All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 204
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News
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 ...
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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 ...