All articles by Sandy George – Page 35
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Film Finance Corporation Australia to fund two new features
Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) today gavefinal approval on its investments in the animated feature $9.99 and a feature-length documentary investigating discreditedauthor Norma Khouri.The stop-motion animation for adults, $9.99, is the first officialbig-screen co-production between Australian and Israel.Israeli director Tatia Rosenthal wrote the scriptwith Etgar Keret and hasbeen working with ...
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FFC to keep funding requirements intact
Film Finance CorporationAustralia (FFC) chief executive Brian Rosen has confirmed that the funding bodyhas backed off from a proposal to ask for more money from its feature filminvestment partners.As it always does at thistime of year, the FFC has been conducting open meetings with Australian filmmakersand liaising with key industry ...
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Fraser's No. 2 benefits from festival exposure
New Zealand Film has signedoff on several sales on Toa Fraser's No.2 which won the audience award for drama in the World Cinema section atSundance and later screened in Berlin. The film has been sold to Spain (Avalon), Scandinavia (CCV), Switzerland (Xenith), Greece (Prooptiki), Thailand (Pacific Entertainment) and Argentina (Telexcel). ...
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Feature debut for Unjoo Moon with adaptation of children's book
Unjoo Moon is to direct an adaptation of children's book The Wicked, Wicked Ladies In The HauntedHouse. She directed short film, Sorrow'sChild in 1998 and this will be her feature debut. It also looks likely to bethe next project for Moon's cinematographer husband, DionBeebe who won an Oscar for Memoirs ...
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Director Samantha Lang's project accepted into Aurora
Director Samantha Lang'sfourth feature may well be The RosevilleStory, following its acceptance into Aurora, a high-profile script hothouse run by the NewSouth Wales Film and Television Office (FTO). Lang made Cannes competition title The Well and the Monkey's Mask in Australia, and The Idolin France. Her actor/director husbandJeremy Sims is ...
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James Hewison to head up the Australian Film Institute
James Hewison will move on to be chiefexecutive of the Australian Film Institute (AFI) in August once he wraps hisfifth Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). He will be the third AFI chief in just over a year and replaces GeoffreyWilliams who left in January despite revitalising the 2005 AFI Awards ...
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Flood of Australian film shoot without FFC funds
Film-maker Alkinos Tsilimidos is soon tolock on his fourth feature, the crime thriller Em 4 Jay. In keeping with his focus on social realist cinema - andhis disinterest in "safe, middle-class" stories - it follows two people whoturn to armed robbery to sustain their smack habit.Keeping budgets low allowshim to ...
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New Zealand to keep production rebates in place
New Zealand's economic development minister Trevor Mallard hasannounced that a review of the "Large Budget Screen Production Grant"initiative has been concluded and the scheme will remain in place. Mallard also announced thatthe New Zealandgovernment has paid expenditure rebates of $16.8m (NZ$25.2m) to King Kong and $10.6m (NZ$15.9m) to The ...
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Tropfest feature programme singles out September
September,from writer/director Peter Carstairs, will be the first project to emerge from Tropfestand the Movie Network's new feature programme, which each year gives $743,000(A$1m) to the creator of a short film to make a feature.The debut feature is about afriendship between two teenage boys - one white Australian, the otherAboriginal ...
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Karl Urban to star in Robert Sarkies' untitled feature
Karl Urban, who played Eomer in The Lord Of TheRings and Matt Damon's nemesis in TheBourne Supremacy, takes one of the lead roles in director Robert Sarkies' untitled feature now in production.Tim White, who is producing alongside Steven O'Meagher, told ScreenDaily.comthey experienced some of the wildest weather he had ever ...
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Fierberg lines up stellar cast for Cassavetes debut
Parker Posey, Gena Rowlandsand Jeanne Moreau are attached to star in actress Zoe Cassavetes' firstfeature as director, Broken English, which isexpected to go into production in the next few months.The film, about a mid-30swoman who is becoming debilitated by a lack of luck in love, is produced by NewYork-based Vox3 ...
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World's Fastest Indian races to Kiwi record
TheWorld's Fastest Indian has become the mostsuccessful New Zealand story at local cinemas and it may inch into the top 10hits of any nationality.Asof Sunday February 19, New Zealanders had spent $4,458,405 (NZ$6,694,808) tosee Anthony Hopkins play Burt Munro, who traveled from their country to Utah inthe 1960s and set ...
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Eight films selected for Australia's IndiVision Project Lab
Moving South, aroad movie from director Kate Woods and producer Robyn Kershaw, who last teamedup on the local hit Looking For Alibrandi, is one of eightfilms to be developed through the second IndiVisionProject Lab.The Australian Film Commission (AFC)released the names of those chosen for the week-long low-budget initiative introduced last ...
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Australian producers conference to include major awards
The biggest annual gathering of producers, the SPAA (ScreenProducers Association of Australia) conference, will this year move back to itstraditional November time slot but stay on the Queensland Gold Coast for thenext three years.Queensland Premier Paul Beattie also announced that the 8thLexus Inside Film Awards will be staged on Friday ...
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Rolf de Heer set to shoot his next project, Dr Plonk
Prolific film-makerRolf de Heer (BadBoy Bubby, Dance Me To My Song) today got a green light from Film FinanceCorporation Australia (FFC) to shoot his next project Dr Plonk. Characteristic of his wildly diverseoeuvre, the new film is a black and white silent comedy set in 1907 about ascientist inventor who ...
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Sam Riley cast as lead singer in Anton Corbijn's Control
Sam Riley has been cast as leadsinger Ian Curtis and Alexandra Maria Lara as his lover Annikon music video director Anton Corbijn's Control, his fact-based debut feature onUK post-punk band Joy Division.It is a first big role for newcomerRiley - the troubled Curtis was in his early 20s when he ...
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NZ distributor Arkles steps up Australian presence
NewZealand distributor Arkles Entertainment is increasing its activity in theAustralian market where it is planning sizeable releases for both Junebug and Danish film Brothers in the next few months.TheAuckland-based company acquired theatrical rights for Junebugjust days before Amy Adams got her best supportingactress Oscar nomination. Both this film and Brotherscame ...
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Shooting yet to start on Luhrmann's Australian epic
Actor Russell Crowe is talking about it on red carpets, manyare hoping that principal photography will start in July or August, but thereis still no green light from 20th Century Fox for a fourth feature by Baz Luhrmann.Crowe and Nicole Kidman are billed as the leads and insiderssay that Catherine ...
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Tony Grierson joins Sydney Film Festival as CEO
Tony Grierson is to leave his roleas head of distribution and finance at the NSW Film & Television Office andjoin the Sydney Film Festival (SFF) as chiefexecutive from February 16.He was executive officer of Queer Screen for the four yearsup to 1999, has worked at Beyond Distribution, and has held ...
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ContentFilm racks up sales on Book Of Revelation
ContentFilm Internationalhas sold The Book Of Revelation,directed by Ana Kokkinos (Head On), to22 territories, one of the most robust sales performances by an unseenindependent Australian film in recent years.Distributors including TheWorks (UK), A Film (Netherlands and Belgium), Scanbox (Scandinavia) and Palace(Australia and New Zealand) signed on prior to the film ...