All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 192
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News
German media lawyers propose adoption of UK's sale & leaseback model
The UK's sale & leaseback model and Canada's tax credit model are two options proposed by the German producer pressure group Film 20 to Gerhard Schroeder's administration to improve the international competitiveness of the German film industry.The proposals are among a series of recommendations drafted by a legal "think tank" ...
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Bavarian film fund to sign accord with Quebec film body
Bavaria's regional film fund FFF Bayern is to sign a Film Agreement with Quebec's Societe de Developpement des Entreprises Culturelles (SODEC) during a Bavarian Arts and Business Week in Montreal in mid-May.'There has been a collaboration with Quebec for some time', FFF Bayern spokesman Lothar Just said. "We had a ...
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Austrian, Slovenian industries get together at Diagonale fest
Austrian filmmakers will meet their counterparts from neighbouring Slovenia for the first time, at an industry get-together on March 28 during the Diagonale - Festival of Austrian Cinema, which started yesterday.While representatives from the Austrian Film Instiute (OFI), Slovenian Film Fund and broadcasters ORF and RTV-Slovenija will discuss the ...
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Argentina wins big at Fribourg
Argentinian cinema was the big winner at this year's Fribourg International Film Festival which closed on Sunday March 23 with the $21,500 (SFR 30,000) Regard D'Or going to Carlos Sorin's Historias Minimas.In addition, the Special Jury Award went to Luis Ortega's feature debut Caja Negra and the General Public Award ...
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Advanced Medien calls AGM to report new losses
Beleaguered German rights trader Advanced Medien is to call an annual general meeting after preparations for its 2002 financial report showed that the company incurred a loss amounting to at least half of its capital stock.According to Advanced, the loss is "primarily due to the valuation allowance for loans to ...
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German publisher to up stake in ProSiebenSat.1
German publishing empire Axel Springer has confirmed that it will increase its interest in ProSiebenSat.1 Media by 2% to 13.5% and receive another seat in the broadcasting group's supervisory board. These moves were made after talks with US billionaire Haim Saban who secured a controlling interest in the ProSiebenSAT.1 Media ...
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Culture Minister increases German Film Award prize money
Germany's State Minister of Culture Christina Weiss will increase the total prize-money allocated to the German Film Awards (Lolas) by Euros 310,000 to Euros 3.125m this year.An additional Euros 250,000 is being made available for a seventh title to be nominated in the "Best Feature Film" category, and a total ...
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RTL unveils new management as revenues rise
Europe's leading broadcaster and content provider RTL Group has unveiled a new management structure as audited preliminary figures for 2002 show that group revenues performed strongly despite a difficult market.Just a week after he was appointed RTL Group's new CEO, Gerhard Zeiler has announced a new executive committee which will ...
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New Wim Wenders film gets German regional film fund cash
Wim Wenders' next feature Don't Come Knockin' has received the highest amount - Euros 500,000 - from Hamburg's regional film fund FilmFoerderung Hamburg (FFH) in its latest round of a total Euros 2m in funding.With a screenplay by Sam Shepard and starring Shephard and Jessica Lange, Don't Come Knockin' will ...
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France receives two Cartoon Movie tributes
France's domination of the European animation sector was recognised at the end of this year's Cartoon Movie market when two of its Cartoon Movie Tributes went to animation producers from France.Didier Brunner, whose company Les Armateurs has produced such films as Kirikou Et La Sorciere, Belleville Rendez-vous and The Boy ...
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Sellers welcome future Berlin-AFM breathing space
When the Berlin Film Festival announced its 2004 dates - Feb 5-15 - last week, the early scheduling was primarily motivated by the fact that next year's Academy Awards ceremony will be held almost a month earlier, on Feb 29.For many industry executives used to jetting between the Berlin's European ...
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TV-Loonland sells stake in Korea's SRE Corp.
German integrated media company TV-Loonland has sold its 72.6% stake in the loss-making South Korean media house SRE Corporation to Seoul-based Moohandae Media LtdIn a statement, TV-Loonland pointed out that SRE had already posted losses of Euros 1.1m in the 2001 financial year on revenues of Euros 14.7m and these ...
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Saban buys broadcasting group from insolvent KirchMedia
Hollywood mogul Haim Saban (pictured) has taken the first step in buying the assets of KirchMedia by acquiring German TV broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media.US billionaire media mogul Haim Saban has founded a new subsidiary of his Saban Group to acquire 36% of the ordinary shares (72% of the voting rights) in ...
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Vivendi offloads Babelsberg tour and theme park
Vivendi Deutschland has offloaded its 100% interest in Babelsberg studio tour and theme park to Schatz Entertainment GmbH und Co. Filmpark Babelsberg KG in line with the French media empire's concentration on core activities at the film and television production centre.Commenting on the takeover by former studio tour manager Friedhelm ...
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The Hours to receive German Film Award
Stephen Daldry's drama The Hours has been named as this year's winner of the German Film Award's golden Lola statuette for best foreign film.The film, which has been nominated for nine Academy Awards, will be released in Germany by Constantin Film for Highlight Film on March 27 and receive the ...
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German Film Board hands out record amount of cash
A record Euros 22.6m in retroactive "reference" funding is to be distributed to around 100 German producers and distributors by the German Federal Film Board (FFA) for successful theatrical releases of German films in 2002. Last year, the FFA had handed out Euros 21.6m. The Oscar-nominated Nowhere In Africa and ...
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Sony closes German film production arm
Sony Pictures Entertainment's (SPE) German production arm Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion (DCPF) is to be closed down due to "the difficulties of the media market and the downward box-office trends in Germany", according to SPE chairman and CEO John Calley. "It just makes more sense for us to refocus our ...
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Saban, TF1 venture left as sole bidder for KirchMedia
In a surprise development, German publisher Heinrich Bauer has withdrawn from the bidding for the KirchMedia empire, leaving the way open for US media mogul Haim Saban and partner TF1.However, Bauer spokesman Andreas Fritzenkoetter stressed that his company's "interest in a commitment in ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG and the rights trading ...
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Oscar-winning German producer dies
Oscar-winning producer Manfred Durniok (Mephisto) died at the age of 68 at the weekend of a heart attack. Durniok, who had more than 600 cinema and television productions to his credit since 1957, produced Istvan Szabo's 1981 film Mephisto - which won the Foreign Language Film Academy Award, a BAFTA ...
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Kosslick wades into German media fund debate
Berlin Film Festival director Dieter Kosslick has added his voice to the growing chorus of industry figures calling for the private media funds to invest more in German production rather than concentrating on US productions.In an interview with the production company newsletter ndF:news, Kosslick said that he supported the idea ...