All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 224
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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 ...
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Global Motion Pictures Fund launched
Frankfurt-based IN-motion Group has launched a new private media fund to follow the five World Media Funds it has already initiated since 1998, and which have raised a total to date of $128.8m (Euro 148m) for film and television financing.The latest fund - The First Global Motion Pictures Fonds (GMP) ...
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Pleskow sells Pleswin stake to partner de Winter
Veteran producer Eric Pleskow has announced that he has sold his interest in Pleswin Entertainment Group BV to its other principal shareholder Leon de Winter.The company was launched in August 1999 by the former United Artists boss and Orion Pictures founder with Dutch novelist and screenwriter de Winter to create ...
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Locarno reveals competition line-up
While Final Fantasy - The Spirit Within and Moulin Rouge will open and close the Piazza Grande programme respectively, this year's official competition of 19 films from 13 different countries includes ten first features and 15 world premieres.Debut projects include Meng Ong's Miss Wonton (US), Riccardo Signorell's Sheherazade (Switzerland) and ...
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PrimaCom signs ppv deal with Universal
Private German cable network PrimaCom and Universal Studios International have signed a non-exclusive pay-per-view (ppv) output deal for a wide range of current and library titles from Universal, including Oscar-winner Gladiator and The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas. Commenting on the agreement, Hans Wolfert, chief corporate development officer at PrimaCom ...
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White Noise takes top Babelsberg prize
Max Ophuels Prize winner Hans Weingartner and Oscar nominee Marc-Andreas Bochert were among the recipients of the 2001 Babelsberg Media Awards presented last weekend. Weingartner, received the $15,303 (DM35,000) Best Graduation Feature Film Award for his das weisse rauschen (The White Noise), while Bochert was presented with the $21,861 (DM50,000) ...
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BerlinBeta launches digital fiction award
BerlinBeta's film festival - from August 29 - to September 5 - is to become the first event of its kind in Europe to offer a Digital Fiction Award, in conjunction with Das Werk, for the best digitally produced feature. The event will also feature a sidebar with the latest ...
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Constantin sales drop for first half 2001
Sales for Germany's Constantin Film in the first half of 2001 are down by around a third on the performance for the same period last year, according to provisional figures released ahead of the company's annual shareholders meeting in Munich.Constantin reported that sales amounted to Euro 44.1m - compared to ...
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Germany's oldest distributor folds into Kinowelt
Kinowelt's process of restructuring continues apace with news that Germany's oldest film distributor Jugendfilm will be finally wound up and its new releases and 200-plus title library administered centrally by Kinowelt's theatrical arm Kinowelt Filmverleih.Founded in 1934 by Willy Wohlrabe, the family concern of Jugendfilm had been a key player ...
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Highlight Communications seeks Neuer Markt exit
Swiss media concern Highlight Communications is considering withdrawing from the Neuer Markt following measures by the German Stock Exchange (Deutsche Boerse) to tighten up procedures and flush out so-called "pennystocks", i.e. shares trading under Euro 1.According to a survey by Financial Times Deutschland (FTD), seven companies, including Highlight - whose ...
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Christoph Ott to release VCL's Scorpion in Germany
Ahead of VCL Film + Medien's shareholders meeting on July 11 in Munich, Screendaily has learnt that the German media concern will have the local theatrical release of its films handled by the new distribution company being launched by former Senator Entertainment executive Christoph Ott.VCL's Manfred Wenzel confirmed to Screendaily ...