All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 202
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Sundance to champion European cinema
The Sundance Film Festival is set to become a platform for European filmmakers, according to festival director Geoffrey Gilmore, speaking at the Holland Film Meeting in Utrecht.While admitting that he only had "a modest goal" and was not intending to create "a European-focused festival per se", Gilmore declared that he ...
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Speculation mounts about successor to German culture minister
SPD politicians Thomas Krueger, president of the Federal Agency for Civic Education, who has served on several film funding committees, and Monika Griefahn, who chairs the Bundestag's cultural committee have been tipped as a possible successor to Julian Nida-Ruemelin as Germany's Federal Commissioner for Affairs of Culture and the ...
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Rotterdam film fund's first development prize awarded
The Rotterdam Film Fund's first development prize has been awarded to Eugenie Jansen (director of last year's Tussenland) and producer Stienette Bosklopper for their feature film project Calimucho which was presented at this year's Netherlands Production Platform in Utrecht at the weekend.Calimucho, which is a Romeo and Juliet-type story set ...
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Germany's arthouse sector mourns Nina Becker
The German film industry is mourning the death last week of the much-loved arthouse cinema-owner Nina Becker who died after along battle with cancer at the age of 41.Becker was the founder and manager of Munich's Neues Arena cinema and had joined forces with distributor/exhibitor Christoph Ott and film director ...
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Future of Babelsberg studios secured
The future of Studio Babelsberg is secure after Vivendi Universal's announcement on Wednesday (Sept 25) to focus its activities in future as a conglomerate for the film, TV and entertainment industry.Commenting on the decisions taken at Vivendi Universal's administrative council sitting in Paris, Vivendi Deutschland chief Thierry Potok declared that ...
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Hamburg festival cheers on Beckham
Josef Wutz's final outing as director of the Filmfest Hamburg (Sept 23-29) was kicked off in fine form on Monday (Sept 23) with the world premiere of local filmmaker Fatih Akin's Italian immigrant family drama Solino, plus a gala screening of Mike Leigh's All Or Nothing.The real highlight of the ...
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First participants confirmed for German sales & distribution market
Germany's Bavaria Media, the Czech Republic's Space Film, Norway's BV International Pictures and the UK's Indyuk Films are among over 20 European arthouse sales agents which have already registered for the first 'Sales & Distribution Market' to be held by the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival from November 12-14.A sales and ...
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Home Road Movies scoops Cartoon d'Or
UK animator Robert Bradbrook was named the winner of the 12th Cartoon d'Or for his 12-minute mix of 3-D computer animation and live action Home Road Movies. The prize, which provides the winning film-maker with Euros25,000 pre-production aid to begin work on a more ambitious project, was awarded to Bradbrook ...
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Altman's ballet Company does trans-Atlantic pas de deux
Veteran US director Robert Altman's new feature The Company is to be the first project backed in a new joint venture between German private media fund CP Medien and the Los Angeles/Munich-based production outfit SRO Entertainment.Written by Barbara Turner, The Company charts the ups and downs of life for members ...
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Struggling Vivendi Universal 'committed' to Babelsberg studios
Struggling media group Vivendi Universal remains committed to its ownership of Babelsberg Film Studios, according to Thierry Potok, chief executive of Vivendi Deutschland and caretaker manager of Studio Babelsberg Motion Pictures (SBMP).The sudden departure last week of SBMP CEO Gabriela Bacher, plus Vivendi Universal's ongoing attempts to raise cash by ...
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German exhibitor launches theatrical distribution operation
German exhibitor Kinostar Theater GmbH has expanded its operations to embrace in-house theatrical distribution in the field of arthouse cinema in addition to its exhibition and production activities.The first release will Philip Groening's drama L'Amour, L'Argent, L'Amour (pictured) which won a Best Actress Silver Leopard at the 2000 Locarno ...
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Look Now signs output deal with Swiss Dschoint Ventschr
Zurich-based production outfit Dschoint Ventschr has signed an output deal with local theatrical distributor Look Now for the release of its films in Switzerland The first two titles to fall under this output deal are Dschoint Ventschr co-owner Samir's documentary Forget Bagdad - Jews and Arabs - The Iraqi Connection ...
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Italy's Mikado Film picks up Fuehrer Ex
Italian distributor Mikado Film has picked up Winfried Bonengel's controversial Neo-Nazi drama Fuehrer Ex which screened in Official Competition in Venice last week and received its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival yesterday.In addition, the film's sales agent - Bavaria Film International - will handle international distribution for ...
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Valli to direct Tibet Project for German Friends
French director Eric Valli, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his feature Himalaya in 2000, has been signed up by Munich-based production house Friends Production to direct the ethnological road movie The Tibet Project (working title).Based on a screenplay by Valli, the Canadian-based, Oscar-nominated Chinese screenwriter and ...
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Egoyan to be honoured by Cinema Tout Ecran festival
Canadian director Atom Egoyan will be honoured with a retrospective at the 8th Cinema Tout Ecran International Film and Television Festival in Geneva (October 21-27) which showcases feature films produced by or for television.Meanwhile, among the films already confirmed for this year's International Competition are Willem van de S. Bakhuyzen's ...
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Studio Babelsberg chief Bacher exits suddenly
Less than a week before Babelsberg Studios' 90th anniversary on September 16, the German film industry has been rocked by the news of CEO Gabriela Bacher's sudden exit.Studio Babelsberg Motion Pictures (SBMP) was created last autumn, with Bacher in control of overseeing all media activities of parent Vivendi Deutschland. Bacher ...
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Feminale festival announces first competition line-up
The first Chinese production about a relationship between two women - Li Yu's Fish And Elephant -, Marilyn Freeman's study of group therapy GROUP, and Eliane de Latour's documentary Bronx-Barbes about teenage gangs in the West African city of Abidjan are among seven international films selected to compete for the ...
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Movienet Film sells five titles to Austria
Munich Filmfest's opening film The Son's Bride (El Hijo De La Novia) and Mika Kaurismaki's music documentary Moro No Brasil are among five films sold by Munich-based theatrical outfit Movienet Film to Austrian distributors. Filmladen Wien picked up The Son's Bride, Golden Bowl, Divided We Fall and the German regional ...
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German producers reach 'voluntary' agreement with public broadcasters
German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF have reached a voluntary agreement with the national producer associations which will see the first exploitation cycle for TV rights on funded cinema co-productions reduced from seven years to five. Following the signing of the agreement with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Neuer Deutscher Spielfilmproduzenten e.V. ...
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Helkon sells TV prod unit and distributor Solo Film
Helkon Media has now offloaded its interests in the TV productionsubsidiary Sonne, Mond + Sterne Film- und Fernsehproduktions and distributorSolo Film Verleih.The 75.6% stake in Sonne, Mond + Sterne has been acquired by itsmanaging director Erwin Kraus, while Solo Film's managing director PeterHeinzemann has taken over all of the shares ...