All Middle East articles – Page 187

  • News

    Bayona's The Orphanage opens Sitges Film Festival

    2007-10-04T16:09:00Z

    Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the International Film Festival of Catalonia will open in Sitges with a screening of Juan Antonio Bayona's The Orphanage.Competing in the Official Fantastic programme are Tom Shankland's WAZ starring Stellan Skarsgard, Inside from France, Mitchell Lichtenstein's vagina dentate story Teeth, Park Chan-wook's latest I'm A Cyborg, ...

  • News

    Haggis' Elah to close inuagural Abu Dhabi festival

    2007-10-04T15:52:00Z

    Abu Dhabi's inaugural Middle East International Film Festival (Oct 14-19) has announced its line-up of Arab films, plus its closing night gala - Paul Haggis's In the Valley of Elah. The Venice critics' favourite adds to an international line-up of Iraq-themed, festival hits; other 'special presentations' (gala screenings) include Todd ...

  • News

    Warner Bros in Spain to develop and co-produce El Deseo films

    2007-10-04T13:17:00Z

    Pedro and Agustin Almodovar's El Deseo has further strengthened its partnership with Warner Bros International in Spain by agreeing to develop and co-produce film projects with the studio, including El Patio De Mi Carcel, currently shooting in Madrid.Warner Bros already distribute El Deseo's films in Spain.'Since we are particularly close ...

  • News

    Kormakur follows Jar City with Ivanov film and theatre project

    2007-10-04T13:12:00Z

    Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur plans to follow up his recent thriller Jar City, the country's Oscar submission and a local box-office hit, with an innovative cinema/theatre project based on Chekhov's classic Ivanov. Last summer, Kormakur shot a film based on the work (not a filmed play but a feature on ...

  • News

    Lust, Caution boasts highest screen average internationally

    2007-10-03T18:12:00Z

    French film 99 Francs was the highest new entry in this weekend's international chart as it generated $3.7m from 431 sites in three territories, putting it just within the top 10 in its opening weekend. (See Screen International's full international chart, compiled by Len Klady, here.) The French comedy, directed ...

  • News

    Milic, Menzel's films share top prize at Bitola festival

    2007-10-03T15:11:00Z

    At the 28th International Cinematographers Film Festival in Bitola, Macedonia (Sept 25-30), cinematographers Dragan Markovic and Jaromir Sofr shared the Golden Camera 300 award for their work on Croatian Kristijan Milic's The Living And The Dead and Czech Jiri Menzel's I Served The King Of England, respectively. The jury presided ...

  • News

    Ascot Elite picks up three new titles including The Reader

    2007-10-03T13:02:00Z

    Swiss independent distributor Ascot Elite has picked up three new titles including Stephen Daldry's Bernhard Schlink adaptation The Reader, which began shooting in Berlin and Goerlitz this week with Nicole Kidman, David Kross and Ralph Fiennes. Senator Entertainment will be releasing The Reader theatrically in Germany and Austria. The other ...

  • News

    Czech Culture Ministry drops tax incentives from film law proposal

    2007-10-03T12:24:00Z

    Hopes for a comprehensive Czech film law which would benefit runaway productions as well as local films are fading, but there remains a chance that both foreign and local producers will see improved conditions in the middle distance. As Screendaily.com reported in July, Czech filmmakers and politicians have long been ...

  • News

    NonStop acquires It's A Free World and La Zona

    2007-10-02T16:26:00Z

    Stockholm-based distributor NonStop Entertainment has acquired Scandinavia and Iceland rights for Ken Loach's It's A Free World and Scandinavia and Baltics rights for Rodrigo Pla's La Zona. Loach's It's A Free World, about a British woman who tries to make money from illegal immigrants working in the UK, won the ...

  • News

    Bac founder Labadie plans to legally contest ousting from company

    2007-10-02T14:36:00Z

    Bac Films has announced the departure of its founder and managing director, Jean Labadie. The board of holding company Bac Majestic, of which Bac Films is a 100% subsidiary, revoked Labadie's mandate on September 12 and also put an end to his employee contract as of September 24. Labadie, who ...

