All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 198

  • News

    Das Werk jettisons Swiss, Spanish assets

    2002-12-05T00:00:00Z

    Just aweek after Das Werk's German post-production divisions filed forinsolvency (ScreenDaily, Nov 26), the group has now sold off interests inSpain and Switzerland as part of its programme of restructuring andstreamlining operations.DasWerk has sold its stake in the Barcelona-based film laboratory Image Film tothe newly created Image Laboratories, which is ...

  • News

    German pay-TV platform passes historic subscriber mark

    2002-12-04T04:05:00Z

    The number of subscribers at German pay-TV platform Premiere has passed the 2.5 million mark for the first time in the channel's 11-year history.At the end of November, the platform had 2.53 million subscribers on its books, 85,000 more than at the end of the third quarter on September 30. ...

  • News

    Swiss Film Prize nominations announced

    2002-12-04T04:05:00Z

    Local box-office hit Ernstfall In Havanna, Locarno competition entry Otre Il Confine and the documentary Forget Baghdad are among the films nominated in five categories for the Swiss Film Prize 2003 whose winners will be announced during the Solothurn Film Days on January 22, 2003.The Film Prizes will be decided ...

  • News

    Kirch manager Kogel to step down

    2002-12-03T04:05:00Z

    Ahead of the sale of the insolvent KirchMedia to German publishing empire Heinrich Bauer Verlag by mid-December, managing director Fred Kogel announced at the weekend that he will leave the company at the end of the year.Speaking to the news agency AP, Kogel explained that 'after I have completed the ...

  • News

    German Culture Minister hands out industry awards

    2002-12-03T04:05:00Z

    Two Munich-based distributors Prokino Filmverleih and Movienet Film and Berlin distribution outfit Piffl Medien have each received the 2002 Distributor Award worth Euros 100,000.The awards were presented to the three companies at a special ceremony on last week by Germany's new State Minister of Culture Christina Weiss in recognition of ...

  • News

    Central Asian films to be focus of Trieste festival

    2002-12-03T04:05:00Z

    Films from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan will be showcased at this year's Trieste Film Festival - Alpe Adria Cinema (January 16-23, 2003) which has become an important meeting place for cinema from Central and Eastern Europe since its launch in 1988.The festival's 'Cinema of the Silk Road' showcase is part ...

  • News

    Germany's Senator reports massive net loss

    2002-12-02T04:05:00Z

    Senator Entertaiment has posted a net loss of Euros 59.5m for the first nine months of 2002 - a massive reversal compared with last year's Euros6.9m net profit The company also announced the reduction of its management board by one member as part of its cost-cutting and restructuring programme.The ...

  • News

    Germany named Europe's fastest-growing DVD market

    2002-12-02T04:05:00Z

    Germany is set to become the fastest growing DVD market in Europe, according to new data collected by the national DVD trade body.In the light of the current DVD boom, DVD-Arbeitsgemeinschaft (DVD-AG) has had to revise its forecast of the number of DVD players in German households at the end ...

  • News

    Koelmels miss Kinowelt payment deadline, but get extension

    2002-11-29T04:05:00Z

    The Koelmel brothers' bid to take over their former company is set to drag on for yet another week after they missed the November 27 deadline for the transfer of the Euros 32m purchase price.On November 22, insolvency administrator Wolfgang Ott said that "if the confirmation by the Sparkasse Leipzig ...

  • News

    Germany's Tobis breaks away from StudioCanal

    2002-11-29T04:05:00Z

    The future for German distributor Tobis has become much clearer after a management buyout (MBO) by shareholders Kilian Rebentrost and Pathe.The MBO has seen the duo acquire StudioCanal's 60% majority holding in the Berlin-based company. They have also taken over the activities of its local production arm StudioCanal Produktion, which ...

