All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 208
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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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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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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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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 ...
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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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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 ...
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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, ...
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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, ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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, ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...