All News articles – Page 5041
-
News
Polish government steps in to bail out struggling film industry
Poland's new culture minister Waldemar Dabrowski unveiled a government backed bail-out package for Poland's beleaguered film industry at last week's annual Festival of Polish Feature Film in the Baltic seaside resort of Gdynia. At a special industry forum of Polish filmmakers Dabrowski said that the government had agreed to a ...
-
News
Natural Nylon team unravels as founder producer Bryant exits
Natural Nylon founder Damon Bryant is exiting the company he launched with leading British actors Ewan McGregor, Jude Law and Jonny Lee Miller and fellow producer Bradley Adams.Bryant is taking two projects with him which were developed at Natural Nylon under its first-look arrangement with Alliance Atlantis. John Maybury (Love ...
-
News
Polish festival warms to Day Of The Freak
Despite a funding crisis in the Polish film industry that has cast doubts on the future of the event, the 27th annual festival of Polish Feature Film (17-21 September) in the Baltic coast resort of Gdynia managed to field a competition programme of 21 new features and a special new ...
-
News
European media shares take a heavy pounding
Even before a shot has been fired in what looks increasingly like Gulf War II, European media stocks have been taking a shelling. In the US, Disney, AOL Time Warner and the cable companies Adelphia and Charter have been featured in bleak headlines, but their shares have dipped only modestly. ...
-
News
KWA picks up worldwide rights to Spanish language trio
Madrid-based sales house Kevin Williams Associates (KWA) has picked up worldwide rights to three new films - The Blue Room (La Habitacion Azul), The Suit (El Traje) and November (Noviembre) - the company announced at the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Sept 19-28).The trio of pick-ups link KWA directly to ...
-
News
Full listing of AFMA's newly elected board of directors
The 2003 boardof directors for AFMA was elected at the annual membership meeting of theindependent film association yesterday, according to a statement from AFMAchairman Kathy Morgan. Morgan stressed AFMA's increasing internationalprofile, with 40% of member companies now headquaretered outside the US includingUK executives Jane Barclay, Nicole Mackey, Michael Ryan and ...
-
News
Vivendi Universal sells Canal+ Technologies to Thomson Multimedia
Vivendi Universal today (Wednesday, Sept 25) sold Canal Plus Group's 89% stake in set-top decoders company Canal Plus Technologies to French group Thomson Multimedia for Eu190m.The cash deal is part of Vivendi Universal's Eu10bn assets disposal programme and may not be the only one announced today. It is widely expected ...
-
News
Greenwald commits to film while mentoring its writer
Maggie Greenwald hascommitted to direct her next picture, a romantic comedy script Rose OfSharon by Thomas Simmons - aproject with which she became familiar while mentoring new writers includingSimmons at the Hamptons International Film Festival in Long Island, New York,last week.The director of Songcatcher, The Kill-Off and The Ballad Of ...
-
News
First participants confirmed for German sales & distribution market
Germany's Bavaria Media, the Czech Republic's Space Film, Norway's BV International Pictures and the UK's Indyuk Films are among over 20 European arthouse sales agents which have already registered for the first 'Sales & Distribution Market' to be held by the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival from November 12-14.A sales and ...
-
News
Focus sells out its territories on Far From Heaven
Focus International hascompleted sales of English-language territories on Todd Haynes' periodmelodrama Far From Heaven,closing deals with Entertainment Film Distributors in the UK, Icon FilmDistribution in Australia/New Zealand and Ster-Kinekor in South Africa. FocusFeatures will distribute the film in North America, although Focus inheriteddomestic rights from USA Films which was merged ...
-
News
Four bidders line-up E2bn bids for KirchMedia
Four different consortia have tabled bids worth up to Euros2bn for the bulk of KirchMedia's television and film rights.A consortium including Germany's Commerzbank and Sony's Columbia TriStar is reported to have offered Euros 2bn, as has another consortium whose members include German publishers Axel Springer and Bauer Verlag and HVB ...
-
News
New BSkyB channel to have heavy film accent
Films will form an integral part of a new entertainment channel to be launched by UK pay-TV broadcaster BSkyB under the aegis of Dawn Airey, who was appointed managing director of Sky Networks over the weekend.Airey, currently chief executive of Channel 5, will join BSkyB in early 2003 in a ...
-
News
Szolnok adds Eastern market to festival mix
The town of Szolnok in eastern Hungary will next week (Oct 1-6) host its annual International Film Festival of Fine Arts along with an international film market. The festival, founded over thirty years ago, includes 130 films in competition across three categories: documentary, experimental and animation. Thirty features and shorts ...
-
News
Greek Wedding woos UK weekend audiences
My Big Fat Greek Wedding, earned $2.3m (£1.5m) in three days, when it opened in the UK, the first major territory outside the US for the indie box office sensation.Playing at 341 sites for a strong average of $6,857 the comedy, which is directed by Joel Zwick and stars Nia ...
-
News
Avrio gives push to Maximum Surge
Avrio Filmworks Releasing has acquired the worldwide sales rights to the sci-fi feature Maximum Surge. The film, directed by Jason Bourque is an action feature about a computer designer who must battle an artificial intelligence programme inside a virtual reality game he previously created. Maximum Surge stars Walter Koenig, Yasmine ...
-
News
Hungary's porno-music drama Mix wraps in Budapest
"Music, love, porn", is how writer-director-producers Steven and Robert Lovy describe their latest film, Mix, that has just finished shooting in Budapest. The film's main character is a talented, American teenager who, following his father's wish, is preparing to become a pianist while secretly cherishing plans to become a DJ. ...
-
News
CNC calls for urgent reform of production funding
Expansion of the SOFICA tax schemes, additional regional funding and a restructuring of contributions from the video-DVD sectors could deliver an additional Euros80m-Euros100m to the French production sector. Those are among the urgent measures in support of the struggling independent production sector recommended by a lengthy study delivered to government ...
-
News
Home Road Movies scoops Cartoon d'Or
UK animator Robert Bradbrook was named the winner of the 12th Cartoon d'Or for his 12-minute mix of 3-D computer animation and live action Home Road Movies. The prize, which provides the winning film-maker with Euros25,000 pre-production aid to begin work on a more ambitious project, was awarded to Bradbrook ...
-
News
Disney, Modern Times launch channel
The Nordic region is to get its own version of the Disney Channel, following an agreement between Walt Disney Television International (WDTV-I) and Swedish giant Modern Times Group ( MTG).The channel - the 21st of its kind worldwide - will launch in early 2003 on MTG's Viasat satellite platform. WDTV-I ...
-
News
Monsters Inc claims monster record on US home entertainment debut
Monsters, Inc. last week became the latest title to claim a record in the US home entertainment market, when it notched up sales of $85m on its first day on release. Some five million VHS and DVD copies of the title were sold last Tuesday, with a 60%-65% sold on ...