All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 201
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German/Polish collaboration at the core of Cottbus
Roman Polanski's Golden Palm winner The Pianist will open the Festival of East European Cinema in Cottbus (October 30-November 3) which will be placing a particular focus this year on contemporary filmmaking from Poland and the potential for closer collaboration between German and Polish producers.Apart from the Filmfest Cottbus' official ...
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UK talent joins Supertex - An Hour In Paradise
Maureen Lipman, Stephen Mangam and Elliot Levey are among the UK acting talent cast for Jan Schuette's adaptation of Leon de Winter's best-selling novel Supertex - An Hour In Paradise which has now gone into production.'I have always been amazed at the wealth of talent available in Britain. You can ...
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Digital opener for 36th Hof Film Days
Marc Ottiker's digitally shot feature Halbe Miete will have its world premiere as the opening film of the 36th International Hof Film Days today (Wednesday October 23).Ottiker's film and Hanno Hackfort's Junimond, which is also showing at the festival, are the first projects completed under the 'Radikal Digital' initiative ...
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Man Without A Past wins Grand Prize at Flanders fest
Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without A Past has won the Grand Prize for Best Film at the 29th Flanders International Film Festival - Ghent.The International Jury, under chairmanship of Gerard Mortier, announced the winner Friday night (October 18) at the Capitole theatre. The ceremony preceded the gala screening of the ...
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Two Helkon subsidiaries file for insolvency
Another two, first and second-tier, companies of the bankrupt Helkon Media group - Helkon International Holding GmbH und Helkon International Production GmbH - filed for insolvency at the Munich Regional Court on Wednesday (October 16). A release stated that these filings were 'a direct result of the insolvency of Helkon ...
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Germany's Das Werk to change market listing
Germany's leading postproduction player Das Werk has been given the greenlight by the German Stock Exchange to change its listing from the Neuer Markt to the Frankfurt's Geregelter Markt from Monday 11 November.Das Werk, which had been listed on the Neuer Markt since its IPO in August 1999, explained that ...
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Germany's Premiere provides proof that there is life after Kirch
Germany's pay TV platform Premiere has shown that it is very much still in business by sealing a long-term output deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and acquiring a film package from Warner Bros. International Television Distribution.In addition to providing Premiere with German TV premieres of such MGM titles as Legally Blonde, Barbershop ...
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Highlight increases stake in Constantin
Swiss media concern Highlight Communications has increased its stake in German distributor-producer Constantin Film from 23% to 25% and announced an agreement for cooperation on theatrical distribution in Germany.Highlight increased its shareholding in Constantin on October 4 by acquiring shares on the stock market, which means that there has been ...
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Koelmel's Kinowelt takeover plans threatened
Michael and Rainer Koelmel's takeover of the core assets of their Kinowelt empire has been thrown into question, according to the German weekly news magazine Focus.In its latest edition, Focus reported that Leipzig's City Savings Bank has still not granted the Koelmel brothers a Euros 32m credit for their ...
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Germany's Constantin Film signs deal with Freestyle Pictures
Germany's Constantin Film has signed a multi-year production, finance and distribution deal with US producer Adam Platnick's Freestyle Pictures Freestyle will produce films for Constantin as well as participate with Constantin in financing and distributing films to the international marketplace.Commenting on the deal concluded with Constantin Film's subsidiary Constantin Film ...
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Take Care Of My Cat scoops Feminale prize
Korean director Jeong Jae-Eun's Take Care Of My Cat has won this year's Euros2,500 Feature Debut Prize at the Feminale international women's film festival in Cologne.Take Care Of My Cat, a huge hit in its home country, follows five young girls as they make their first steps from school into ...
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New state minister for culture appointed in Germany
Hamburg's former culture senator Christina Weiss has been appointed by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder as the new State Minister for Culture to succeed Julian Nida-Ruemelin who announced last week that he is to return to his professorship in philosophy at the University of Goettingen.Speaking at a press conference with Foreign Minister ...
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Koelmel investor group announces Kinowelt contract
Responding to speculation in the German press, the investor group led by Michael and Rainer Koelmel has announced that contracts were signed on October 2 for the brothers to take over the core assets of the Kinowelt Medien Group.According to a statement, Leipzig-based Neue Spielfilm Vertriebs- und Marketing GmbH - ...
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Pauline & Paulette team re-unite for Jam
The team behind last year's hit Belgian film Pauline & Paulette are to reunite for director Lieven Debrauwer's next feature project Jam (Konfituur) about the family intrigues following a couple's separation on their 50th wedding anniversary.Dutch producer Emjay Rechsteiner of Staccato Films will again serve as co-producer for Dominique Janne's ...
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Decision on new German Minister for Culture imminent
Surprise top contender as Germany's new State Minister for Culture - former regional Culture Senator Christina Weiss (pictured), is to meet Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder today, Monday October 7.German press reports at the weekend revealed that Weiss - who is not a member of any political party - had already ...
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Germany's third-largest cinema chain files for insolvency
UFA-Theater GmbH und Co. KG, Germany's third-largest cinema chain with 234 screens, has filed for insolvency.According to a press statement, UFA was been forced to take this step because of 'the national drastic fall in admissions in the past months and the concomitant worsening of the liquidity situation.' The ...
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No recovery in sight for German TV advertising
Spending on TV advertising in Germany is forecast to decline by 8.2% this year, according to a study commissioned from market research institute Prognos AG by the ProSiebenSat.1 Group.Before publication of the study, the Group had anticipated that the maximum contraction would be 5%, but, based on Prognos' findings, ...
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Germany's F.A.M.E. to be axed after shareholder vote
Film & Music Entertainment (F.A.M.E. AG) is to be dissolved after shareholders accepted management proposals to close the company.F.A.M.E.'s executive board argued that negative market conditions and the remote prospects of recovery in the media sector made liquidation necessary. The board said there was "no possibility to profitably continue ...
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Achterbahn files for insolvency
Achterbahn AG, producer of the hugely successful animated Werner features, has become the latest in a long line of publicly listed German media companies to file for insolvency.In a statement the executive board said that it believed that there were possibilities to continue business activities after the insolvency proceedings.Founded in ...
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Mira Nair to launch film training lab in Uganda
Internationally acclaimed director Mira Nair is planning to create a 'film lab' in Uganda, inspired by the Sundance Institute's training initiative, to offer four East African and four Indian students six weeks of tuition.Speaking during her Cinema Militans Lecture at this year's Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht, Mair explained that ...