All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 204
-
News
Seven groups submit KirchMedia takeover bids
An offer of $2.6bn emerged as the highest of seven bids submitted by separate consortia offering to take over the insolvent KirchMedia, a meeting of the concern's creditors was told yesterday. Some creditors had hoped for bids to reach $3.5bnCommenting on the range of bids, KirchMedia managing director Wolfgang van ...
-
News
International film buyers target Locarno film festival
Over a dozen new international buyers - from Japan's Asmik Ace to Norway's Oro Films and the UK office of Unversal Pictures - are attending the Locarno International Film Festival for the first time this year; clear evidence of the festival's increasing market relevance.According to Industry Office co-ordinator Nadia Dresti, ...
-
News
Bertelsmann chairman steps down
Thomas Middelhoff, Chairman and CEO of the Bertelsmann media empire since 1998, has exited his post due to "differences of opinion" with the Supervisory Board "about the future strategy of Bertelsmann AG and the cooperation between the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board".Middelhoff's duties will be assumed by Guenter Thielen, ...
-
News
Filmfest Hamburg chief heads for exit
Filmfest Hamburg director Josef Wutz has announced that this year's festival will be his last in charge of the event. According to German press reports, Wutz, who had served as festival director for the Filmfest since 1995, plans to "take up new challenges" after his current contract runs out on ...
-
News
Luther biopic follows El Crimen Del Padre Amaro in wide release pattern
Following the news that Mexico's El Crimen Del Padre Amaro, about a priest's affair with a young woman, is to get the country's biggest ever national release; now a $20m German/US co-production plans to get the story of Martin Luther and his relationship with a former nun on to 1,200 ...
-
News
Sarajevo film festival to open with The Sum Of All Fears
An open-air screening of Phil Alden Robinson's thriller The Sum Of All Fears will open this year's Sarajevo Film Festival on August 16.Among the other "big movies" being shown in the nightly Open Air programme are Men In Black II, Bad Company, About A Boy, as well as Lilo ...
-
News
Neue Kinowelt to be back in business for this autumn's film markets
Jerry Payne and Marcus Schoefer of the Kinowelt management buyout (MBO) team anticipate their takeover plans will be a done deal by the middle of next week and are looking to be back in the rights acquisition business in time for this autumn's film markets.Payne told screendaily.com that he and ...
-
News
Aki Kaurismaki to get Douglas Sirk award at Filmfest Hamburg
Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki is to receive the Douglas Sirk Award at this year's Filmfest Hamburg (September 23-29) during the German premiere of his Cannes prize-winner The Man Without A Past.The Award, which honours an individual 'for his or her distinguished contribution to film culture, to cinematic art and cinematic ...
-
News
Germany's Advanced Medien files suit for damages of Euros 4m
The increasingly acrimonious mood within the publicly -listed German media companies has been further stoked with the news of Advanced Medien's filing of a suit for damages of Euros 4m against former members of the company's management board.Former executives Christophe Montague, Hanns-Arndt Jovy and Veronika Morawetz were named in the ...
-
News
Locarno announces full competition line-up
"Quality is the all-embracing element" says festival director Irene Bignardi about this year's International Competition lineup for the 55th Locarno International Film Festival (Aug 1-11) which kicks off on the stroke of midnight on Aug 1 with an open-air screening of Oliver Parker's The Importance Of Being Earnest.More than half ...
-
News
Sun Gateway fund opens up for English-language productions
Features by Michael Radford, Sandy Johnson and Amy Lyndon have been lined up as possible projects for backing by the new Sun Gateway Entertainment (SGE) private media fund.The German fund, which aims to raise Euros 50m this year for up to seven English-language feature film and TV productions, is managed ...
-
News
Germany's Splendid Film package sold for $17.4m
The romantic comedy Kate & Leopold and police thriller NARC are among a 16-title, Euros 17.3m package of films sold by Splendid Film to the German private broadcasting group ProSiebenSat1 Media.Among the other titles in the package, which will begin generating income for Splendid in the second half of 2002, ...
-
News
Koelmels step down as MBO secures Kinowelt's future
Kinowelt co-founders brothers Rainer and Michael Koelmel have stepped down from the company as an investor group led by Kinowelt executives Marcus Schoefer and Jerry Payne moved to take over the company's core businesses of theatrical distribution, home entertainment and license dealing in a management buy out. Schoefer and Payne ...
-
News
IM Internationalmedia releases second quarter results ahead of schedule
IM Internationalmedia generated Euros 75m - 85m in the first half of 2002 thanks to The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys and overages from such films as Traffic and The Wedding Planner, according to preliminary figures for the second quarter which will be officially released on August 29.IM reported that ...
-
News
Latvia joins Poland in EU's MEDIA Plus programme
Following hot on the heels of Poland, Latvia is now the second of the East European countries to become a member of the European Union's (EU) MEDIA Plus Programme.Latvia's Ambassador to the EU signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enable Latvian professionals to participate in the audiovisual programme.Preparations had already ...
-
News
German film funds face new threat
The future of Germany's film funds has come under further threat with news of proposed tighter regulations by the Federal Ministry of Finance German business daily the Handelsblatt reported that the Ministry of Finance (BMF) intends to consider investors in film funds merely as acquirers of film rights rather than ...
-
News
Austrian Film Institute gets 30% budget boost
The Austrian Film Institute is to get a substantial increase in its 2002 budget from Euros 7.4m to Euros 9.8m, in order to give its national film industry a better profile in the European arena.Austria's Secretary of State for Arts Franz Morak, announced the increase at a parliamentary hearing on ...
-
News
Good Machine wins High Hopes award at Munich film festival
US production house Good Machine has won German collection society GWFF's High Hopes Award for Michel Gondry's feature debut Human Nature (pictured) at this year's Munich Filmfest.The prize, worth Euros 25,000, was open to all directorial debuts in the Filmfest's international programme as well as from the American independents section.Meanwhile, ...
-
News
Arsenal loads up with Only The Strong Survive, Fast Runner
Germany's Arsenal Film has picked up Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker's musical documentary Only The Strong Survive and Zacharias Kunuk's Inuit language action thriller Atanarjuat - The Fast Runner. Only The Strong Survive has been screening in an homage at this week's Filmfest Muenchen to Hegedus and Pennebaker, while The ...
-
News
Germany's CinemaxX posts Euros 29.6m net loss
Germany's multiplex market leader CinemaxX posted a net loss of Euros 29.6m for the 2001 financial year, due to depreciation of Euros 17.6m and an adjustment for discounted loans to Ufa-Theater of Euros 3.5m.The company's financial report noted that this was despite the fact that the number of cinema-goers to ...