All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 221
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Italian road movie wins Locarno's Golden Leopard
Italian director Maurizio Sciarra's Alla Rivoluzione Sulla Due Cavalli (pictured) - a road movie about three friends who travel to witness Portugal's 1970s revolution - won both the Golden Leopard and Best Actor Bronze Leopard at this year's Locarno International Film Festival.Headed by US writer and film critic Janet Maslin, ...
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Kinowelt's Arthaus could lose its boss Fabritus
The unravelling of German media group Kinowelt Medien has taken a further twist this week with reports spreading through the German distribution sector that Juergen Fabritius, managing director of Kinowelt's arthouse distribution arm, Arthaus Filmverleih, has left the company ahead of plans to fold Arthaus into the mainstream Kinowelt Filmverleih. ...
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Filmfest Hamburg reveals first programme titles
Fosco and Donatello Dubini's new feature Die Reise Nach Kafiristan, which will have its world premiere on Locarno's Piazza Grande open-air venue on August 9, is one of the titles confirmed so far for this year's Filmfest Hamburg (September 24-30).The Filmfest's 90-film programme will also include Japanese director Rintaro's animation ...
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Constantin rules German independent distribution
German independent distributor Constantin Film has re-asserted its status as the most successful distributor of German films this year, largely due to the phenomenal performance of local Western spoof, Der Schuh Des Manitu.After only 18 days on release, the film, which was co-produced by Constantin Film's in-house production arm, has ...
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Swiss distributors, Columbus and Vega, join forces
Swiss distributors Columbus Film and Vega Distribution are to co-operate for joint booking and billing of their releases. Columbus and Vega will retain their independence and continue to handle their own marketing and PR campaigns separately. Among the first releases are the Locarno competition film Happiness Is A Warm Gun ...
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Regent partners up for new German film fund
US producer Regent Entertainment (Gods And Monsters) and German production outfit A.C.H. GmbH Production have been lined up as two of the co-production partners for the new Munich-based "blind pool" film fund: Christopher Filmcapital. Structured as five separate tranches, raising up to Euros 30m each, Christopher Filmcapital has been launched ...
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German exhibition partners sever relationship
German exhibition companies Cinemaxx and Ufa are to sever their co-operative partnership after little more than a year. The break-up of what would have become Germany's largest cinema chain follows the posting of CinemaxX's 2001 half-year losses of $22.5m (DM52.3m).Last May CinemaxX founder Hans-Joachim Flebbe bought 10% of Ufa including ...
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Kinowelt parts company with CFO Unzeitig
Eduard Unzeitig, CFO of debt-ridden Kinowelt Medien Group, has left the company, following news that his contract has been terminated "jointly and with immediate effect".Only less than two weeks ago Alexander van Duelmen had quit his post as head of Kinowelt International "by mutual agreement and with immediate effect".In an ...
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EM.TV offloads holding in Crown Media
In yet another stage of its restructuring, beleagured German media concern EM.TV & Merchandising has offloaded its holding in Crown Media Holdings to Hallmark Entertainment for a total $ 103m. The 8.2% shares in Crown Media had been held by EM.TV via its 100% subsidiary The Jim Henson Company which ...
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Kinowelt looks for partners in bail-out bid
The RTL Group has been named by a German newspaper as a possible strategic partner to bail out debt-ridden Kinowelt Medien. In addition, Munich-based Sueddeutsche Zeitung quoted a Kinowelt spokesman as saying that the company was "currently in talks with various possible strategic partners" and "first results" of the negotiations ...
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Germany's Das Werk expands international network
German postproduction group Das Werk has taken a 25% stake in the Belgian high-end video and film post-production company ACE Digital House, as part of its creation of an international network of postproduction companies. A cash payment of Euro 1.5m (20%) was supplemented with 5% in Das Werk shares. Over ...
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Swiss film industry on an upswing
Switzerland has seen cinema admissions soar by 6.4% in the first half of 2001 to 8.78m, with local productions accounting for a 4.1% market share in the first six months, compared with 4.6% in 2000 as a whole.However, of the 100-plus Swiss films released in the first half of 2001, ...
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Oldenburg festival launches $99 Specials
The Oldenburg Film Festival (September 5-9) has launched a new short film programme in co-operation with the Slamdance Film Festival and based on its "$ 99 Specials" initiative which was a new feature last January. Twelve of the hottest young German filmmakers will each be provided with a budget of ...
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Traumwerk and Promark unite for TV series
Das Werk's production subsidiaries Traumwerk Filmproduktion and Promark Entertainment are banding together under the label Promark International to develop English-language TV 'events' and mini-series productions for the international market. The joint venture will be co-ordinated from Los Angeles by Promark's Jon Kramer and from Traumwerk's new Berlin office by former ...
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Germany creates two new digital film awards
Digital filmmakers can compete for two new German awards that are being launched at the BerlinBeta Film Festival (August 29 - September 5) and Filmfest Hamburg (September 24-30) this year.Sponsored by leading postproduction group Das Werk, the BerlinBeta Digital Fiction Award will give the winning film postproduction services with a ...
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Fremaux opens Cannes door to German films
After nearly a decade of being excluded from the Cannes Film Festival's official competition, the German film industry has been given a glimmer of hope by the festival's new artistic director Thierry Fremaux.Following a visit to Munich, where he met industry figures including FFF Bayern's Klaus Schaefer, Berlin Film ...
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105 German graduate films up for First Steps award
Berlinale 2001 competition entry My Sweet Home by Filippos Tsitos, Hans Weingartner's Max Ophuels Prize-winner White Noise (Das Weisse Rauschen) Benjamin Quabeck's HypoVereinsbank Prize-winner No Regrets (Nichts Bereuen), and Marco Kreuzpaintner's medium-length film Der Atemkuenstler are among 105 titles submitted for this year's First Steps Award open to recently completed ...
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Germany maintains investment in exhibition sector
The German exhibition sector has been maintaining a high level of investment in the national cinema infrastructure, despite widespread caution that cinema construction is outstripping the growth in admissions across many European territories.During last year, Germany's exhibitors invested more than $355m (DM 800m) in building 448 new cinema screens. (compared ...
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Kinowelt Int'l chief quits as redundancies loom
Alexander van Duelmen, managing director of Kinowelt International, a subsidiary of beleaguered German media concern, Kinowelt Medien, has quit his post suddenly, "by mutual agreement and with immediate effect". Further staff reorganisation is expected to follow shortly.Van Duelmen had been responsible for masterminding Kinowelt's overseas growth through international partnerships with ...
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German comedy smashes local box office record
Just as Jurassic Park III was creating a stir with its opening day ticket sales in the US, a local German film has smashed box office records with its first day's admissions.Der Schuh Des Manitu, a western parody by alternative German comedian Michael "Bully" Herbig. attracted 203,000 admissions on Thursday ...