All articles by Sandy George – Page 39
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Ex-Renaissance exec Canning joins Becker Films
Former Renaissance executive Iain Canning has joinedBecker Films International (BFI) as head of worldwide acquisitions, and willalso act as a consultant on acquiring Australian rights for sister companyDendy Films. He will continue to be based in London.In a statementreleased on Friday, Canning said he looked forward to working with BFIpresident ...
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Barclay signs on for Suburban Mayhem
Emily Barclay, who came toattention via the critically acclaimed New Zealand film In My Father's Den,has been cast in the lead role of a conniving single mother with murder on hermind in the Australian black comedy Suburban Mayhem.Playing her besotted boyfriendwill be Michael Dorman, who is named as one of ...
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Armstrong's Houdini feature wins crucial FFC backing
A UK/Australian co-production from director GillianArmstrong (Little Women, Charlotte Gray), a new film by the team behind2002 local comedy hit Crackerjack, and two documentary features, will gointo production as a result of decisions made today by Film Finance CorporationAustralia (FFC).Myriad Pictures is handling international sales onArmstrong's Death Defying Acts, based ...
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Oz financing market SPAAmart unveils 12 projects
A mix of experienced directors and producers and unknownsare attached to the 12 projects selected for next month's financing marketSPAAmart.Actor Richard Roxburgh (Van Helsing, Moulin Rouge)is hoping to make his big screen directorial debut with Romulus, My Father.UK scriptwriter Nick Drake has adapted the memoir by academic Raymond Gaita,Robert Connolly ...
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Solo Project Greenlight winner rounds out cast
Veteran Australian actor Colin Friels is to star in Solo,the winner of Australia's Project Greenlight film-making competition.Friels,who has been in about 30 films, is taking the starring role of Barrett, anenforcer who wants to get out of working for a group of Sydney underworldbusinessmen known as The Gentlemen. BojanaNovakovic, Angie ...
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Working Title hops on board Australian thriller
Working Title is to come inon British commercials director Ringan Ledwidge's directorial debut, MiddleOf Nowhere. Co-produced by Sydney-based Deborah Balderstone WBP outfit and London-based Nira Park, it will start shooting in September in Australia.Middle of Nowhere is a psychological thriller about young Britishtravellers who encounter a charismatic American with ulterior ...
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Hastie advance at Magna Pacific
Lauren Hastie has beenpromoted to theatrical acquisitions and marketing manager at Magna Pacific, oneof the few independent Australian distributors interested in releasingpredominantly mainstream fare into cinemas.Hastie has been with the company fortwo years and was involved in such recent Australian rights deals as theUS/Canadian romantic comedy Just Friends and the ...
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Potter's Radcliffe signs for Becker's Boys
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is to playa lead role in Australian film December Boys, a signing which shouldhelp drive Australian investors into the long-standing Becker Group's firstfilm fund before the fund's June 30 cut off.Radcliffe is playing the oldest of four close-knit orphansin Becker Entertainment's 1960s coming-of-age drama, to ...
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Blanchett's Little Fish to open Melbourne festival
The Melbourne International Film Festival will announcetomorrow (June 15) that the eagerly anticipated Australian film Little Fishwill open the event on July 20 as a world premiere. Somersault opened the festival in 2004 and, of allthe homegrown fare that premiered last year, went on to become a major hit withAustralian ...
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Digital cinema dominates Oz indie exhibitor conference
Digital cinema dominated this week's IndependentCinemas Association of Australia (ICCA) conference and, with digital advocateDenis Parkes as new president, the topic will stay on the table.Like many members, Parkes exhibits in regional Australia, inhis case in picturesque Merimbula south of Sydney. He recently invested in twodigital projectors and has been ...
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Oz's Roadshow, Becker unveil Cannes deals
RoadshowRoadshow has joined the list of buyers attached to RomanPolanski's unfinished version of the Dickens classic Oliver Twist, oneof a trio of titles Australia's biggest independent theatrical distributor hasacquired from Summit Entertainment.Picked up from script is Tony Gilroy's directorial debut,Michael Clayton, regarded by managing director Joel Pearlman as aparticularly hot ...
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Oz distributors return from Cannes shopping spree
All Australia's independent distributors, includingfirst-time attendee Jump Street Films and free-spending Dendy Films, cameback from Cannes with films in their suitcases. AccentAccent bought a pair of films from Wild Bunch: Sex AndPhilosophy and Sheitan. Sex And Philosophy isKandahar director MohsenMakhmalbaf's take on passion and possession through the eyes of a ...
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Oz winner of Project Greenlight flies Solo
Writer-director Morgan O'Neill faced a barrage of mediainterviews today after it was revealed that his script had won $760,000 (A$1m)in production finance ahead of 1,200 others as part of Australia's ProjectGreenlight.Reality TV show Project Greenlight originated in the USfive years ago and gives the winner prize money to bring their ...
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Hopscotch jumps on Scott's Dancer
Australiandistributor Hopscotch has invested development money into the screen adaptationof author Li Cunxin's autobiographical book Mao's Last Dancer, and will be taking its first everexecutive producer credit on the film.Cunxin wasplucked from a peasant childhood for training at Madam Mao's Beijing DanceAcademy. He made a dramatic defection to the US, ...
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Summer Of Love to open Sydney festival
PawelPawlikowski's My Summer Of Love will kick off the 52nd Sydney Film Festival on June10. TheBAFTA-winning film is the first of more than 170 films from around 40 countrieslined up by festival director Lynden Barber. The Sydney festwraps on June 25.
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Australian film industry wins extra government funding
The Australian Government hasdelivered on an election promise to boost its backing for the local filmindustry.Film Finance CorporationAustralia (FFC) will receive A$70.5 million for independent film and televisionproduction in 2005/06, including an additional A$10 million earmarked forfeatures.This will equate to aboutA$40m that can be set aside for backing films.The Howard ...
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Palace leaps for Lemming
Palace Films has alreadysnapped up Australian rights for three Competition titles including the openingnight film Lemming.The Australian company hasalso taken director Marco Tullio Giordana's Once You're Born You Can NoLonger Hide from TF1, screening on Monday.The third pick-up is AmosGitai's comedy Free Zone, screening on Thursday, from BAC Films.Palace is ...
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New Australian Film Institute chief confirms awards focus
Thefocus of the Australian Film Institute (AFI) will remain its annual awards,says new general manager Geoffrey Williams, but he envisages taking on more ofan advocacy role for industry in future.The importance of the 48-year-old awards was unassailable,he told ScreenDaily.com, and their integrity had to be protected.Getting the professional members more ...
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Black Sheep leaps into Icon's arms
NZ Film has pre-sold six territories including the UK to BlackSheep, a first film from New Zealand aboutkiller sheep, ensuring the film will go into production this year. Icon hasacquired UK, Australian and New Zealand rights to writer/director JonathanKing's debut comedy horror. Jiants has taken rights in Thailand,Singapore and Malaysia.The ...
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Oz Dollars cashes in at local box office
Local drama Three Dollarsmade a big impact at the Australian box office over the weekend.Three Dollars grossed $177,000 (A$227,747) fromjust 15 screens over the five-day holiday weekend. The Dendy/Footprint releasewas fourteenth in the chart but it was its screen average of $11,800 thatreally impressed - and has paved the way ...