All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 218
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Kinowelt may be forced into insolvency
Just four days ahead of the presentation of its nine-month figures on November 30, embattled German media concern Kinowelt Medien may now have to file for insolvency after ABN Amro Bank announced its intention to call in loans of more than $45.1m (DM 100m) to Kinowelt as from November 28.In ...
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European Investment Bank starts loan facility
The Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank (EIB) has made its first investment into European audiovisual production as part of the "Audiovisual i2i" initiative by signing two agreements for Euros 20m each with the French credit institutions Cofiloisirs and Coficine.The agreements, which were signed on November 23 by the EIB's Vice-President Francis ...
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Intertainment ends Filmgroup deal as sales fall
Following the insolvency of the UK media company Filmgroup PLC, Germany's Intertainment has taken back from the company more than 75 titles including The Whole Nine Yards, 3000 Miles To Graceland and Battlefield Earth. News of the termination of the contract came as Intertainment reported a reduced surplus of Euros ...
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German scopas fund adds to family entertainment
Frankfurt-based animation studio scopas medien has joined a recent wave of funds concentrating on family entertainment, including Victory, Mediability, Equity Pictures, and Festival Film by launching a Euros 30m private media fund to invest in internationally marketable family entertainment for cinema and television.The fund is inviting private individuals to each ...
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Berlinale lines up 13-strong selection committee
The UK's Simon Perry, Holland Film's Claudia Landsberger and Pandora Film's Christoph Friedel are among the members of the revamped selection committee for the Berlinale's official competition section at the forthcoming festival (February 6-17, 2002).The 13-person line-up comprises: Dieter Kosslick (festival executive director), Wieland Speck (Panorama), Christoph Terhechte (International Forum), ...
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German cultural film funding gets boost
German Minister for Culture Julian Nida-Ruemelin will have Euros 1.5m more to spend on film funding measures in 2002 as part of a global 3% increase in Gerhard Schroeder administration's arts budget.The budget for culturally-oriented film funding will increase from Euro 9.7m to Euros 10.7m while German contribution to EURIMAGES ...
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Germany's Road Movies relocates to London
German production outfit Road Movies is to relocate from Berlin to London from 2002 as part of a restructure by the Das Werk Group in order to generate savings of around Euros 5m next year.Das Werk spokesman Wolfgang Borgfeld stressed that the move did not mean the closure of the ...
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Advanced revises 2001 sales forecast
Less than two weeks after Germany's Advanced Medien announced the closure of its theatrical operations at the end of the year, the rights trader has now reforecast its consolidated sales for 2001 from Euros 23m to between Euros 18m-Euros 20m.Although sales in the third quarter, at Euros 4.2m were up ...
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Swiss film award nominations announced
Thomas Imbach's Happiness Is A Warm Gun, Stefan Haupt's Utopia Blues and Lutz Konermann's Lieber Brad have each received two nominations for the 2002 Swiss Film Awards which will be presented during the Solothurn Film Days on January 16, 2002.Imbach and Haupt's films have been nominated in the Best Feature ...
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Equity Pictures fund lines up new projects
A second season of Tales From The Neverending Story TV series is among three projects being lined up for backing by the new Munich-based private media fund Equity Pictures.Launched by producer Andreas Thiesmeyer and financial expert Josef Lautenschlaeger, Equity Pictures is inviting private individuals to each put up a minimum ...
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Scandi films triumph at Mannheim festival
Scandinavian cinema dominated the awards at the 50th edition of the International Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival in Germany (November 8-17).The Art of Film Award for Best Fiction Feature Film went to Danish filmmaker Tomas Gislason's P.O.V. (Point of View), while Norwegian Erik Smith Meyer received the Award in the Best Short ...
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German cinema ticket tax proposal sparks outrage
German Culture Minister Julian Nida-Ruemelin's plans to increase the national cinema ticket tax by "a few percent" has prompted the local exhibition sector to vow to fight any increase "on all political, legal and internal industry levels".While German exhibitors have been vocal in their appeals for greater diversification on the ...
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Liberty confirms German operational base
US media group Liberty Media will base its German operations in Munich and create up to 10,000 new jobs throughout Germany. After meeting with Bavaria's prime-minister Edmund Stoiber in Berlin, Liberty's chairman John Malone declared that "the density of television stations and internet companies around Munich had been a deciding ...
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Germany's Senator postpones three releases
German theatrical distributor Senator Film has announced that it will hold over three planned winter releases until early 2002. This follows a recent Constantin Film postponement of nine of its planned 25-film line-up for 2001 to next year (Screendaily, Oct 14 2001)The anticipated clogging up of screens with a handful ...
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Media Salles launches exhibition training scheme
MEDIA Salles, the cinema exhibition initiative of the European Union's MEDIA Programme, has launched a training strand for exhibitors with particular attention to the main trends shaping today's cinema industry and to the demands of audiences of European films.The first of the courses in the series "European Cinema Exhibition - ...
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Germany delights to Scary Movie 2
Scary Movie 2 took pole position at the German box office over the weekend with $4.4m and a site average of $6,584 from its 663 prints in the penultimate opening weekend before Harry Potter arrives in Germany on an anticipated 1,000-odd screens on November 22; In terms of admissions, the ...
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Eurocinema TV channel proposed by EC minister
The President of the European Council of Audiovisual Ministers, Richard Miller, announced at the Strasbourg Forum of European Cinema in the European Parliament that he had personally earmarked funds for a feasibility study on the creation of a 'Eurocinema' television channel. The pan-European channel would feature European films, film education ...
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Eurocinema TV channel proposed by EC minister
The President of the European Council of Audiovisual Ministers, Richard Miller, announced at the Strasbourg Forum of European Cinema in the European Parliament that he had personally earmarked funds for a feasibility study on the creation of a 'Eurocinema' television channel. The pan-European channel would feature European films, film education ...
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Kayser exits German Premiere World
Less than two months after the rapid exit of Manfred Puffer from the management of the debt-ridden pay-TV service Premiere World and just a couple of weeks after Rupert Murdoch suggested that he might consider bailing out of the German platform (Screen Daily, Nov 2001), Ferdinand Kayser has announced that ...
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Black Box BRD wins Euro documentary award
Andres Veiel's Black Box BRD has been named as the winner of this year's European Documentary Award - Prix Arte which will be presented at the forthcoming European Film Awards in Berlin on December 1. The decision by the Documentary Jury of producer-filmmaker Jens Meurer, director Cinzia Torrini and Warsaw ...