All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 214
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Wenders, Scorsese support 1st Int'l Frankfurt fest
Wim Wenders and Martin Scorsese have been recruited as supporters of the 1st Frankfurt International Film Festival which is launched on January 9 with Herve Le Roux's comedy On Appelle Ca ... Le Printemps.While Wenders has agreed to serve as the patron for this year's event (January 9-16), which builds ...
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Minoes to open Berlinale Kinderfilmfest
Belgian director Vincent Bal's Minoes will be the opening film of the Berlinale's children's film sidebar, the Kinderfilmfest, which will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2002.Among the other films already confirmed for the competition lineup of films for 4-14 year-olds are the feature debut A Passage To Ottawa by ...
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Senator sells 29 titles to Universal Germany
Germany's Senator Entertainment has sold a package of some 29 video/DVD titles, including: America's Sweethearts, The Others, Black Hawk Down, Lammbock and Mondscheintarif to Universal Pictures Germany.The deal, which covers the German language market, is valued at a double-digit million Euros amount, according to both partners, and Senator is looking ...
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New German talent premieres for Ophuels Prize
World premieres of Oliver Rihs' Brombeerchen, Zueli Aladag's Elefantenherz and Almut Getto's Fickende Fische are among the 18 films by up-and-coming German-language filmmakers selected for the official competition of the Max Ophuels Prize Film Festival in Saarbruecken (January 22-27, 2002).For the 2002 edition, 14 of the competition films are either ...
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KirchMedia sells Mediaset stake for Euros 120m
Christmas has come early for German media mogul Leo Kirch after his free-TV division KirchMedia sold its 1.28% stake in Italy's Mediaset for Euros 120m. The transaction is part of an ongoing strategy by KirchMedia to focus its business operations on the German language market ahead of its planned merger ...
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Kinowelt Medien AG files for insolvency
Embattled German distributor Kinowelt yesterday (Dec 19) filed insolvency proceedings in the Munich courts.The company described the move as a "precautionary measure" but also said that the move had been triggered by the failure of talks which had been taking place with ABN AMRO Bank over the repayment of a ...
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Sony subsids join German lobby group
Sony Pictures Entertainment's German film and television production arms Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion (DCPF) and Columbia TriStar Film und Fernsehproduktions (CTFF) have become the 21st and 22nd members of Germany's producer lobby group film20."I am very pleased that Deutsche Columbia Pictures was accepted as a member of film20 and ...
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Kloiber plans assault on Kirch pay-TV domination
Herbert Kloiber's Tele Muenchen Group (TMG) and digital and interactive TV service company GET ON AIR are planning an ambitious 2002 launch of three German digital pay-TV channels to compete with Leo Kirch's high-profile Premiere World. The partners' timetables sees cartoon channel Toongate going on air in March, with action ...
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Euro Pitch Point selects 12 projects for Berlinale
An international jury composed of Eurimages' executive secretary Renate Roginas, Senator Film Produktion's managing director Benjamin Herrmann, Road Movies' Uli Felsberg, Maestranza Films' Antonio P. Perez, and Renaissance Film's Angus Finney has selected 12 feature film ideas to be pitched by their writers at the 3rd European Pitch Point on ...
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60's retrospective, 'shooting stars' at Berlinale
European cinema of the 1960s will be the theme of the 2002 Berlinale's Retrospective. In addition, a special 'Shooting Stars' film programme will be staged by pan-European promotion body European Film Promotion (EFP). Commenting on the 60s Retrospective, which has been organised by the Filmmuseum Berlin - Deutsche Kinemathek, festival ...
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Germany's Feardotcom acquired by Warner
Warner Bros. has picked up North American rights for William Malone's horror action thriller feardotcom, starring Stephen Dorff, Natasha McElhone, Stephen Rea and Udo Kier.The German-UK-Luxembourg co-production, produced by ApolloMedia's Frank Huebner, Quality International's Jan Fantl and Moshe Diamant, will be released by Warner Bros in the US on March ...
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Ottfilm snags Mostly Martha on the rebound
Sandra Nettelbeck's Mostly Martha has been picked up by Ottfilm for theatrical distribution in its native Germany. The film was originally included in Kinowelt's lineup for release this month.Kinowelt's mounting financial problems, however, persuaded producer Karl Baumgartner of Pandora Film to take back the film back to offer to other ...
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Haffa to stand down completely at Constantin
Former EM.TV & Merchandising chairman Thomas Haffa will leave the supervisory board of producer-distributor Constantin Film at the end of this year. Last April, Haffa stepped down as chairman of the board, a position then taken over by KirchMedia's Fred Kogel.As he no longer represents EM.TV it is not appropriate ...
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Melanie Griffith to star in Almost Japanese
Melanie Griffith has been cast to play the lead in Robert Allan Ackermann's provocative comedy Almost Japanese which is set to be backed by the Potsdam-based producer fund Vif International Films.Shooting on the love story between a lonely and inept American teenager and a Japanese conductor (to be played by ...
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Powell re-elected chairman of Euro Film Academy
UK producer Nik Powell has been re-elected by the general assembly of the European Film Academy (EFA) as the institution's chairman for another two years, with Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick and French producer Humbert Balsan also confirmed in their posts as deputy chairmen.The 15-person EFA board also welcomed three new ...
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Scorsese-backed one shot feature to film on Dec 23
December 23 has been set as the date for Alexander Sokurov's one-shot, 90-minute film Waterloo - The Russian Ark which will be filmed at original locations in the State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, tracing.key events in the former Tsarist Empire from Catherine the Great to Nicolas II.German steady-cam ...
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New ACE fund to launch with 18-picture slate
New films by John Woo, Nick Hurran, John Milius and Jeremy Leven are among an 18-picture slate being lined up to receive backing from a new $250m German private investment fund which is to be launched in January 2002.The production fund ACE - Alliance Cinema Entertainment has been established by ...
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Zeal shows enthusiasm for Euro co-productions
The US production outfit Zeal Pictures Group, which was behind the 1998 feature Simpatico with Sharon Stone, Nick Nolte, Albert Finney, and Jeff Bridges, has launched a European production company, Zeal Pictures Europe GmbH & Co. KG, based in Berlin.The German outpost plans to develop international and European co-productions, as ...
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Berlin unveils Premiere First Movie Award
A new prize for first-time feature filmmakers is to be introduced at the forthcoming Berlin International Film Festival (February 6-17, 2002) in collaboration with the Premiere World digital pay TV platform.The "Premiere First Movie Award", which will given to the best debut film by a jury of five well-known international ...
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German film industry summit set for Dec 7
The film policy document presented last month by Germany's State Minister for Culture Julian Nida-Ruemelin on proposals for reforms to the film funding infrastructure will be at the centre of the fourth German "Alliance for Film" summit on Dec 7.The Alliance, at the Bavaria Film Studios in Munich, will be ...