  • News

    Athens gives Golden Athena for best film to Puenzo's XXY

    2007-10-02T11:56:00Z

    The Argentinian production XXY directed by Lucia Puenzo was named best film of the international competition at the 13th Athens International Film Festival (Opening Nights Conn-X) receiving the Golden Athena and a prize of $14,170(Euros 10,000) in cash handed out by the European Youth Jury formed by 11 young European ...

  • News

    The Last Station gets $1.9m boost from DFFF

    2007-10-02T10:08:00Z

    Michael Hoffman's Tolstoy drama The Last Station, starring Anthony Hopkins, Meryl Streep and Laura Linney, has received the fourth largest amount awarded by the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) to an international production this year. The allocation of $1.9m (Euros 1.34m) was only surpassed by Speed Racer (Euros 9m), The ...

  • News

    Czechs crown Menzel's King Of England for Oscar

    2007-10-02T09:56:00Z

    The Czech Film and Television Academy has selected Jiri Menzel's I Served The King Of England as the Czech submission for the foreign-language film category at the Academy Awards. The Czech academy also considered Jan Sverak's Empties and Alice Nellis' Little Girl Blue. Since its premiere, I Served The King ...

  • News

    Ben Ammar preparing bid for Italian distributor

    2007-10-02T06:28:00Z

    French-Tunisian financier Tarak Ben Ammar is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire a majority stake in Italian independent distributor Eagle Pictures.The Milan and Rome based company - operated by Ciro and Steffano Dammicco - is one of Italy's top five independent distributors and was responsible for the massive 2004 rollout ...

  • Reviews

    Shadows in the Palace (Goong Nyeo)

    2007-10-01T12:25:00Z

    Dir: Kim Mi-jung. South Korea 2007. 111 mins.To get a handle on Kim Mi-jung's impressive debut, imagine The Name of the Rose set it in a Korean royal court of the Joseon dynasty. The big difference, apart from the cultural transposition, is that this historical murder mystery takes place in ...

  • Reviews

    Flawless

    2007-10-01T11:11:00Z

    Dir: Michael Radford. UK/Luxembourg 2007. 105 mins.A diamond heist thriller set in pre-swinging London circa 1960, Flawless is polished but hollow. It's not just the setting that is retro: the story itself feels a little old-fashioned, like The Day they Robbed the Bank of England or Rififi with fewer accomplices ...

  • News

    Iceland adds Jar City to foreign-language Oscar race

    2007-10-01T06:15:00Z

    Baltasar Kormakur's Jar City will represent Iceland in the race for the foreign-language Oscar.The thriller won the Crystal Globe in Karlovy Vary and it is a nominee for the Nordic Film Prize. Jar City was well received in Telluride and Toronto; IFC Films has nabbed North American rights from Trust ...

  • News

    Chuck And Larry make it to top of international box office

    2007-09-30T23:38:00Z

    Universal/UPI's comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry ruled the roost overseas at the weekend courtesy of an estimated $9.3m haul from 2,512 venues in 38 territories. The comedy climbed to $38m following a weekend session that was punctuated by seven number one debuts in Germany, Mexico, Austria, ...

  • News

    Raeburn ready to shoot adaptation of Afrikaans bestseller

    2007-09-30T22:09:00Z

    Michael Raeburn is to direct an adaptation of Marlene van Niekerk's Afrikaans tragicomic novel Triomf.Raeburn and Malcolm Kohl have collaborated on the screenplay set during the 1994 first post-apartheid general election in South Africa and focusing on a family from the white underclass.The film stars Lionel Newton, Obed Baloyi, Vanessa ...

  • News

    Boorsma brothers' Milo wins Kodak NPP Development Prize in Utrecht

    2007-09-30T18:48:00Z

    The Kodak NPP Development Prize of 5,000 euros was presented on Saturday night to the project Milo written and to be directed by Berend and Roel Boorsma and produced by San Fu Maltha of Fu Works. The award was announced at a dinner to conclude the Netherlands Production Platform (NPP) ...