All articles by Sandy George – Page 36
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Fitchett appointed to leading Australian film role
The AustralianFilm Commission (AFC) has appointed Chris Fitchett as director of filmdevelopment.Fitchett- a former chief executive of the AFC's Commercial Television ProductionFund - has been acting director since October. Therole has the potential to be the most influential in Australia in terms of whatprojects get developed.
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Becker Films sells Control to four territories
Becker Films International(BFI) has signed off on four deals for Control,the upcoming biopic about Joy Division front man Ian Curtis. Paradiso has thefilm in Benelux, La Fabrique de Film in France, Momentum Pictures in the UK and sister companyDendy in Australia and New Zealand."It seems to have struck achord with ...
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Preserving Australia's film heritage
Fifty classicAustralian films made from 1955 through to 1992 have benefited from a preservationproject begun five years ago. Theproject combines the expertise and resources of film stock supplier Kodak (Australasia), laboratory AtlabAustralia and the National Film and Sound Archive(NFSA). The films selected included: Jedda, Breaker Morant, The CarsThat Ate Paris, ...
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Future Films Australia opens for business
A productruling from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) was made public yesterday,signalling that the new financing outfit Future Films Australia is officiallyopen for business in a market not previously renowned for attracting privateinvestment into film.The rulinggives more momentum to Future Films' search for both high net worth individualswho are potential ...
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FFC backs production on two Australian films
Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) today agreed to fund the thriller Storm Warning and the coming-of-age teencomedy Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger.Estherwill be the debut for Cathy Randall but StormWarning is from Jamie Blanks, who jumped from a graduation film to Hollywood horror films UrbanLegends (1998) and Valentine (2001).The Storm ...
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Worried Australian exhibitors form national association
Concern about falling attendances, piracy, release windows and new classification rules have led to the formation of the firstnational organisation of Australian exhibitors."Forthe first time in what is a notoriously aggressive industry, the issues thatdraw us together are greater than the issues that force us apart," head ofDendy Cinemas Mark ...
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Look Both Ways dominates Aussie awards
Compere Russell Crowe andthe film Look Both Ways were thestars of the Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards at the Melbourne CentralCity Studios.Oscar-winner Crowe made a significantcontribution to the revitalisation of an event that had lost its gloss inrecent years, injectingcomedy by threatening to throw the black phone next to the ...
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The Proposition scoops best film at IF Awards
Australian/UK co-production The Proposition, an often brutal 1880stale of conflict between brothers, was awarded best feature film at the IF(Inside Film) Awards in Sydneytonight (Nov 23). Look Both Ways won the best director and best writer categories for Sarah Watt. Theintimate drama picked up three awards in all while The ...
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Trio feted at NZ producers' conference
New filmmaker RoseanneLiang, independent producer Elizabeth Mitchell and industry champion DaveGibson were all honoured at New Zealand's annual producers' conference on Friday evening(Nov 18) in Wellington.Gibson produced thecommercially successful feature TheIrrefutable Truth About Demons but is better known for the hours of televisionof all genres created at production powerhouse The ...
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BoyTown, December Boys crank up in Australia
Cameras started rolling onMonday on two high-profile Australian productions - BoyTown, the Molloy Boy Productions follow-up to Crackerjack, and December Boys, starring Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame.Mick Molloy co-wrote,co-produces and is one of the stars of BoyTown,just as he was on Crackerjack, whichgrossed $5.6m (A$7.7m) for distributor Roadshow and ...
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Look Both Ways scores with Australian critics
Look Both Ways won the behind-the-camera trifecta of best film, best director and bestoriginal script at the Film Critics Circle of Australia (FCCA) awards at theweekend.The drama was written anddirected by Sarah Watt and produced by Bridget Ikin immediately prior to herbecoming one of the two evaluation managers at Film ...
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Madman grabs Three Burials for Oz/NZ
Madman Cinema has acquiredall Australian and New Zealand rights to TheThree Burials Of Melquiades Estrada from French sales agent EuropaCorp.The film is the directorialdebut of Tommy Lee Jones, whose performance in the drama earned him the bestactor award at Cannes this year. Writer Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams) won ...
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Wolf Creek proves weekend winner in Australia
Wolf Creek hasbecome the first Australian film to open at number one in its first weekendsince Ned Kelly in 2003. And it hasbecome only the second Australian film with an R+18 rating to go to the top ofthe charts. Writer/directorGreg McLean's horror debut grossed $0.9m (A$1.224m) from 151 screens for ...
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New Zealand's Rialto sells shares in companies to Reading
Kelly Rogers and David Rosshave sold their half share in New Zealand's biggest arthouse circuit, RialtoCinemas, to mainstream exhibitor Reading and cashed up their distributioncompany in the process.This means that thecountry's two biggest cinema operators, the other being existing half ownerVillage Skycity, now own most of the 19-screen specialist chain ...
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Taiwanese-Kiwi venture plans $69m film of Chinese myth
Taiwaneseand a New Zealand companies haveset up a joint venture to produce a $69m English-language feature based on aChinese myth and set for release during the Beijing Olympics in 2008.Lady White Snake has been written by Chinese musician Hou Dejian, owner of Taipei-basedEquinox Film. He is working with USwriter/director Patrick ...
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Kiwi festival favourite finally makes it to the States
Sales agentNZ Film has sold US rights to the psychological drama In My Father's Den to Tartan Films, which is looking to release thefilm theatrically in May 2006.It's beenslow progress for the UK/New Zealand co-production that was one of the darlingsof the international festival circuit in 2004, but it was ...
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Tartan buys US rights to Father's Den
Salesagent NZ Film has sold US rights to psychological drama In My Father's Den to Tartan Films, which is looking to release thefilm theatrically in May 2006.Itseems a little late for the UK/New Zealand co-production to be making such asale given that it was one of the darlings of the ...
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New bond company aims to shake up market
The emergence of Media RiskManagement (MRM) is significant news for independent filmmakers, given only ahandful of companies offer completion bonds and the difficulty of securingreinsurance usually prevents new players from appearing.Melbourne-based GeorgeAdams, who was one of the executive producers on Wolf Creek, and Roger Brewitt have set up in association ...
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Australia's Kojo Group moves into film production
Leading Adelaide-basedpost-production and TV production company, Kojo Group, is moving into featurefilm production and has boarded writer/director Murali K. Thalluri's debutfeature 2:37."Our optimistic goal is tomake a couple of films per year," Kojo founding partner Kent Smith told Screendaily. "We have already had a bigrole on a number but not ...
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Australia gets serious about the truth
Australian documentarymakers who were encouraged to pitch full-length features are now seeing their projectsmove into pre-production or production.Films now underway thanks tothe initiative, introduced by the Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) lastyear, include Rampage, about a youngupcoming rap star, which is now being shot in Miami by director/writer/producerGeorge Gittoes. Moviehouseis ...