All News articles – Page 5039
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Perdition goes wide but doesn't make it to the top
All eyes were on 20th Century Fox's Road To Perdition this weekend as it expanded nationwide following a strong 32 site London platform release a week ago. But while Sam Mendes' drama took a strong $2.05m (£1.3m) from its 369 sites, showing a good average of $5,548, it had to ...
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Kormakur's The Sea lands at Palm for North America and UK
ChrisBlackwell's Palm Pictures has closed its second film acquisition of theToronto Film Festival, acquiring North American and UK rights to BaltasarKormakur's The Sea (Hafid)which broke box office records in its home country of Iceland last month. Palmplans to release the film theatrically in the US followed by a DVD rollout ...
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Tokyo festival sails with Russian Ark
Tokyo FILMeX (Dec 1-8), the three year old festival that is mounting a challenge to the longer established Tokyo International Film Festival, will open with a screening of Alexander Sokurov's experimental digital film The Russian Ark. Otar Iosseliani's Berlin prize winner Monday Morning will close the festival.The festival, which is ...
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Japan's Toei to produce Battle Royale sequel
Japan's leading distributor/exhibitor Toei, is to produce a sequel to the smash-hit feature Battle Royale. Directed by Kinji Fukasaku, Battle Royale earned $25.8m (Y3.1bn) in Japan from 2,150,000 admissions and went on to sell more than 29,000 video and DVD copies. The film's violence became an issue at the ...
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Britain delivers six of the best to Dinard festival
Actresses Patsy Kensit and Emilia Fox and director Brian Gilbert will form the British contingent on the jury of this year's Festival du Film Britannique de Dinard (Oct 3-6).French actor Gerard Darmon will act as jury president, overseeing a total jury of thirteen. His fellow French jury also includes actresses ...
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Miramax's Weinsteins to receive BFI fellowships
Miramax Films co-chairmen Harvey and Bob Weinstein are to be awarded British Film Institute fellowships for outstanding contribution to cinema, the UK cultural institution's top honour.The body is also honouring cinematographer and director Jack Cardiff, whose work includes The African Queen, A Matter Of Life And Death, And Black Narcissus, ...
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San Sebastian celebrates Mondays In The Sun
Spanish film Mondays In The Sun took the top prize at the 50th anniversary of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Sept 19-28), which ended Saturday night with a series of applauded, if not anticipated, prizes. Mondays In The Sun (Los Lunes Al Sol)was a favourite even before the ...
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Danish Film Institute greenlights first-time directors
Four new Danish films have been green-lighted after receiving funding from the Danish Film Institute (DFI). Among them are the highly anticipated new film from Annette K. Olesen (Minor Mishaps) as well as new films from three feature debutantes Malene Vilstrup, Jannik Johansen and Christoffer Boe. Olesen (pictured), who received ...
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Jo Hyland joins Denmead Marketing as account manager
Jo Hyland has been appointed account manager at Los Angeles- andLondon-based publicity company Denmead Marketing. Reporting to Denmeadpresident Nikki Parker and senior vice president Maxine Leonard, Hyland willmanage worldwide client accounts for the film and television divisions whichservice both independent production and distribution companies and studios.Hyland will be responsible for ...
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New Yorker gets US rights to Unknown Pleasures
New York-basedspecialized distributor New Yorker Films has acquired US distribution rights toJia Zhang-Ke's Chinese teen drama Unknown Pleasures which world premiered in competition atthis year's Cannes Film Festival. It also screened in Toronto and playedat the New York Film Festival last night.The story ofjobless teenagers in rural China cost $0.5m ...
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Reese Is The Word: Sweet Home Alabama at the top
Reese Witherspoon proved that she was one of the brightest stars in the movie world, scoring the biggest September opening in US box office history this weekend with an estimated $37.5m bow for her romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama. Playing at 3,293 sites, the Buena Vista film scored a powerful ...
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Germany's arthouse sector mourns Nina Becker
The German film industry is mourning the death last week of the much-loved arthouse cinema-owner Nina Becker who died after along battle with cancer at the age of 41.Becker was the founder and manager of Munich's Neues Arena cinema and had joined forces with distributor/exhibitor Christoph Ott and film director ...
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Rotterdam film fund's first development prize awarded
The Rotterdam Film Fund's first development prize has been awarded to Eugenie Jansen (director of last year's Tussenland) and producer Stienette Bosklopper for their feature film project Calimucho which was presented at this year's Netherlands Production Platform in Utrecht at the weekend.Calimucho, which is a Romeo and Juliet-type story set ...
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Dutch cable giant files for bankruptcy protection
United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC), the Dutch cable giant, today (Mon, Sept 30) filed for bankruptcy protection allowing it to push through a Euros2bn recapitalisation programme.Under a revised version of a recapitalisation plan originally put together in July, parent company UnitedGlobalCom will take a 65.5% stake in the new company ...
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Wayne Borg promoted at Universal Pictures
Wayne Borg has been appointed vice president, Universal Pictures, Latin America & Asia Pacific, effective 7th January 2003. Borg is currently serving as managing director of Universal Pictures Australia/New Zealand. Previously a member of the senior management team of Warner Bros in the UK and Australia, Borg was appointed ...
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Vivendi sale of Italian pay-TV network in jeopardy
The shares of Vivendi Universal dipped 10% today after new bumps emerged in the road towards sale of its troubled Italian pay-TV operation Telepiu. At 1230GMT the shares traded at Euros11.64 compared with Friday's Euros12.20 close.Over the weekend, the EU's competition commissioner Mario Monti said that he would expect ...
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UK's Civilian Content 'cautiously positive' about half-year results
Civilian Content, the UK media concern currently bidding to extend its National Lottery franchise: The Film Consortium, is inching towards profitability after posting a pre-tax loss of $390,000 (£250,000) for the first half of the year.The loss marks an improvement of 68% on the first half of last year, when ...
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Norwegian animated feature gets blockbuster treatment
Distributor Svensk Filmindustri is giving Vibeke Idsoe's $7.7m feature animation Karlsson On The Roof a blockbuster opening this weekend. It will be released on 173 screens across Norway and Sweden.It marks the biggest ever simultaneous opening in the two countries for a local production. Even most studio titles are released ...
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Future of Babelsberg studios secured
The future of Studio Babelsberg is secure after Vivendi Universal's announcement on Wednesday (Sept 25) to focus its activities in future as a conglomerate for the film, TV and entertainment industry.Commenting on the decisions taken at Vivendi Universal's administrative council sitting in Paris, Vivendi Deutschland chief Thierry Potok declared that ...
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Russian film breaks local opening box office record
According to local reports Russian film The Oligarch (Oligarkh) has recorded the most successful opening for a local title ever in Russia.Based loosely on the violent rise to the top of self-exiled tycoon and Kremlin-fixer Boris Berezovsky, the film, directed by Pavel Lounguine and starring local star Vladimir Mashkov (pictured ...