won the Gold Award in the Best German Film category of the Guild of German Arthouse Cinema Awards at a ceremony in Marburg's Cineplex cinema. Fatih Akin's family drama Solino picked up Silver .In the Best Foreign Film category, the Guild ...