All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 197
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News
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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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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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In a surprise development, German publisher Heinrich Bauer has withdrawn from the bidding for the KirchMedia empire, leaving the way open for US media mogul Haim Saban and partner TF1.However, Bauer spokesman Andreas Fritzenkoetter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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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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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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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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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 ...
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New films by Rohmer, Akerman and Fridriksson get Eurimages cash
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 ...
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Forced exit for Tobis distribution head
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 ...
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Audiovisual Eureka to close by end of June
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 ...
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German politician urges Jackass boycott
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 ...