All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 190
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News
Chabrol thriller backed by Bavarian fund
Feature projects by veteran French director Claude Chabrol, newcomer director Marco Kreuzpaintner and Mostly Martha's Sandra Nettelbeck are among those receiving a total Euros 1.35m backing from Bavaria's regional public fund FFF Bayern.Over Euros 600,000 were awarded to Kreuzpaintner's coming of age tale Sommersturm, which will be produced by the ...
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Little Polar Bear sequel among films to get German funding
The sequel to the 2001 hit animation feature Der Kleine Eisbaer (The Little Polar Bear) and new films by Grill Point's Andreas Dresen, Mostly Martha's Sandra Nettelbeck and Sonnenallee's Leander Hausmann are among the projects receiving a total of Euros 3.2m from the German Federal Film Board (FFA) in its ...
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Saban resurfaces in KirchMedia bidding
It could be the comeback of the year. Six weeks after making an eleventh hour exit from the bidding for the insolvent KirchMedia, US media tycoon Haim Saban could be back in the picture.According to German press reports this weekend, Saban has rallied the support of a group of financial ...
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Maurice Jarre to receive award at Flanders film festival
Veteran French composer Maurice Jarre will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's World Soundtrack Awards during the Flanders International Film Festival (FIFF) in Ghent (October 7-18 2003).The composer of scores for such films as Doctor Zhivago, Dead Poets Society and Ghost will be presented the award "for his ...
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German indies win distribution funding
Theatrical distributors X Verleih, Salzgeber & Co Medien and Alamode Film have been awarded prizes worth Euros 100,000 each to invest in distribution campaigns for German and other European films.Each of the companies was awarded the special distributor prize by German culture minister Christina Weiss in recognition of "their special ...
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Franchise vs Intertainment court battle delayed
The lawsuit between German license trader Intertainment and US producer Franchise Pictures may be delayed for another year, after the planned August 5 court case between the two companies was unexpectedly postponed by a Los Angeles judge.Federal District Court judge Alicemarie H. Stotler did not give any reasons for the ...
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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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 ...