All News articles – Page 5336
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Hispanic TV hots up as Mexico's Azteca enters US
Mexican broadcasting giant TV Azteca has realized its long-standing ambition to enter the US by creating Azteca America, a third Hispanic network that is armed with investment commitments worth nearly $500m.Azteca, Mexico's second largest broadcaster, has joined forces with private station owner Pappas Telecasting to bankroll the venture, which is ...
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Elisabeth Murdoch joins UK publisher Future
Elisabeth Murdoch has joined the board of UK magazine publisher Future Network.Murdoch takes up the position of non-executive director, her first post since quitting her father's satellite TV company BSkyB three months ago. The former managing director of Sky Networks joins with immediate effect.Future Network announced the appointment as it ...
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Iran's The Circle wins the Golden Lion at Venice
Iranian film, The Circle (Dayereh) grabbed the top honours at the 57th Venice film festival.After the disappointments that had marked the competition section until the first weekend, it became clear that Jafar Panahi's episodic tale recounting the ongoing humiliations of women in modern Iranian society, had every chance of taking ...
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Vivendi Universal fends off critics in Deauville
Canal Plus top brass used the occasion of an informal press lunch with their Universal counterparts in Deauville on Thursday to shrug off Credit Lyonnais' recent downgrading of Vivendi and Canal Plus stock."Credit Lyonnais should keep in mind its past Hollywood ventures," quipped Canal Plus chairman Pierre Lescure.In an investor ...
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Fortissimo sells Venice titles to Canada, Brazil
Fortissimo Film Sales has sold Venice titles The Goddess Of 1967, which is screening in competition, and Thomas Est Amoureux, screening in the Present Cinema section, to Canada's Seville Films, Brazil's Imovision and Greece's Prooptiki.In addition, Australian title Goddess, directed by Clara Law, has been sold to Gemini in Mexico, ...
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ABC appoints Virgo as drama chief
Italy has chosen Marco Tullio Giordana's The Hundred Steps (I Cento Passi) as its official entry for the foreign-language Oscar, over both Silvio Soldini's Bread And Tulips and Giuseppe Tornatore's Malena, which had both been widely tipped.The Hundred Steps is based on the true story of Peppino Impastato, a student ...
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Reynolds to head Screen Tasmania board
Launceston-based Margaret Reynolds, currently president of the United Nations Association of Australia and a former Federal Minister, is to head up the new board of Screen Tasmania. The other board members include producer Rosemary Blight, author and director Richard Flanagan, lawyer and executive producer Bryce Menzies, writer-director Roger Scholes, ABC ...
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Italy's Scimeca lines up Spanish period drama
Sicilian director Pasquale Scimeca, whose Placido Rizzotto premiered this week in the Venice film festival's Filmmakers of Today sidebar, has finished writing his next project which will be set in 15th Century Spain.The film will recount the period when a royal edict forced thousands of persecuted Jews to leave Spain. ...
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Deluxe to open Italian facility
Laboratories group Deluxe is to open a new processing facility in Rome, which will be only its second site in Europe.Deluxe Italia is expected to serve distribution clients across the European region. "This is about more than the Italian market. From Rome we will be serving our clients' European needs. ...
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New Zealand exhibitors scrap merger proposal
New Zealand's biggest exhibitors - Village Force Cinemas and Hoyts Cinemas - have admitted publicly that they have abandoned plans to merge because of the New Zealand Commerce Commission's continued opposition to the deal.The two players would have jointly owned about one third and jointly controlled about three quarters of ...
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FFC boards Aboriginal drama Beneath Clouds
The Australian Film Finance Corporation (FFC) and local broadcaster SBS are backing the first feature from Aboriginal film-maker Ivan Sen, Beneath Clouds, with commitments from UK sales agent Axiom Films and Australian distributor Dendy Films.The film, scheduled to start shooting January 15, is about two teenagers - one the daughter ...
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Skouras, Blackwatch buy the world on Tully
Skouras Films and Blackwatch Releasing have jointly acquired worldwide rights to Hilary Birmingam's directorial debut The Truth About Tully, the major prize winner at this year's Los Angeles Independent Film Festival (LAIFF) when it was known as Whatever Happened To Tully.Skouras plans to release the film in the US in ...
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Kitano sets up rival Tokyo festival
Office Kitano, the production, distribution and promotion team built around offbeat Japanese actor-director (Beat) Takeshi Kitano, has launched a new festival of Asian and independent film.The establishment of the festival is seen as something of a backlash against the growing commercialism of the long-established Tokyo International Film Festival, which this ...
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Young French stay away from cinemas
Fewer young people are going to the movies in France, according to a CNC report assessing the cinema-going habits of 6-24 year olds, the "golden age group". But fortunately those who do go, go more often than before, mostly due to the multiplex boom. It is finally dawning on the ...
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Fabrica Cinema launches television arm
Benetton-funded production company Fabrica Cinema plans to launch a television production arm to be headed by director Marco Bellocchio and Fabrica director and former Locarno festival chief Marco Mueller."Fabrica Television is borne out of the necessity to double our efforts to create visibility for films otherwise regarded as marginal," said ...
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Lauren re-enters production with Roman comedy
Spanish distributor-exhibitor Lauren Films is preparing a Roman-era Monty Python-esque comedy, Lisistrata, which will mark its return to production after a decade-long hiatus.The film is scheduled to shoot in early 2001 under director Francesc Bellmunt (Thanks For The Tip). Lauren chief Antonio Llorens said he hopes to tap co-producers and ...
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Williams steps down as PACT chief executive
Shaun Williams, the chief executive of UK producer's alliance PACT, is to stand down from the post in January.A successor has yet to be appointed. PACT said it would shortly set up an appointments committee to seek a successor to take over in the New Year.Williams commented: "After three years ...
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BSkyB, NTL sign programming agreement
UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB has signed a five-year programming supply deal with cable operator NTL which irons out several sticking points between the two companies. Under the deal - which is subject to the approval of telecom watchdog OFTEL - BSkyB will be paid according to NTL's growth projections, rather ...
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Indian film star kidnap talks break down
Negotiations to secure the release of Indian film star Rajkumar, kidnapped by bandit king Veerappan, broke down this week after the Indian Supreme Court refused to release 127 of the outlaw's accomplicesVeerappan said he would not free his hostages until the aides and Tamil Nadu Liberation Army activists had been ...
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Berezovsky offers to hand back ORT stake
In a move that Moscow media watchers are calling a publicity ploy, Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has threatened to hand back to the government his stake in Russia's largest broadcaster ORT. In a letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin that was provided to the press, Berezovsky claimed that he has ...