All articles by Sandy George – Page 28
-
News
Sydney fest appoints Cameron; Liebmann joins Hoyts
Two significant but unrelated film appointments were announced in Sydney today: Fiona Cameron is the new general manager of the Sydney Film Festival and Matthew Liebmann is leaving SKYCITY Cinemas in New Zealand to be the commercial and new business director at Hoyts. Liebmann has also worked with SKYCITY co-owner ...
-
News
Sydney aims to win back film shoots
In an effort to turn around the perception that Sydney is unfriendly to film-makers, the New South Wales (NSW) Premier has promised to make it easier to shoot on location by putting the pressure on local councils and government agencies.New legislative amendments would require authorities to approve film-making applications, unless ...
-
News
Three leads line up for Bruce Beresford's Mao's Last Dancer
Director Bruce Beresford (Breaker Morant, Driving Miss Daisy) has chosen three actors from three different countries to play Li Cunxin in Mao's Last Dancer.Chi Cao, principal dancer at the Birmingham Royal Ballet since 2002 and winner of the gold medal in 1998 at the Varna ballet competitions, will play the ...
-
News
NZ Film Commission boards Second Hand Wedding
The New Zealand Film Commission has taken international sales rights and invested in the post-production of the feel-good drama Second Hand Wedding. The film was directed by Paul Murphy from a script by Nick Ward (Stickmen, The Ferryman). It is about Jill (Geraldine Brophy), a school teacher who is so ...
-
News
Icon Film Distribution buys Australian arthouse brand Dendy
Icon has acquired the 35 cinema screens in Australia and the distribution interests that underpin one of Australia's key arthouse film brands, Dendy.Becker Group Limited announced the sale today and said it was worth a 'cash consideration' of $19.4m (A$21m). The sale is expected to be completed by Mar 31. ...
-
News
Greenaway scouting Australia for science-fiction feature
Legendary filmmaker Peter Greenaway will fly over Western Australia on Feb 23 scouting locations for a science-fiction feature film based on his most recent book The Historians Book 39: The Rise and Fall of Gestures Drama.'The book is really a history of cinema rewritten as fiction,' he told Screendaily.com. It ...
-
News
Ozparliament tables legislation forunified film agency
Australia's Federal Parliament today tabled legislation to establish a new single film agency, Screen Australia. It is expected to be debated in early March and then passed. Screen Australia will come into being July 1 andencompass the responsibilities of the investment agency Film Finance Corporation Australia, the Australian Film Commission ...
-
News
May start for Chinese-Australian co-prod The Last Dragon
The Chinese-Australian co-production The Last Dragon is to be the first feature for AMPCO Films, the company set up last year by Adelaide producer/director Mario Andreacchio with the aim of making quality family films for the international marketplace.Working with independent production company Beijing Rosat Film & TV Production, the 4K ...
-
Features
Australia-UK - See-saw on the rise
When London-based acquisitions executive Iain Canning and Sydney producer Emile Sherman vie for the best projects under their new See-Saw production banner, the ace up their sleeve will be a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures International (PPI) to invest equity.They also hope their pooled skills and experience will be a ...
-
News
Warner Bros taps Oz tax break for next Harry Potter
Warner Bros is set to be the first company to trigger the 15% post-production, digital and visual effects (PDV) offset introduced by the Australian government in May last year. The studio has signed with local effects house Rising Sun Pictures for some of the visual effects on Harry Potter And ...
-
News
New Zealand box office up in 2007 but no records fall
The $118.93m (NZ$151.74m) worth of tickets sold at New Zealand cinemas in 2007 exceeded the previous year by 3.6%, but fell short of 2003, the country's stand-out year in terms of gross box office. 'All the blockbusters did well in the middle of the year, yes, but business petered out ...
-
News
Canning, Sherman launch Aus/UK production outfit See-Saw
UK-based acquisitions executive Iain Canning and Australian producer Emile Sherman have launched Australia/UK-based production outfit See-Saw Films. One of the first credits for the new company will be as producer of an English-language remake of writer/director Guillem Morale's 2004 Spanish mystery thriller The Uninvited Guests (El Habitante Incierto).Canning and Sherman ...
-
News
Paramount Australia pacts with start-up Transmission
Dendy Films' executives Andrew Mackie and Richard Payten are leaving the company to establish a new Australian/New Zealand distributor, Transmission, that will conduct most of its business through a joint venture with Paramount's local theatrical and home entertainment divisions. The deal was negotiated with Paramount in the US and is ...
-
News
Edgerton debut to feature in AFC's IndiVision Lab
The Australian Film Commission (AFC) has unveiled the eight low-budget projects that will take part its IndiVision Project Lab, one of which will be the directorial debut of Kinky Boots star Joel Edgerton. Edgerton's film The Professor is a thriller about a top forensic scientist investigating a family murder-suicide, who ...
-
News
Hewison to exit Australian Film Institute before 50th awards
In the lead up to its 50th anniversary awards and in the wake of James Hewison's resignation, the Australian Film Institute has begun searching for a new chief executive.AFI chair Morry Schwartz told The Age newspaper that he hoped the organisation would be able to get someone of the same ...
-
News
ScreenWest's low-budget initiative gets Wasted
Teen thriller Wasted will be the third feature supported under West Coast Visions, the low-budget initiative run by Western Australia 's film agency ScreenWest. A high school party goes dangerously off the rails in what will be the debut film of writer/director Ben C. Lucas, but one teenager finds that ...
-
News
Melbourne Film Festival fund blesses Kokkinos
Blessed, the third feature from Ana Kokkinos (Head On, The Book Of Revelations), has taken a big step closer to going into production with a cash offer from the Melbourne International Film Festival's (MIFF) production fund. MIFF's Premiere Fund provides small amounts of strategic investment and has just announced four ...
-
News
Australian Directors Guild to wait before replacing Macrae
The Australian Directors Guild (ADG) is now without an executive director following the surprise departure of Drew Macrae but the organisation will not invite applications for the role until after the next board meeting in early February. 'We have been rebuilding for 18 months and are still in the process ...
-
News
Phillip Noyce honoured as Australia charmsHollywood
Director Phillip Noyce was honoured on Saturday night in Hollywood for his significant contribution to the Australian film industry and for excellence in promoting Australia in the US.Noyce was presented with his award by Harrison Ford, the star of two of his US films, Patriot Games and Clear and Present ...
-
News
Oz box office up 3% for second biggest year on record
Australians spent $801.7m (A$895m) on going to the movies in 2007, making it the second best year on record in terms of annual gross box office.The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA) released the figure today and said it represented a 3% rise on the previous year. Only in ...
