All News articles – Page 4425
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Laxton takes over as Life 'n' Lyrics director
Life 'n' Lyrics, the London-set rap drama from new British outfitFiesta Productions, has secured a new director. Richard Laxton, whose recentcredits include TV series Outlawsand Bodies, is to take over thereins following the departure of the original director, Lexi Alexander, daysbefore shooting was due to begin.Backed by the UK FilmCouncil, ...
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Charlie rules international weekend, passes $200m
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory held on to its international crown and passed $200m as a $13.8m weekend haul from 52 markets raised the running total to $201.1m.The Warner Bros Pictures International (WBPI) release was powered by a $2.7m number one Italian debut on 400 screens.The family picture openedtop in ...
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Hot Docs to spotlight Japanese docs at 2006 event
Hot Docs, Canada's majordocumentary film festival, will spotlight contemporary Japanese documentaryfilmmaking as part of its "Made in..." programme at the festival's 2006 edition."Made in ...", which was on hiatus at this year's event, has previously explorednon-fiction production in Taiwan (2003) and South Africa (2004). In a statement, Hot Docsexecutive director ...
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Rosenberg voted in as president of US actors union SAG
Alan Rosenberg has becomethe 24th president of the largest US actors' union Screen Actors Guild (SAG)following a ballot last week.Rosenberg succeeds MelissaGilbert, who served as president since 2001 and chose not to run for a thirdtwo-year term following her combative tenure.Rosenberg received 39.9%(10,748 total votes) of the nationwide vote of ...
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Disney's Flightplan soars over North American box office
Touchstone's airbornethriller Flightplan opened top onan estimated $24.6m as a strong autumn revival saw box office climb for thethird consecutive weekend.The thriller stars JodieFoster a woman who becomes convinced that she has lost her daughter on atransatlantic flight. Peter Sarsgaard also stars in Robert Schwentke's picture,which drew mediocre reviews but ...
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Violence, Line, Bride among Flanders selections
12 Beneluxpremieres will take place during the 32nd Annual Flanders Film Festival, whichruns from Oct 11-22 in Ghent, Belgium.US titles set toscreen among more than 200 entries include A History of Violence, Walk TheLine, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Elizabethtown and The Weather Man.As previouslyannounced, Mike Leigh and Alan Ladd Jr ...
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Palm Springs ShortFest closes with awards announcements
Benjamin Ross' TorteBluma won the best offestival Award and John Mitchell's Goodnight Bill won the audience award for live actionshort at the 2005 Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films, whichended at the weekend.Dawn Khoo wonthe documentary prize for her Singaporean entry Search For Her, Josh Staub won the top ...
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New Montreal FilmFest apologises for poor audience turnout
Quebec actor Luc Picard'sdirectorial debut L'Audition tookthe top competition prize, the Gold Iris of Montreal, as the inaugural FestivalInternational de Film de Montreal (FIFM) stumbled to a conclusion on Sundaynight. The awards announcementwas accompanied by a 1,000 word apologia from festival brass acknowledging that"this edition did not measure up to ...
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Theron, Phoenix lead Hollywood Awards rollcall
Charlize Theronand Joaquin Phoenix, who are expected to figure prominently in the upcomingawards season, will receive the actress and actor of the year honours for theirrespective roles in North Country and Walk The Line at the Hollywood Awards gala on Oct 24.MatthewBroderick and Susan Sarandon will collect supporting actor awards ...
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Media Blasters takes gay samurai comedy to the US
Media Blasters is to distribute KankuroKudo's hitJapanese gay samurai road comedy Yaji And Kita, The MidnightPilgrims in the US next summer, with plans to roll out to 40 screens in NewYork, Chicago, Los Angeles and other major cities. Starring pop star Tomoya Nagase and Kabukiactor Shichinosuke Nakamura in the title ...
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Ryan elected to second term as IFTA chairman
IAC Filmdirector Michael Ryan has been re-elected as chairman of the Independent Film& Television Alliance (IFTA).Ryan, who is thefirst IFTA chairman from outside the US, ran unopposed and now commences hissecond consecutive two-year term.IFTA's sevenperson executive committee, headed by Ryan, includes newly-elected vicechairman John Kochman of StudioCanal, and vice chairman, ...
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Chicago unveils competition lineups for Oct festival
Cristi Puiu's critically adored Romanian dramaThe Death Of Mr Lazarescu, Patrice Chereau's French chamber piece Gabrielle and Sarah Watt's Australian drama Look Both Ways feature in next month's international competitionline-up at the 41st Chicago International Film Festival.International competitioninclude features a slew of 2005 festival mainstays such as Heo Jin-ho's April ...
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Top speakers set for Screen's Embracing Digital Cinema conference
A number of top level newspeakers have joined the line up for ScreenInternational's Embracing Digital Cinema conference, which takes place on September28 at the Cafe Royal in London. Former ChiefExecutive Officer of the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) and 30-year veteran of the motion picture exhibitionindustry, Chuck Goldwater has joined the ...
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Rialto picks up rights to Tsotsi, C.R.A.Z.Y.
Rialto Distribution has picked up C.R.A.Z.Y. and Tsotsi,two of the major prize winners at the Toronto International Film Festival, fordistribution in Australia and New Zealand.Both films are also official entries in the best foreign film categoryof the 2006 Academy Awards: C.R.A.Z.Y. for Canada and Tsotsi forSouth Africa.C.R.A.Z.Y. won the Toronto ...
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UK animator wins Cartoon D'or with Jo Jo
UK animator MarcCraste has won this year's Cartoon D'or for his dark 12-minute short Jo JoIn The Stars at theCartoon Forum co-production market held in Denmark's Kolding from September21-24.Described as"a story of love, self-sacrifice and jealousy played out against ablack-and-white world that is both nightmarish and hauntingly beautiful", JoJo In ...
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Czech Happiness rules over San Sebastian
Something Like Happiness (Stesti) has won top honoursat the San Sebastian International Film Festival, taking the Golden Shell forBest Picture and the Best Actress award for Ana Geislerova.The Czech Republic-German co-production was directed byBodhan Slama and is centred around a young girl in a working class Czech townwhose boyfriend has ...
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Italian veterans line-up ambitious new projects
While the Italian filmindustry continues to grapple with a two-year financial crisis, the country'susual suspects are lining up ambitious new pictures. These include RenzoMartinelli, director of local special effects-heavy picture Vajont, whois currently shooting a film about terrorism entitled Il Mercante di Pietre(literally, The Precious Stones Merchant). The film is ...
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Focus has Dream for North America
Focus Featureshas picked up North American rights to Peter Cattaneo's Opal Dream and plans a 2006 release for the familypicture, which was previously known as Pobby And Dingan. It will have itsworld premiere in the Dinard Festival Of British Film from Oct 6-9.Sapphire Boycestars in the film as a young ...
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French Oscar choice sparks Gallic rumblings
The choice of Christian Carion's World War Idrama Merry Christmas as thecountry's submission to the foreign language category of the Oscars has sparkedintense debate in France. On September 19, support body the CNC announcedthat a seven member selection committee had chosen Merry Christmas. The film, however, had yet to sell ...
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Spirit Awards raise budget ceiling to $20m
Nominations forthe 2006 Independent Spirit Awards will be unveiled on Nov 29 ahead of theawards show on Mar 4 2006.Film Independentexecutive director Dawn Hudson announced that nomination guidelines have beenmodified this year to raise the budget ceiling to $20m for all eligible titles,following controversy last year over the eligibility of ...