All articles by Sandy George – Page 31
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News
Australian government radically overhauls film sector
The Australian government has announced the most fundamental structural and financing shake-up of Australian film for nearly 20 years. As expected, and as proposed by the industry itself, a tax rebate is to be introduced for producers from July 1 this year. It will allow filmmakers to claim back 40% ...
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Features
Distribution - Making a splash
Expectations are high for the Australia and New Zealand box office this year - and not just because of the number of high-profile studio sequels scheduled to open over the summer months.Admissions have been rising steadily in recent years - from 76 million in 1997 to 83.6 million in 2006 ...
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Features
Digital Rights - Territory report - Australia
The agreements covering film production in Australia are in place until 2009, so all is calm between the unions right now. Digital and new media is not an issue - yet - because the agreements in place already capture the small amount of money flowing from new technologies.Actors' fees are ...
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Luhrmann's Australia starts production in Sydney
Filming started today in Sydney on the long-planned romantic action adventure Australia , Baz Luhrmann's fourth film and his third with 20th Century Fox. The cast is headed by Nicole Kidman, as English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley, and Hugh Jackman, the rough hewn cattle-drover who initially repulses her, then catches ...
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New Asia Pacific Screen Awards land backing from CNN, UNESCO
The Queensland Government today launched the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, which will get global coverage from CNN, giving filmmakers from 70 countries an opportunity to showcase their work. The first awards presentation ceremony will be held Nov 13, the first night of the annual conference of Screen Producers Association of ...
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Features
Australia - Ward and peace
The Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) last week announced its intention to throw its weight behind the directorial debut of a familiar name in the acting world.Rachel Ward was a 1980s icon, starring in films such as Against All Odds, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and How To Get Ahead ...
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Features
Australia - Ward and peace
The Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) last week announced its intention to throw its weight behind the directorial debut of a familiar name in the acting world.Rachel Ward was a 1980s icon, starring in films such as Against All Odds, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and How To Get Ahead ...
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News
Australia: inward production
Australia regularly hosts major studio shoots, but the production services industry is vulnerable to big fluctuations. While 2004/05 saw $196.2m in inward investment, the following 12 months saw a drop of to $18.6m.Ausfilm is funded by the national government, film service companies and state film agencies. It is pressing to ...
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News
First co-production between Israel and Australia gets underway
Joel Edgerton, Ben Mendelsohn and Claudia Karvan have joined Geoffrey Rush and Anthony LaPaglia as the voice cast for the animated film $9.99, the first co-production between Israel and Australia. The project has just started shooting in Sydney. New York-based director Tatia Rosenthal co-wrote the film with Israeli writer Etgar ...
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Omnilab moves into distribution and sales for Australian features
Two of the four features that have just received funding from Film Finance Corporation Australia now see the Omnilab Media Group take local distribution and international sales rights, in partnership with others. Omnilab is Australia 's largest privately owned group of service companies and has been promising to get into ...
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Australia's Omnilab boards two FFC-backed projects
Two of the four features that have just received funding from Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) see the Omnilab Media Group take local distribution and international sales rights, in partnership with others. Omnilab is Australia's largest privately-owned group of service companies and has been promising to enter Australian feature film ...
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News
Still Life takes first Adelaide best film award
Still Life, by Chinese director Jia Zhang Ke, has won $25,000 for best film at the Adelaide Film Festival's inaugural competition. The film is a meditation on the transformation of China, using the dams being built on the Yangtze River as its setting. Last year it won the Golden Lion ...
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News
Lionsgate Australia makes a takeover bid for Magna Pacific
The newly launched Lionsgate Australia has finally confirmed that it is hoping to get a quick leg-up into the Australian market by taking over Magna Pacific, the biggest independent DVD distributor in the country. Macquarie Private Portfolio Management Limited, the largest institutional shareholder in Magna Pacific, yesterday indicated that it ...
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News
AFC selects eight projects for low-budget development lab
Chopper producer Michele Bennett and Robyn Kershaw, whose credits include Looking For Alibrandi, are among the eight teams that have projects selected by the Australian Film Commission's (AFC) development laboratory for low-budget films. The series of workshops aim to simultaneously develop a film's script, the director's vision and the production ...
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News
Lionsgate to open Aus/NZ distribution outfit
After many rumours that it was seeking to buy an existing Australian distributor, US-based producer-distributor Lionsgate has confirmed that it is establishing its own operation to cover Australia and New Zealand. ' Australia is a key territory and to not be the person selling your own content is crazy,' said ...
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News
Cowan to head Adelaide Film Festival jury
Adelaide Film Festival director Katrina Sedgwick today named the 12 films in its inaugural competition and announced that Toronto International Film Festival director Noah Cowan is president of the jury. She also revealed that Adelaide filmmaker Rolf de Heer will be presented with the 2007 Don Dunstan Award in recognition ...
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News
Adelaide festival to open with Rowland's Lucky Miles
Michael James Rowland's almost completed debut film Lucky Miles is to open the Adelaide Film Festival on Feb 22 while Rolf de Heer's Dr Plonk is to close the event on March 4. Festival director Katrina Sedgwick also announced today that Australia's newest capital city film festival will this year ...
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News
Arclight sets up Australian production office with US to follow
Sales agent Arclight Films has appointed former Instinct Entertainment producer Nigel Odell to set up a Melbourne-based office to produce and co-finance Australian films. It will establish a US production office in the near future under Harrison Kordestani, who is already based there. Arclight wants to work with bankable Australian ...
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Australia 's 2006 box-office grosses second highest on record
Australia's gross box office was $675.5m (A$866.609m) last year, a rise of 6% over 2005 and the second-highest year on record according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA). The best year to date for earnings was 2004 when $707.2m (A$907.2) was spent on cinema tickets. This figure ...
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News
Happy Feet breaks Aussie opening record for local film
Most cinemagoers probablydon't know Happy Feet is Australian,but the animated musical set in Antarctica hasbroken the record for the biggest opening week by an Australian film.Distributor Roadshowreported that the film has entered the history books with a gross of $9.66m(A$12.128m) between and including Boxing Day (Dec 26) and New Year's ...