All News articles – Page 5069
-
News
Sitges to open with Darkness
Darkness, Jaume Balaguero's highly-anticipated follow-up feature to his award-winning debut The Nameless (Los Sin Nombre), is set to inaugurate the 35th edition of the International Film Festival of Catalunya, better known as Sitges (October 3-13).A co-production between Filmax's Fantastic Factory and Miramax, the English-language thriller stars Anna Paquin, Lena Olin ...
-
News
Hunter tracks down Harper for Prey
UK director Simon Hunter, whose debut film Lighthouse opens in London this week as an unusual double bill with horror classic Evil Dead, has teamed with producer Sara Harper on his next project, heist movie Prey.Prey, which Hunter also wrote, follows a group of criminals who kidnap a murderer by ...
-
News
Mirovision opens arty theatre in Seoul
Film sales and distribution company Mirovision this week became the latest outfit to move into the expanding Korean exhibition market. This week it opened its first cinema, the Insa Arts Theatre.Acquired on a long-term lease and located in the middle of the Insadong entertainment and tourist area, the theatre is ...
-
News
BAFTA moves UK awards in line with Oscars shift
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is holding its film awards ceremony in 2004 two weeks early, the body announced this week.The move, which means the ceremony will be held Sunday 8th February, keeps the awards a month ahead of the Oscars, which have also moved two weeks.Next ...
-
News
UK's Momentum boosts home video market share
UK independent Momentum boosted its video distribution market share to 6.88% for the second quarter of this year, compared to its entire year average in 2001 of 2.13%, according to the MRIB rental distribution tracker. The driving force behind this success was the Samuel L. Jackson's hit action comedy ...
-
News
Puchon's porno challenge to censorship laws
The line between erotic art and simple pornography has often troubled programmers of film festivals. But for the selectors at this week's Puchon International Festival of Fantastic Film (PiFan) (July 11-20) the idea was to pretend that they were having a serious discussion about censorship while in fact showing a ...
-
News
New chief financial officer for Vivendi Universal
Jacques Espinasse, previously CEO of the TF1-controlled digital satellite platform Television Par Satellite (TPS), has been named chief financial officer of beleaguered media and entertainment giant Vivendi Universal.Espinasse, who has held top positions at several French publishing groups (including Vivendi Universal subsidiary Havas) before joining TPS in 1999, replaces Guillaume ...
-
News
Norton promoted to head of production at Mill Film
UK-based effects house Mill Film has named Emma Norton as head of production.Norton, who takes up the position with immediate effect, worked her way up at the Mill from a production assistant to shoot coordinator and then on to a producing role. She reports directly to Mill Film's managing director, ...
-
News
Korean films keep up record pace set in first half of 2002
With the country in a buoyant mood after last week's news that Korean films leapt 7.8% to take a 46.1% share of the Seoul market in the first half of this year, the signs are promising that a string of new Korean films will also score at the local box ...
-
News
Germany's Advanced Medien files suit for damages of Euros 4m
The increasingly acrimonious mood within the publicly -listed German media companies has been further stoked with the news of Advanced Medien's filing of a suit for damages of Euros 4m against former members of the company's management board.Former executives Christophe Montague, Hanns-Arndt Jovy and Veronika Morawetz were named in the ...
-
News
Telefilm Canada backs eleven new features
Telefilm Canada is to back eleven new feature films, including the latest from Quebecois auteur Denys Arcand. With a combined budget of more than $16m, the projects include six French-language titles and five in English, including co-productions with the UK and Israel.Arcand's Les Invasions Barbares (Barbarian Invasion), his first film ...
-
News
ContentFilm, Rapid Film cement Irish production partnership
ContentFilm USA and Rapid Film Ireland have announced their partnership to produce 12 low budget feature films from Ireland over the next three years. The deal, similar to those established by ContentFilm in other countries, will source and produce local film scripts for international distribution.As part of the ContentFilm/Rapid Film ...
-
News
Warner Lusomundo Sogecable expands Spanish multiplex circuit
Warner Lusomundo Sogecable, the three-way Spanish exhibition venture, is to invest Euros 65m-70m in expanding its cinema estate, building six new multiplexes with a total 62 screens before the summer of 2004. The company currently owns and operates ten multiplexes with 104 screens in Spain. The most recent, a nine-screen ...
-
News
Toronto to introduce Ponti's Strangers
Edoardo Ponti's Canada-Italy co-production Between Strangers will make its world premiere at the 27th Toronto International Film Festival, Sept. 5-14. The film, which will be screened as a Special Presentation, features an ensemble cast including Sophia Loren, Gerard Depardieu, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Mira Sorvino, Pete Postlethwaite, Malcolm McDowell and Debra ...
-
News
Locarno announces full competition line-up
"Quality is the all-embracing element" says festival director Irene Bignardi about this year's International Competition lineup for the 55th Locarno International Film Festival (Aug 1-11) which kicks off on the stroke of midnight on Aug 1 with an open-air screening of Oliver Parker's The Importance Of Being Earnest.More than half ...
-
News
MGM Home Entertainment goes solo in France, Germany
MGM Home Entertainment Group, the DVD and home video arm of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, is to set up its own sales and marketing operations in France and Germany. The deal sees MGM exercise an option in its international distribution services agreement with Fox Filmed Entertainment to reclaim those territories. Fox, which previously ...
-
News
Germany's Splendid Film package sold for $17.4m
The romantic comedy Kate & Leopold and police thriller NARC are among a 16-title, Euros 17.3m package of films sold by Splendid Film to the German private broadcasting group ProSiebenSat1 Media.Among the other titles in the package, which will begin generating income for Splendid in the second half of 2002, ...
-
News
European local hits fight back against US blockbusters
In a reversal of fortunes for Spanish films, a musical comedy has become the third-highest grossing local title of this year after just 10 days on release. Meanwhile, continuing a robust trend, a Danish film has kicked Spider-Man off the top spot at the box office, with the fourth-best opening ...
-
News
Episode II sets new all-time opening record in Japan
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones has set a new opening record in Japan, taking a gross box office of $13.8m over the two-day weekend.The sci-fi adventure attracted a massive 1,075,287 admissions to reach $13.8m (Y1.6bn) from a record high number of screens - 630, over the ...
-
News
Two Eastern European countries boost national film funds
The newly-appointed Hungarian ministry of culture has awarded $3.3m (HUF 800m) in immediate cash for its struggling local film industry, while in neighbouring Slovakia a new law has been passed requiring broadcasters and exhibitors to contribute to the country's production funds.In Hungary, cultural minister Gabor Gorgey and minister of financial ...