All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 220

  • News

    UK's Film Council looks for European partners

    2001-08-30T00:41:00Z

    The UK's Film Council is eager to collaborate with other European film funding bodies in the fields of development and nurturing filmmaking talent. The first collaborative venture is already being prepared by the Fund with France's CNC on the making of a series of shorts to be shot in both ...

  • News

    Germany's VCL teams with UIP for distribution

    2001-08-28T20:40:00Z

    After Scanbox cooperated with US major UIP in Scandinavia for theatrical distribution of its films, Scanbox's mother company, German media concern VCL Film + Medien's theatrical arm VCL Licensing has now entered into a distribution cooperation with UIP's German outpost to handle the physical distribution of its films.The first ...

  • News

    KirchGroup will not acquire EM.TV shares

    2001-08-28T20:36:00Z

    Germany's KirchGroup has announced that it will now not acquire a 16.74% stake and minority voting rights of 25.1% in the debt-ridden EM.TV & Merchandising and has withdrawn its application to the German cartel authority "in agreement with EM.TV". Earlier this year, the anti-trust authority had launched a three-month investigation ...

  • News

    Oldenburg reveals festival line-up

    2001-08-28T20:30:00Z

    Ralf Huettner's romantic comedy Mondscheintarif will open this year's Oldenburg International Film Festival (September 5-9) which will also feature the world premieres of Salome Breziner's Fast Sofa, Richard Stanley's The Secret Glory, and Sheree Folkson's Gypsy Woman . Oldenburg will also feature new films by German filmmakers Claus Strobel (Das ...

  • News

    Germany's PAG buys stake in Swiss C-FILMS

    2001-08-27T22:09:00Z

    The German production grouping Producers' AG (PAG) has taken its first step on the path of its planned international expansion outside of Germany by taking a stake in the Swiss film and TV production house C-FILMS."C-FILMS is among the most successful production companies on the Swiss market and also has ...

  • News

    Tanovic's No Man's Land takes top Sarajevo awards

    2001-08-27T22:05:00Z

    Local director Danis Tanovic triumphed at this year's Sarajevo Film Festival, winning both Best First Feature and Audience Award for his feature debt No Man's Land. The jury of UK actress Lena Headey, Croatian writer Miljenko Jergovic, and French fashion designer Agnes B declared that Tanovic's film showed "excellent acting, ...

  • News

    People's Choice - Euro film award nominations

    2001-08-26T23:29:00Z

    Forty eight European directors and actors from Jean-Jacques Annaud to Ray Winstone have been nominated for this year's People's Choice Awards which will be presented during the European Film Awards in Berlin on December 1. Cinemagoers throughout Europe will have the chance to vote in three categories "Best European Director", ...

  • News

    Vif International launches German film fund

    2001-08-26T23:23:00Z

    Potsdam-based Vif International Films has launched its fourth tranche to raise Euro 50m from private individuals each investing a minimum of Euro 25,000 for the financing of internationally marketable feature film and television projects Among the projects set to benefit from this latest Vif fund are Broken Silence director Wolfgang ...

  • News

    Women directors to open Filmfest Hamburg

    2001-08-24T02:08:00Z

    Films by two up-and-coming female German directors, Vanessa Jopp and Nathalie Steinbart will open this year's Filmfest Hamburg (September 24-30). Engel & Joe, Jopp's first feature since graduating last year from Munich's Academy for Television & Film with the award-winning Vergiss Amerika (Forget America), will open the festival at a ...

  • News

    Sarajevo anticipates exhibition growth

    2001-08-24T02:03:00Z

    The number of cinema screens in Sarajevo could more than double by the end of next year if plans to create the city's first multiplex are realised.Bosnian exhibitor-distributor-producer Forum Film Company, which currently operates three cinemas - Apolo, Tesla and Imperial - in Sarajevo, is planning to convert the former ...

  • News

    Germany pioneers new director opportunities

    2001-08-24T01:57:00Z

    Aspiring film-makers have it good in Germany. "No other country on earth enables so many film-makers to shoot their first film," says Gebhard Henke, head of the film department at the powerful Cologne-based public broadcaster WDR.Indeed, there are so many film prizes and stipends for young screenwriters, directors and producers ...

  • News

    Bosnian Cinema Co-Production Project launched

    2001-08-20T21:52:00Z

    Bosnian regional and federal authorities have signalled they are to make concerted efforts to provide financial support for the development of the film industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina following the successful launch of the New Bosnian Cinema Co-Production Project (NBCCP) at this years Sarajevo Film Festival. Speaking at the presentation ...

  • News

    Sweden backs Gothenburg's CineBosnia fund

    2001-08-20T21:51:00Z

    Short film production in Bosnia-Herzegovina has been given a welcome boost by the decision of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) on the eve of this years Sarajevo Film Festival (August 17-25) to guarantee $28,995 (SEK 300,000) backing for the Goteborg Film Festival's CineBosnia fund.Launched in 2000, the CineBosnia ...

  • News

    New German distributor teams with UIP

    2001-08-20T21:32:00Z

    Christoph Ott's new German theatrical distribution company OTTFilm has signed a deal with UIP Germany for the joint distribution of new local and international titles, including Woody Allen's The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion and Robert Altman's Gosforth Park. As part of the agreement UIP will handle physical distribution of ...

  • News

    German audiences increase as cinemas decline

    2001-08-19T16:56:00Z

    While German cinema admissions have climbed 8% to 80.3 million and box office takings increased 9.6% to $406.8m for the first half of 2001, there are deeply unsettling developments elsewhere in the market, according to the German Federal Film Board (FFA).Germany's bullish exhibition sector, once a model of robust optimism, ...

  • News

    Samaha takes advantage of Oz investor frustration

    2001-08-16T19:45:00Z

    Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures has secured a new source of film financing through the German Commerzbank-backed Academy Film Fund (AFF), which has tapped Australian entertainment financiers frustrated by the tax changes in their own market. The AFF aims to raise up to Euros 200m ($176m) from private German individuals by ...

  • News

    German talent lines up for $99 films

    2001-08-15T19:55:00Z

    German actor Peter Lohmeyer (Playing Swede) is to make his directorial debut with one of the 12 shorts for the "99Euro Film" initiative which was launched by this year's Oldenburg Film Festival (September 5-9) along the lines of the Slamdance Film festival's $99 programme.Other participants who have agreed to the ...

  • News

    German audiences warm to crowd-pleasers

    2001-08-15T19:46:00Z

    Despite having a key role in international film funding, Germany has long struggled to gain recognition for its locally produced films. Its film-makers were accused of "lacking an unmistakable style" by the Cannes artistic director this year when, for the eighth consecutive year, no German film was chosen for the ...

  • News

    Ad slump hits Germany's Das Werk

    2001-08-15T19:38:00Z

    Leading German postproduction group Das Werk has been hit by the economic slowdown in the advertising industry, according to its results for the first half of 2001.While the group posted a 57% increase in revenues from Euro 32.9m in the first half of 2000 to Euro 51.5m this year, it ...

  • News

    Sarajevo festival boasts broad film selection

    2001-08-13T21:10:00Z

    Films by Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls), Joel Coen (The Man Who Wasn't There) and Jafar Panahi (The Circle) are among the films screening in the Panorama sidebar of this year's Sarajevo Film Festival which opens on August 17 with an open-air screening of Cannes prize-winner No Man's Land.Other Panorama ...