  • News

    Gebirtig to open Max Ophuels prize festival

    2002-11-28T04:05:00Z

    Lukas Stepanik and Robert Schindel's co-directed drama Gebirtig - Austria's entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar - will be the opening film at the 24th Max Ophuels Prize Festival (January 13-19, 2003) in Saarbruecken. The Austrian-German-Polish co-production between Cult-Film, Daniel Zuta's Cologne-based DaZu Film and Akson Studio in Warsaw, ...

  • News

    Etre Et Avoir wins European documentary award - Prix ARTE

    2002-11-27T17:00:00Z

    European cultural channel ARTE and the European Film Academy have named French filmmaker Nicolas Philibert's Etre Et Avoir as the winner of this year's European Documentary Award - Prix ARTE which will be officially presented at the European Film Awards gala in Rome's Teatro dell'Opera on December 7.Philibert's film was ...

  • News

    Das Werk divisions begin insolvency proceedings

    2002-11-27T04:05:00Z

    Key divisions of Germany's Das Werk post-production group have begun filing for insolvency, three weeks after their parent company began insolvency proceedings (Screendaily.com, Nov 7).Das Werk post-production companies at Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Ludwigsburg and Munich as well as Hamburg-based Magic Video have each filed for insolvency. The ...

  • News

    German distributors call for cinema owner flexibility

    2002-11-26T04:05:00Z

    German distributors are planning to start talks with cinema owners about introducing more flexible programming and price structures.The move comes amid distributor concern that exhibitor programming and pricing patterns are deterring potential cinema-goers from visiting local theatres. The distributors worry that the exhibitor's habit of increasing prices at the weekend ...

  • News

    Germany's Telepool boards Santa Claus feature

    2002-11-26T04:05:00Z

    German licence trader Telepool has picked up German rights to the live-action family entertainment film The Life And Adventures Of Santa Claus which is set to begin shooting next year. Based on a novel by The Wizard Of Oz writer L Frank Baum, the story tells how Young Claus ...

  • News

    Academy Pictures picks up Locarno winner The Longing

    2002-11-26T04:05:00Z

    Ludwigsburg-based Academy Pictures has picked up Iain Dilthey's The Longing (Das Verlangen) which was the surprise winner of the Golden Leopard at this year's Locarno International Film Festival in the summer.Academy's managing director Stefan Paul told screendaily.com that he expects Dilthey's sombre drama to screen in the Berlinale's Perspectives German ...

  • News

    StudioCanal picks up von Trotta's Women

    2002-11-25T04:05:00Z

    StudioCanal has taken on international sales for Margarethe von Trotta's new feature The Women Of Rosenstrasse which continues shooting at the Babelsberg Studios until the end of this week before moving to Munich The Euros 6.5m co-production between Studio Hamburg Letterbox Filmproduktion, Tele Muenchen, the Netherlands' Get Reel, and ...

  • News

    European Pitch Point jury named

    2002-11-25T04:05:00Z

    German distributor Stephan Hutter of Prokino, No Man's Land producer Cedomir Kolar, Dogville co-producer Els Vandevorst from the Netherlands' Isabella Films, UK producer and European Film Academy (EFA) chairman Nik Powell, and Eurimages secretary general Renate Roginas will serve on the international jury of next year's European Pitch Point to ...

  • News

    PLANET & stern documentary prize winner gets on the road

    2002-11-25T04:05:00Z

    Production has begun in Berlin on Axel Brandt and Irina Roerig's documentary Russenbus - Fremde Brueder which has been selected as the first winner of the PLANET & stern Documentary Prize launched at the Vision Day during this year's Berlinale (Screen Daily Feb 2002).Brandt and Roerig's portrait of the coach ...

  • News

    Koelmel Bros' Kinowelt bid in jeopardy

    2002-11-25T04:05:00Z

    The saga of the Koelmel brothers' bid to take over the core activities of their insolvent Kinowelt Medien empire has taken yet another, dramatic twist.Insolvency administrator Wolfgang Ott has issued the Sparkasse Leipzig with an ultimatum to transfer the purchase price of Euros 32m by November 27 at the ...