All News articles – Page 5003
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James Bond: international hit man
Fox International's Die Another Day continued its record-breaking worldwide march over the weekend with a phenomenal $31.6m haul from 19 markets. After 13 days on release the twentieth James Bond instalment has grossed a powerful $65.4m internationally and $100.6m in the US for a $165.9m worldwide tally. In Germany it ...
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Hero under the hammer
In an unusual move, Chinese video rights to Zhang Yimou's widely-anticipated martial arts epic Hero were sold at an auction last week in Beijing, where they fetched a record-breaking $2.15m (RMB17.8m).Around 18 companies paid a deposit of $36,000 (RMB300,000) to join the bidding, which started at $965,000 (RMB8m). The film ...
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UK set for close-run race for 2002 distributor crown
The UK box office looks set for a thrilling end-of-year race to establish the biggest-grossing distributor of 2002.And while it is still too early to predict with any certainty, there is a real possibility that Entertainment Film Distributors could become the first independent distributor ever to finish on top of ...
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CGI-heavy fantasy Sumuru wraps in South Africa
Production has just wrapped on Sumuru, a fantasy boasting the highest use of CGI ever for a feature produced in South Africa, which has been shooting for the past six weeks in and around Johannesburg. The film is produced by Brigid Olen and Marlow De Mardt of DO Productions, Harry ...
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UPI to launch video distribution arm in Mexico
Universal Pictures International (UPI), the London-based international video distribution arm of Universal Pictures, has announced its plans to launch a wholly-owned video distribution operation in Mexico. Universal Pictures Mexico will launch on 1st January 2003, following the expiration of the current four-year joint venture distribution deal with Paramount, ...
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Central Asian films to be focus of Trieste festival
Films from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan will be showcased at this year's Trieste Film Festival - Alpe Adria Cinema (January 16-23, 2003) which has become an important meeting place for cinema from Central and Eastern Europe since its launch in 1988.The festival's 'Cinema of the Silk Road' showcase is part ...
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German Culture Minister hands out industry awards
Two Munich-based distributors Prokino Filmverleih and Movienet Film and Berlin distribution outfit Piffl Medien have each received the 2002 Distributor Award worth Euros 100,000.The awards were presented to the three companies at a special ceremony on last week by Germany's new State Minister of Culture Christina Weiss in recognition of ...
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Sinisa Dragin wins top prize at Belgrade
Bertrand Tavernier's Safe Conduct (Laissez-Passer) closed the ninth Belgrade International Festival of Auteur Films on Saturday night. The Rotterdam Tiger Award winner, Romanian Sinisa Dragin's Everyday God Kisses Us On The Mouth (In Fiecare Zi Dumnezeu Ne Saruta Pe Gura) won the main award, the 'Aleksandar Sasa Petrovic' plaque. The ...
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Svensk Filmindustri gets first look on Early Bird output
Nordic media major Svensk Filmindustri has signed a first look deal with the Danish-Swedish production outfit Early Bird Films. Svensk Filmindustri will have first look on distribution and possible co-production opportunities on every new Early Bird project aimed at the Nordic market. Early Bird Films operates out of Copenhagen and ...
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Karlovy Vary festival shows interest in buying hotel venue
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is reportedly interested in buying the Czech festival's main venue, the Western Bohemian spa town's communist-era Hotel Thermal.Built in the 1970s as a retreat for Party elites, the imposing socialist edifice has hosted the festival's administrative centre, along with the largest film screenings, for ...
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Denmark's Zentropa returns to quality porn
Denmark's mavericks at Zentropa are about to revive their ambitions of making quality porn for women. The new $135,000 (DKK1m) film, All About Anna will, however, be produced through Innocent Pictures, which replaced Zentropa's Puzzy Power label in 2001. Now headed by CEO Claus Sorensen and creative producer Nicolas Barbano, ...
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Kirch manager Kogel to step down
Ahead of the sale of the insolvent KirchMedia to German publishing empire Heinrich Bauer Verlag by mid-December, managing director Fred Kogel announced at the weekend that he will leave the company at the end of the year.Speaking to the news agency AP, Kogel explained that 'after I have completed the ...
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Two short film festivals wrap in Romania
The end of November saw two important international short film festivals take place in Romania. The town of Tirgu Mures hosted the tenth edition of the Alter-Native International Short Film Festival between November 20 and 24. The festival screened fifty-seven productions in competition as well as a selection of popular ...
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SPE notches up the biggest studio gross record
Sony PicturesEntertainment (SPE) has broken the industry's all-time record forworldwide box office receipts in a calendar year with $2.75bn in sales, thestudio said today (Dec 2). The performance beats the previous mark of $2.68bnset by 20th Century Fox in 1998, when that studio distributed Titanic internationally.In a statementissued today SPE ...
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Deepa Mehta named CineAsia director of the year
Indo-Canadian filmmakerDeepa Mehta will be named 'Director of the Year' at this year'sCineAsia exhibition convention. The presentation will made at the event'sopening night December 3 to be followed by a screening of her latest film, Bollywood/Hollywood, a comedic amalgam of Bollywood romance andHollywood musical.Set in Toronto, the filmfeatures Bollywood ...
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The world is wild about Harry: 11.2 million admissions over the weekend
The records continued to tumble for Warner Bros as Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets passed $200m in international ticket sales over the weekend, amassing an estimated $56.8m from 11.2 million admissions on 8,201 screens in 32 territories. The sequel has an estimated $208m international and $408m worldwide total ...
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Signature Theatres' Harris named 2003 ShoWester
Philip Harris III, the founder of Signature Theatres and current vice chair of the finance committee at the National Association Of Theatre Owners (NATO), is to be named ShoWester of the Year at next year's ShoWest convention in Las Vegas running March 3 to 6."Phil Harris has quickly emerged as ...
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Sundance unveils 'challenging' 2003 selections
Sundance Film Festivalprogramming director Geoffrey Gilmore promised next year's influentialevent would feature "among the most provocative and challenging films wehave ever seen at the festival" even in the face of all the commercial hardships that independent filmmakers are currently confrontingUnveiling the Dramatic andDocumentary Competitions, as well as the films that ...
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CineMart unveils 2003 projects
The CineMart project market (Jan 26-30) held under the umbrella of the Rotterdam film festival, unveiled what its organisers claimed is one of its strongest ever line-ups. "We had a terribly difficult time making the final selection," said Ido Abram, Cinemart chief. "That was because we had more projects thatn ...
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Submissions from 54 countries named eligible for foreign Oscar
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has posted its list of submissions for the Foreign Language Film Award category after eligibility concerns forced committee members to delay publication by one week. While the 54-strong list - a record number of submissions that beats last year's mark by three ...