All articles by Sandy George – Page 22
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NewsScreen Australia relaxes investment requirements
Screen Australia is to make a substantial change to its rulebook on feature film investment in response to current worldwide financing difficulties.
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Village Roadshow Pictures refinances loan facility
Village Roadshow Pictures (VRP) has completed a restructure of its $900m film financing production facility, in a deal that makes it available through until September 30, 2010.
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NewsMiramax Films to shoot horror film in Melbourne
The government of the Australian state of Victoria has announced that Miramax Films is to make the horror/thriller Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark in Melbourne.
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NewsPalace Films picks up Welcome, Missing Person
Australian distributor Palace Films has acquired French director Philippe Lioret’s Welcome and US director Noah Buschel’s The Missing Person.
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NewsScreen Australia agrees to finance Reef, Swerve
Screen Australia has agreed to finance Andrew Traucki’s thriller The Reef, about four friends being stalked by a Great White shark, and Swerve from writer-director Craig Lahiff.
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Princess Pictures makes feature debut with I Love You Too
Australian TV production company Princess Pictures is making its first foray into features with romantic comedy I Love You Too, set to star US actorPeter Dinklage (Death At A Funeral) and Australia’s Brendan Cowell (Noise).
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NewsGreen Lantern among productions set to light up Australia
The Green Lantern has confirmed that it will go into pre-production at Fox Studios in Sydney in July and will begin filming in November. It comes as rumours grow that two other major films are planning to film in Australia.
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Features
Market Report - Australia and New Zealand
When it comes to English-language films, audiences in Australia and New Zealand have their preferences: they do not particularly like horror films but are seduced by all things British, particularly sumptuous period dramas, comedies and everything produced by Working Title. From 2008, this translated into big figures for Atonement, The ...
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Oz distributor to target foreign-language films
Australian sales agent Antony Ginnane and exhibitor Robert Ward have formed a theatricaldistribution joint venture, IFM/Filmways, which will focus on acquiring foreign-language pictures.
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Features
Australia's Footprint Films expands local distribution
Australian producer John Maynard of Arenafilm has long distributed his own films, first in New Zealand and then in Australia. Now, Maynard and business partner Robert Connolly are expanding their distribution outfit Footprint Films to acquire and release third-party titles.“It moves us up the food chain and gets us away ...
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Screen Australia to back war movie Beneath Hill 60
Screen Australia today announced it would back $5.7m (A$8m) war movie Beneath Hill 60, the only feature to secure the federal government agency’s backing this month.
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Wolverine producer applies for Screen Australia funding
As the X-Men Origins: Wolverine publicity machine kicked into gear today, one ofthe producers on the film, Seed Productions, confirmed that it has applied for taxpayer fundingthrough Screen Australia.
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Australian governmentinitiative to boost online film distribution
Australian companies wanting to download film and television direct to homes stand to gain enormously from the Australian government’s decision to take over the project to build a major national broadband fibre network. ‘This is the single largest infrastructure decision in Australia’s history,’ said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd today at ...
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Australian film andacting schools unite for One More Day
The two best-known institutions in Australia for preparing people for a career in film and television are gearing up to shoot a feature film together, One More Day, in June/July. The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) approached the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) about doing a project ...
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Rising Sun insists it had nothing to do with Wolverine leak
One of Australia’s leading visual effects companies, Rising Sun Pictures (RSP), has published a statement saying it had nothing to do with a copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine appearing on several file-sharing websites.
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Australia's Aurora programme selects seven projects
Aurora, the Australian script programme that has been integral to the development of critical successes such as The Black Balloon and Somersault, has announced the sevenprojects it has accepted for this year.
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James quits Pacific Film and Television Commission
As expected for several weeks, Robin James has parted company with Queensland’s state film agency, the Pacific Film and Television Commission (PFTC), where he has been chief executive for many years. ‘Robin James has decided to resign from his position to pursue other career opportunities, effective 31 March 2009,’ Phil ...
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Kent Smith: Australia's newest mini-mogul
Although he began producing features only three years ago, Kent Smith can bring more to a co-production deal than most Australian producers. He and his colleagues own the Adelaide-based Kojo Group, which includes post-production and other film services as well as a theatrical distribution division. Smith signed on as a ...
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Can other festivals learn from Adelaide'sinnovative funding strategy'
The world premieres of a selection of new Australian films put this year's Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) firmly on the international map. Six of these features were part-funded by the festival itself, and four of these in particular were responsible for much of the buzz.These were Sarah Watt's My Year ...