All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 193

  • News

    Roissy to sell Bleating Of The Sheep

    2003-03-11T00:00:00Z

    Roissy Films will handle international sales on Gjergj Xhuvani's second feature The Bleating Of The Sheep which began shooting on location in Albania on March 3.The wartime story based on the real-life experiences of the director's grandfather will be distributed in France by Les Films de Tournelles and has been ...

  • News

    German fund gathers around 80 Days

    2003-03-10T04:00:00Z

    Frank Coraci's Around The World In 80 Days starring Jackie Chan is one of 30 projects awarded a total of Euros 4.5m by the Central German film fund Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung (MDM). US-based Walden Media's production partner Studio Babelsberg Motion Pictures received Euros 500,000 production support for the action comedy which ...

  • News

    Disney back in the frame for the Jim Henson Company

    2003-03-10T00:00:00Z

    Walt Disney has reportedly come back into the picture as a possible bidder for The Jim Henson Company (JHC) after a US investment group terminated its non-binding letter of intent with JHC's current owner Germany's EM.TV & Merchandising for the partial sale of 49.9%.EM.TV announced that the negotiations would continue ...

  • News

    Rotterdam fest acts to avoid Berlin date clash

    2003-03-07T04:05:00Z

    A potentially damaging head-to-head clash between the Rotterdam and Berlin film festivals over the dates for their 2004 editions has been nipped in the bud.Following Berlin's announcement this week that its 54th festival will be held from Feb 5-15 (the earliest start for the German festival since its move to ...

  • News

    Latin American films dominate Fribourg competition

    2003-03-06T04:05:00Z

    More than half of the feature films showing in the competition of Germany's 17th Fribourg International Film Festival (March 16-23) come from Latin America.Brazil is represented by two films - Jorge Furtado's Two Summers and Eliane Caffe's The Story Tellers - while Argentina has four pictures: Luis Ortega's Black ...

  • News

    Cartoon Movie tribute nominees announced

    2003-03-05T04:05:00Z

    France's MK2, Sweden's Folkets Bio and Spain's Grupo Filmax are among seven companies or individuals who have been nominated for Cartoon Movie Tributes in recognition of their contribution to the success of feature animation in Europe.The full line-up of nominees are:Didier Brunner (France), 'for producing the greatest number of auteur ...

  • News

    Germany's RTL Group names new CEO

    2003-03-05T00:00:00Z

    Gerhard Zeiler has been named chief executive Germany's RTL Group following the exit of Didier Bellens.Zeiler (pictured) will take up his new responsibilities immediately, but will also continue in his current position as CEO of RTL Television, a 100% subsidiary of the RTL Group. Commenting on his appointment, Zeiler ...

  • News

    German film fund awards more than $5m to new projects

    2003-03-04T04:05:00Z

    New features by Dennis Gansel, Sherry Hormann, Ben Verbong and three graduation films by students of Munich's Academy for Television & Film (HFF) are among the film projects receiving over Euros 5m from Bavaria's regional film fund FFF Bayern.Olga Film's production of Dennis Gansel's historical drama Napola about the ...

  • News

    German actor Horst Buchholz dies, aged 68

    2003-03-04T00:00:00Z

    The German film industry is mourning the passing of actor Horst Buchholz at the age of 68.After appearing at Berlin's Schiller Theatre, Buchholz was discovered by director Julien Duvivier who gave him his first film role in Marianne De Ma Jeunesse in 1955. In the same year, he appeared in ...

  • News

    The end of the road for Wim Wenders & Road Movies'

    2003-03-03T04:05:00Z

    The final chapter in the history of Road Movies may have been written with the news of the firing of Wim Wenders as managing director from the company he founded with partners in 1976 to make such classics as Paris, Texas, Wings Of Desire and Buena Vista Social Club.A second ...

  • News

    Forced exit for Tobis distribution head

    2003-02-28T04:05:00Z

    Marlies Weber, head of distribution at Berlin-based Tobis Film, has been forced to vacate her position as of today.Speaking to Screendaily.com, Weber (pictured) said that she was "not going of her own free will" and does not yet have anything else lined up.Meanwhile, Magnus Vortmeyer, Tobis Film's head of press ...

  • News

    New films by Rohmer, Akerman and Fridriksson get Eurimages cash

    2003-02-28T04:05:00Z

    New feature films by Eric Rohmer, Chantal Akerman and Fridrik Thor Fridriksson are among nine projects awarded over Euros 3.3m by Eurimages.Two projects were backed in the funding category for larger projects with commercial promise: Euros 700,000 for Didier and Thierry Poiraud's French-German-UK co-production Le Retour De James Bataille and ...

  • News

    German politician urges Jackass boycott

    2003-02-27T04:05:00Z

    On the eve of its German opening, a Bavarian politician has called on cinema-owners to drop Jackass - The Movie from their programmes.In a statement, Markus Soeder, who is chairman of the of the conservative Christian Social Union party's Media Committee, said that "the series and film contain repulsive and ...

  • News

    Audiovisual Eureka to close by end of June

    2003-02-27T04:05:00Z

    The European Union's enlargement eastwards and changes in its membership have resulted in Audiovisual Eureka deciding to close down in June, leaving Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and states of the former Yugoslavia without a broad support programme.In a statement, the Brussels-based body explained the context for the decision: "the geopolitical developments ...

  • News

    German Film Academy launches international exchange programme

    2003-02-25T00:00:00Z

    German Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg, whose graduates Chris Stenner, Heidi Wittlinger, Georg Gruber and Arvid Uibel have been nominated for an Academy Award with their animated short Das Rad, has launched an international student exchange programme.The new venture is aimed primarily at students attending foreign film schools and universities and wishing ...

  • News

    French projects set to animate Cartoon Movie market

    2003-02-21T04:00:00Z

    Reflecting the strong French animation market, over a quarter of the 47 animation feature projects looking for financing or distribution at this year's Cartoon Movie market in Babelsberg (March 13-15) have been initiated by French animation studios. Among the 13 French projects, four are from Les Armateurs (Crossroad - The ...

  • News

    New proposal to stem the flow of German tax money to Hollywood

    2003-02-20T04:05:00Z

    Ahead of next week's 'Alliance for Film' industry gathering in Cologne, producer-director and fund initiator Uwe Boll has added his voice to the debate about German media funds by proposing the adoption of the Canadian tax credit points system for the tax assessment of German funds.As Boll pointed out, "in ...

  • News

    Producers team for Nettelbeck's Helen

    2003-02-19T04:05:00Z

    Sandra Nettelbeck's next feature Helen is to be produced by MTM Medien & Television Muenchen's Andreas Bareiss and co-produced with Pandora Film's Karl Baumgartner, who produced her international hit Mostly Martha.Helen, which will be shot in English, centres on a law professor fighting to save her life and her family ...

  • News

    Sarajevo film festival launches Balkan script development project

    2003-02-19T04:05:00Z

    The Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF) has attracted support from Rotterdam International Film Festival's Hubert Bals Fund and the Dutch foundation HIVOS for a "Regional Script Development Project" which aims to support film production in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia. SFF director Mirsad Purivatra announced that the new venture will be launched ...

  • News

    Good Bye, Lenin! - success at home and abroad

    2003-02-19T04:05:00Z

    Wolfgang Becker's Good Bye, Lenin!, this year's winner of the Berlinale's Blue Angel award for the best European film, has become the top German opener at this year's local box-office and has been sold to more European territories by sales agent Bavaria Film International (BFI).Becker's tragi-comic farce starring Daniel Bruehl ...