All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 203
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Beta Cinema adds Baader, Scherbentanz to sales slate
Beta Cinema, the feature film division of Beta Film, has picked upinternational rights to Christoph Roth's controversial biopic Baaderwhich won the Alfred Bauer Prize at this year's Berlinale and received a stormyinternational premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in a 15-minute shorter version last month. "The new version of ...
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Saturday wins Agnes B award at Sarajevo film festival
Argentine director Juan Villegas'(pictured) Saturday (Sabado) won the Euros 12,000 'J'aime le cinema' Best First Feature Film Award which was donated by French designer Agnes B. at this year's Sarajevo Film Festival (16-24 August).In addition, one of the festival's opening films, 10 Minutes by local director Ahmed Imamovic, received ...
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Gladiator, Mummy head Premiere/Vivendi film deal
Beleaguered German pay-TV platform Premiere has sealed a deal with Vivendi Universal for such films as Gladiator, Erin Brockovich and The Mummy Returns as it attempts to put itself on a sound financial footing and attract new investors. Universal is the third studio, following Fox Entertainment Group Inc. and Dreamworks, ...
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German box office continues upward swing
The recent upward trend in the German exhibition sector has continued in the first half of 2002, according to statistics issued by the German Federal Film Board (FFA).While the number of cinema-goers increased year-on-year from 79.7m to 80.7m - equivalent to growth of 1.3% -, box-office revenues expanded by 7.8% ...
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Berlinale hit with second sidebar defection
Renate Zylla, director of the Berlinale's Children's Film Festival (Kinderfilmfest), has tendered her resignation, less than a fortnight after Wolfgang Jacobsen's announced he was stepping down as the organiser of the festival's Retrospective. Zylla had worked for the Kinderfilmfest in Berlin since 1985 and was appointed the sidebar's director in ...
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Das Werk thrown E60m lifeline
The survival of ailing post-production group Das Werk has been given a crucial boost through the granting of a credit line of more than Euros60m ($58.5m) and the extension of previous loans by a banking pool that includes BHF Bank, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank.The additional funds were made available after ...
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Flach Pyramide picks up Suddenly
Flach Pyramide International (FPI) has picked up international distribution rights on Argentinian director Diego Lerman's feature debut Suddenly (Tan De Repente) which had its world premiere in competition in LocarnoShot in black-and-white, Suddenly follows a solitary and straight-laced young shop girl travelling to the countryside to Buenos Aires where she ...
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KirchMedia to merge sports and film rights
KirchMedia's managing director sports rights, Dr Alexander Liegl has quit the insolvent German media group ahead of plans to merge its film and sports rights businesses under the management of one director.Kirch said Liegl will leave the company "with immediate effect," adding that his departure was "at his own request ...
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The Longing tops Locarno winners
Scots-born, German director Iain Dilthey's austere The Longing (Das Verlangen) was the surprise winner of this year's International Competition in Locarno. Dilthey's graduation film from the Baden-Wuerttemberg Film Academy won the top award of the Golden Leopard/Grand Prize of the City and Region of Locarno, with a purse worth CHF ...
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Koelmel brothers back in control at Kinowelt with E32m bid
Brothers Michael and Rainer Koelmel are back in the driving seat at Kinowelt after their bid to take over the running of the group's core interests was accepted by a committee of creditor banks. At a meeting in Munich on Friday (August 9) insolvency administrator Dr Wolfgang Ott, acting for ...
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Swiss film industry gets $33.3m production support
The Swiss film industry will receive $33.3m (CHF 50.4m) production support over the next three years with the signing of a third expanded Audiovisual Pact between public broadcaster SRG SSR idee suisse and the Swiss film industry in Locarno this week.The new pact will see SRG SSR providing a ...
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German regional film office fights for survival
Some 200 members of a German regional film office have protested to the local government at plans to close down its operations after 22 years of activity.Filmmakers Christoph Schlingensief, Ulla Wagner, Adolf Winkelmann and producers Gerhard Schmidt (Gemini Film). Frank Huebner (ApolloMedia), Joachim Ortmanns (Lichtblick) are among 200 members of ...
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Locarno competition hopeful nominated for First Steps award
Locarno competition entry The Longing (Das Verlangen) (pictured) by Iain Dilthey, which has its international premiere in the official competition here on Thursday 8th August, is among five feature-length films by German film school graduates nominated for this year's FIRST STEPS Awards which will be announced in Berlin on August ...
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Emerging actresses are the talk of Locarno
Young women searching for their place in life is a major theme of a number of films in the second Locarno competition under the direction of Irene Bignardi - from Michael Hofmann's Sophiiie and Andrea Dusl's Blue Moon to Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity and Dorothee Van Den Berghe's Meisje (Girl).Even ...
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Kinowelt decision set for today
The future of the beleaguered Kinowelt group will be decided once and for all at a meeting in Munich today. The creditor committee of the ABN Amro Bank, BHF Bank and HypoVereinsbank will hear presentations from two groups bidding to take over the running of Kinowelt's core operations of theatrical ...
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Bavaria takes world sales on Fuehrer Ex
Bavaria Film International (BFI) has taken over world sales for Winfried Bonengel's Fuehrer Ex which will have its world premiere in competition at the 59th Venice Film Festival.According to BFI's head of sales Thorsten Schaumann, the story of Fuehrer Ex is likely to polarise audiences on its screening in Venice. ...
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Blue Moon rights selling fast in Locarno
Monopole Pathe has picked up all Swiss rights for Austrian director Andrea Maria Dusl's feature debut Blue Moon which had its world premiere in the Locarno Festival international competition this weekend.Starring Austrian stand-up comedian Josef Hader, leading Ukrainian actress Viktoria Malektorovich and German actor-director Detlev Buck, Blue Moon follows the ...
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IM Internationalmedia reports revenues up, profits down
IM Internationalmedia's business activities developed largely as predicted in the first half of 2002, posting a 33% year-on-year increase in revenues to Euros 94.3m, from Euros 70.8m (pro forma) - while EBITDA plummeted from Euros 17.8m in the first half of 2001 to minus Euros 13.4m for this year.The increase ...
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Sponsorship issues cause Berlinale retrospectives organiser to quit
Wolfgang Jacobsen, organiser of 12 retrospectives and 15 homages for the Berlinale since 1990, has stepped down from his position, citing "a series of conflicts" about the structure of the collaboration with the festival's TV sponsorsReplacing him, this year's retrospective, on FW Murnau, will be overseen by Hans Helmut Prinzler, ...
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Rudy Tjio joins ottfilm's development and acquisitions team
Veteran film buyer Rudy Tjio has joined the development and acquisition division of Christoph Ott's distribution outfit ottfilm.Tjio, who had previously worked as a film buyer for over ten years at Prokino and then six years at TiMe Medien (until May 2002), told Screendaily.com that he will be responsible for ...