All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 195
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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 ...
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Roissy to sell Bleating Of The Sheep
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 ...
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German fund gathers around 80 Days
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 ...
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Disney back in the frame for the Jim Henson Company
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 ...
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Rotterdam fest acts to avoid Berlin date clash
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 ...
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Latin American films dominate Fribourg competition
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 ...
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Cartoon Movie tribute nominees announced
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 ...
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Germany's RTL Group names new CEO
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 ...
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German film fund awards more than $5m to new projects
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 ...
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German actor Horst Buchholz dies, aged 68
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 ...
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The end of the road for Wim Wenders & Road Movies'
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 ...