All News articles – Page 4977
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Berlinale awash with Talent
Festival directors know only too well that luck as well as judgement determines the strength or weakness of their competition programmes. The state of world cinema may vary enormously year by year - Cannes head Gilles Jacob has even admitted in the past that his programme has merely been the ...
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HanWay promotes Ayesta to manager, int'l sales
HanWay, Jeremy Thomas and Thierry Wase-Bailey's sales company, has promoted Ana Ayesta to the newly-created position of manager, international sales.Ayesta will handle sales to Scandinavia, Switzerland and South Africa and have overall responsibility for South East Asia excluding to Korea. Reporting to Wase-Bailey, she already handles Spain, Latin America, Portugal, ...
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Norway funds two new features from Maipo
The Norwegian Film Fund has greenlighted two new projects from Maipo Film, the outfit behind the local box office phenomenon Elling.Bent, Frank & Susie is based on The Jealous Hairdresser a short story by Norway's number one best-selling author Lars Saabye Christensen. Annette Sjursen's directing debut tells the story of ...
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Trust takes international sales on Home
Trust Film Sales has picked up international sales on Theo van Gogh's new feature project Home Is Where The Heart Is which was presented at the Cinemart co-production market at the Rotterdam International Film Festival this week.Budgeted at Euros 2.2m, the digitally shot psychogical thriller will be produced by Els ...
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NonStop takes international sales on The Slaughter Rule
Film sales agent NonStop Sales has acquired the rights to handle international sales for highly acclaimed The Slaughter Rule, which also marks the first non-Nordic film NonStop Sales will distribute. With international market launch at the European Film Market 2003 in Berlin, The Slaughter Rule, directed by twin brothers Alex ...
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Ted Turner steps down as AOL Time Warner posts $100bn loss
AOL Time Warnertoday (Jan 29) posted a net loss of nearly $100bn for 2002 - the biggest annualloss in corporate history - after announcing a fourth quarter writedown of$45.5bn that followed a $54bn writedown in the first quarter to cover thecompany's plummeting value. In a separate announcement that adds to ...
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August to attend Scandinavian Festival in Los Angeles
Renowned Danishdirector Bille August, who won the best foreign language Oscar in 1989 for PelleThe Conqueror, willattend the Scandinavian Film Festival LA's gala reception as a guest onJan 31. August is currently in Los Angeles shooting Without Apparent Motive (working title) with Julianne Moore andRichard Gere. The reception will take ...
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Stuparich De La Barra promoted at MDP Worldwide
Tamara Stuparich De La Barra has been promoted to directorof acquisitions at MDP Worldwide Entertainment, the company's chairmanand CEO Mark Damon announced today (Jan 30). Stuparich De La Barra's newresponsibilities will include the evaluation and coordination of all featurefilm submissions as well as overseeing the acquisition of completed films. Shewill ...
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Columbia, McG to make movie based on Mattel toy cars Hot Wheels
Columbia Pictures hasoptioned exclusive rights to develop and produce Hot Wheels, an action-romance based on Mattel's populartoy cars range with McG of Charlie's Angels fame lined up to direct. While story details aresketchy McG gave some clues in a statement released today (Jan 30). 'Wewant to create a timeless story ...
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New Christopher Guest 'mockumentary' to play South By Southwest
ChristopherGuest's folk music 'mockumentary' A Mighty Wind and the Adrien Brody comedy-drama TheDummy are among theline-up for the upcoming 10th Annual South By Southwest Film Conference AndFestival in Austin, Texas. Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, whofamously played clueless rockers in 1984's This Is Spinal Tap, play 1960s folk stars ...
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Samuel Goldwyn, Fireworks to release Dan Ireland's Passionada
Samuel Goldwyn Films andFireworks Pictures announced today (Jan 30) they will distribute DanIreland's Passionada, aMassachusetts-based romance centred on a Portugese-American family, in NorthAmerica. The picture stars Sofia Milos, who has starred in numerous film andtelevision productions including The Sopranos, Jason Isaacs, who played Lucius Malfoy in HarryPotter And The Chamber ...
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Paxton cast as Thunderbirds patriarch
Continuing its strategy of non A-list casting on Thunderbirds, Working Title Films has cast Bill Paxton as Jeff Tracy, head of the International Rescue.Joining him on Tracy Island are his sons: Philip Winchester (The Patriot) as Scott and Lex Shrapnel (K-19: The Widowmaker) is John. Virgil will be played by ...
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German media funds raise over Euros 2bn in 2002
In spite of the German stock exchange crisis and the Federal Government dragging its feet on the future structure of its tax legislation, German investors channelled over Euros 2bn of equity into private media funds for national and international production in 2002.According to German fund specialist Vendura, the funds' overall ...
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Local market share slips (again) for Australian films
Australian films took only 4.9% or $24.7m (A$41.8m) of the total $498.9m (A$844.8) gross box office for 2002, compared to 7.8% in 2001 and 8% in 2000.However, according to the Australian Film Commission, the good news is that in only one other year on record did more films gross $590,000 ...
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Lock, Stock financier launches AV Pictures
Angad Paul, one of the businessmen that financed Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, has launched his own film business.The 31-year old executive has bought UK sales outfit Victor Film Co and formed AV Pictures with Victor chief, Vic Bateman. AV is a subsidiary of Caparo ...
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Whale Rider riding high in Rotterdam
Two thirds of the way through the Rotterdam festival, Niki Caro's Whale Rider was streets ahead in the polls for the Canal Plus public prize. The film, which was previously an audience favourite in Toronto, appears in Rotterdam's main programme and received nearly three time as many votes as The ...
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Santa Barbara Film Fest unveils 2003 lineup under Fitzgerald
Ten world premieres areamong the line-up of more than 100 pictures for the 18th Santa BarbaraInternational Film Festival (SBIFF), which also features three new competitivesections - American Independent, Documentary and International. Announcing theprogramme today (Jan 29), SBIFF's new executive director Jon Fitzgerald saidthe event would also screen 11 US premieres ...
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Promark debuts three new Clubhouse Detectives films at AFM
Promark Entertainment Group,Jon Kramer's 15-year-old US and UK-based production and sales outfit, today(Jan 29) announced plans for three further instalments in its ClubhouseDetectives franchise that will beavailable for pre-sales at next month's AFM. Following on from the success of themost recent Clubhouse Detectivespictures, the company plans to begin production on ...
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AFMA hires Michael Kananack to spearhead recruitment drive
Veteran filmsales agent Michael Kananack has been brought in as manager of membershipdevelopment at AFMA to spearhead a recruitment drive for the LA-based tradeassociation, which currently represents 160 independent film and televisionproducers and distributors worldwide. He will report directly to director ofmember services Natasha Berechko.Kananack's arrival comes at an important ...
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Russian Ark breaks Los Angeles theatre foreign language record
US specialist distributorWellspring has reported that Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark has broken a house record at one of thecountry's most prestigious arthouse cinemas. The film has become thebiggest grossing foreign picture ever to screen at Landmark's NuartTheatre in Los Angeles with a $53,967 haul from one week (Jan 3-9).After opening ...