All News articles – Page 4952
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French films see increase in foreign investment
French film production is still up, foreign investment is high but local investment is slowing, according to latest figures from France's National Cinema Centre (CNC). Two hundred films were produced in France in 2002, 163 of which were majority French efforts. Those figures are down, but only slightly, from 2001 ...
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Iron Ladies 2 enjoys huge opening in Thailand
Iron Ladies 2, the sequel cum prequel to the 2000 Thai smash,opened in Thailand with a blockbusting 37m Baht ($0.88m) in its first threedays over the weekend, a 78% increase on the original's opening total of20.8m Baht ($0.49m). Produced and distributed in Thailand by VisutePoolvoralaks' Tai Entertainment Co, the film ...
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Fries and Sneller launch US home video distribution arm
Independent film producersJeffrey Sneller (The Adventures of Pinocchio) and Charles Fries have formed home entertainmentdistribution company Santa Barbara Home Video, a distribution subsidiary ofSanta Barbara Filmed-Entertainment that they say will give film-makers greateropportunity to participate in the marketing of their films.Santa Barbara Home Videowill distribute its own productions as well ...
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Saban, TF1 venture left as sole bidder for KirchMedia
In a surprise development, German publisher Heinrich Bauer has withdrawn from the bidding for the KirchMedia empire, leaving the way open for US media mogul Haim Saban and partner TF1.However, Bauer spokesman Andreas Fritzenkoetter stressed that his company's "interest in a commitment in ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG and the rights trading ...
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Mirovision sells Sword abroad
Mirovision has achieved record prices in several territories for its martial arts period piece Sword Piece to Nobelo & Partners in Scandinavia, Metro Tartan in the UK and A-Film in The Netherlands. The same three buyers all grabbed horror title Phone, which also went to Rapi Films for Indonesia. Older ...
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Golden Network Asia arrives at AFM with expansive slate
Golden Network Asia, one of only two specialist film sales companies from Hong Kong, has arrived at AFM with a busy slate and promise of further expansion following financial restructuringCompany principal Carrie Wong is currently finalising a raft of new finance that will allow the company to expand its activities ...
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Canal Plus announces staff redundancies
Following a meeting with union representatives, Canal Plus today released details of a long-anticipated redundancy program at the company. Out of a total 3,038 France-based employees, 305 are set to lose their jobs over the coming months. In a press release Canal explained that the layoffs are part of a ...
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Sony closes German film production arm
Sony Pictures Entertainment's (SPE) German production arm Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion (DCPF) is to be closed down due to "the difficulties of the media market and the downward box-office trends in Germany", according to SPE chairman and CEO John Calley. "It just makes more sense for us to refocus our ...
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Film-maker appointed as South Korea's Minister of Culture
South Korean film director Lee Chang-dong has been named Minister of Culture and Tourism in a surprise appointment by new Korean president Roh Moo-hyun. This marks the first time in Korea's history that a member of the film industry will head the ministry.As Minister, Lee will oversee governmental affairs ...
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Finnish Grand Prix goes to Australian Projectionist
At the 33rd International Short Film Festival in the Finnish inland city of Tampere, the international jury awarded Michael Bates' Australian stop-motion film The Projectionist with the Grand Prix - out of the 75 shorts and documentaries from 36 countries in the international competition. The Finnish jury, headed by the ...
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Meirelles begins preparations for Intolerance
Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles has unveiled further details of the follow up to his worldwide box office and festival sensation City Of God, following the film's premiere in Argentina as the opening film of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival. His new project, Intolerance - which he jokingly describes ...
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New Spain-Argentina production company wraps first films
Start-up Spanish-Argentinean production company Altair Cinema has wrapped its first two feature films in Buenos Aires and is now preparing a similar second-year slate.Alejandro Chomski's drama Today And Tomorrow (Hoy Y Manana), a co-production with Cinema Digital starring Manuel Navarro (Alas Rotas) and Antonella Costa (Garage Olimpo), starts post-production in ...
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Kosslick wades into German media fund debate
Berlin Film Festival director Dieter Kosslick has added his voice to the growing chorus of industry figures calling for the private media funds to invest more in German production rather than concentrating on US productions.In an interview with the production company newsletter ndF:news, Kosslick said that he supported the idea ...
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Oscar-winning German producer dies
Oscar-winning producer Manfred Durniok (Mephisto) died at the age of 68 at the weekend of a heart attack. Durniok, who had more than 600 cinema and television productions to his credit since 1957, produced Istvan Szabo's 1981 film Mephisto - which won the Foreign Language Film Academy Award, a BAFTA ...
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Twilight Samurai in the limelight
The Twilight Samurai, Yoji Yamada's drama about the home and love life of a poor-but-honest samurai, walked away with 12 of the 13 Japan Academy Awards.The film, which is still ranked in the Japanese box office top ten in its 18th week on release, took the Best Picture prize, while ...
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13 Moons to open Avignon/New York festival on April 5
AlexandreRockwell's comedy 13 Moons will kick off the 9th annual Avignon/New York Film Festival,which features 18 American and French independent pictures and runs from Apr 5to Apr 13 in New York. 13 Moons will be introduced by Rockwell and the picture's lead actorSteve Buscemi.The festival,which each year showcases US and ...
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UK actor Harold Ayer dies in LA aged 86
The screen,stage and television actor Harold Ayer, whose film credits included TheSting, The Third Man andTrip To Bountiful,has died from a stroke at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Hospital inWoodland Hills, California. He was 86.Born on August15, 1916 in London, Ayer was no stranger to the performing arts. His ...
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Guirgis heads acquisitions job at Wellspring after Katsoolis exit
Marie ThereseGuirgis has been named head of acquisitions at US independent distributorWellspring, where she will be responsible for acquiring films and programmingfor US theatrical and home video release and sourcing finished films forWellspring's worldwide sales unit, which will handle co-production projectsseparately.Guirgis willreport directly to Wellspring president and CEO Al Cattabiani, ...
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Warner celebrates fourth weekend atop German box office with Lenin
Local language comedy Good Bye,Lenin! kept up the pace in Germany inits fourth weekend, holding on to top spot with a powerful $3.7m (Euros 3.4m)from 570 prints and dropping a mere 14.5% from last week. It finished ahead ofopener Maid In Manhattan by 44.6%and has an $18.4m (Euros 17.2m) running ...
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Major Russian movie retrospective unveiled for LA
The first majorretrospective of Russian cinema is set to take place in Los Angeles from Apr17-24, featuring 100 years of film-making and more than 30 titles from theRussian archives comprising features, shorts, documentaries and animated films.The event willbe presented by the Russian Federation's Ministry of Culture and is beingcoordinated by ...