All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 196
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Comerica Bank files lawsuit against Advanced Licencing
German license trader Advanced Medien's troubles seem to have no end with the news that US-based Comerica Bank has filed a lawsuit against subsidiary Advanced Licencing.The lawsuit is over payment of over $2m in loans granted by the bank to Unified Film Organization (UFO), a 51% subsidiary of Advanced Medien, ...
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Kinderfilmfest international jury announced
The Berlinale's Kinderfilmfest has announced its International Jury which will award the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk Grand Prix.The five jury members are:German director Christina Schindler (Rinnsteinpiraten); Norway's Lars Berg (winner of the Grand Prix and the Crystal Bear for Glasskar last year); Ricardo Casas, director of Uruguay's Festival Internacionale de Cine para ...
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Kinowelt takeover saga resolved
The seemingly never-ending saga of the Koelmel brothers' (Michael, pictured left and Rainer, right) planned takeover of their Kinowelt empire has finally come to an end.Insolvency administrator Dr. Wolfgang Ott announced on Tuesday (Jan 21) that the rescue company Neue Spielfilm Vertriebs- und Marketing GmbH (to be known in future ...
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Miracle debut wins Max Ophuels Prize
Writer-director Anne Wild's feature debut My First Miracle (Mein Erstes Wunder) (pictured) has won this year's $38,500 (Euros 36,000) Max Ophuels Prize The prize, for up-and-coming German language cinema, was awarded at the Max Ophuels Prize Film Festival (January 13-19) in Saarbruecken, Germany.The story about a friendship between an eleven ...
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Family films take top honours at Bavarian film awards
The makers of the family films Bibi Blocksberg and Das Fliegende Klassenzimmer shared top honours at this year's Bavarian Film Awards Presenting the Euro 250,000 award to producers Uschi Reich, Karl Blatz and Peter Zenk, Bavaria's prime-minister Edmund Stoiber said "the success of both of these productions confirms the welcome ...
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Another Senator executive bails out
Just four weeks after the surprise departure of Juergen Fabritius from Senator Entertainment, another executive: COO Friedrich-Carl Wachs has quit the company.Wachs (pictured) had been appointed in April 2002 as deputy to chairman Hanno Huth and Senator's fourth board member with responsibilities for corporate development, corporate communication, investor relations and ...
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Til Schweiger to star in Star Trek spoof
Til Schweiger is to take one of the leads in (T)Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1, Michael "Bully" Herbig's follow-up to his surprise 2001 hit Manitou's Shoe Schweiger, who appeared in last year's Was Tun, Wenn's Brennt and Drive, will play opposite the Manitou acting trio of Herbig, Rick Kavanian and ...
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Hot German director announces next two projects
German filmmaker Oskar Roehler, whose Angst (Der Alte Affe Angst) is a competition entry at year's Berlinale, is developing his next two film projects with X-Filme Creative Pool and Constantin Film.Roehler (pictured), who will have Angst distributed this spring by X-Filme's distribution arm X Verleih, told screendaily that the ...
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First Forum titles confirmed for Berlin
Piotr Tzaskalski's Edi, the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, Lynn Hershmann Leeson's clone thriller Teknolust, starring Tilda Swinton in four roles along with Jeremy Davies and Karen Black, and Ulrike Ottinger's six hour-plus documentary travelling through south east Europe, Sudostpassage. Eine Reise Zu Den Neuen Weissen ...
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Grill Point wins top German critics prize
Andreas Dresen's Silver Bear winner Grill Point (Halbe Treppe) (pictured) has won the German film critics' Best Feature Film prize.In addition, Hans Weingartner's much lauded White Noise (Das Weisse Rauschen) was named Best Feature Debut, with Best Actor honours going to the film's lead Daniel Bruehl (who was also recognised ...
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Constantin Film retreats from TV to focus on features
Leading German producer-distributor Constantin Film plans to concentrate its energies even more on the feature film sector in future.Speaking to the German daily newspaper Die Welt, Thomas Friedl, Constantin's board member for distribution and marketiing, said that his company was "assuming that the TV market will remain weak in ...
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Krohmer debut to open Berlinale's German sidebar
Stefan Krohmer's feature debut Sie Haben Knut will open the Berlinale's German cinema sidebar Perspektive Deutsches Kino which promises a film mix that "will once again be colourful, exciting and varied in content", according to the sidebar organisers.The realistic and satirical ensemble film, which was made early last year on ...
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Koelmels' Kinowelt takeover hits further delays
The takeover saga of the insolvent Kinowelt Group has continued into 2003, with news that brothers Michael and Rainer Koelmel have still not paid over the Euros32m agreed to acquire Kinowelt's core assets.Insolvency administrator Dr. Wolfgang Ott said that payment by the Koelmels' Neue Spielfilm Vertriebs- und Marketing GmbH ...
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Nineteen actors selected as Berlin's Shooting Stars
Nineteen young European actors and actresses have been selected to participate in European Film Promotion's (EFP) "Shooting Stars" showcase of new acting talent at the forthcoming Berlinale from February 8-11.Among them are the UK's Jamie Sives, lead actor in Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself; German Film Prize-winner Daniel Bruehl (Good ...
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German cinema admissions slip back in 2002
A combination of an ailing economy, inclement weather and the local industry's home-made crises resulted in German admissions slipping by 5% from 2001's record attendances of 163.1m to 154.5m. Box-office revenues fell by 3.3% from Euros954.2m to Euro 922.7m for 2002, according to figures compiled by Nielsen EDI.The downward trend ...
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German culture minister mulls national film academy
Germany's State Minister for Culture Christina Weiss has voiced her support for the creation of an AMPAS-style German Film Academy.In an interview with the Berlin daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, Weiss said there was a need for "a forum for the artistic interests of the industry", but stressed that she would ...
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IN-motion parts from Myriad
German media group IN-motion has sold its remaining 30% stake in Myriad Pictures to the existing shareholders and will in future concentrate its film/TV activities out of UK-based subsidiary IN-motion Pictures Ltd.In a statement, the Frankfurt-based group stated that it exited from Myriad as of January 1, but would continue ...
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Grill Point leads German critics' award nominations
Andreas Dresen's Grill Point (Halbe Treppe) has picked up nominations in three of the four categories for this year's German Film Critics Award.Grill Point, which received the jury's Grand Prix at the last Berlinale and a Silver Lola at the German Film Awards, has been nominated in the Best Feature ...
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European Pitch Point jury selects 12 best scripts
Twelve screenwriters and their projects have been chosen from 160 submitted to participate in next month's European Pitch Point.Screenwriters from the UK, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sweden are among the final 12 whose projects were selected from 160 submitted from all over Europe to participate in next year's European Pitch Point ...
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Fabritius ejected from Senator post
German producer-distributor Senator Entertainment has given executive Juergen Fabritius orders to leave his managerial post at the group's German theatrical arm Senator Film Verleih just days before the Christmas celebrations.Fabritius joined Senator in January 2002 to serve as one of the managing directors with responsibility for marketing and distribution for ...