All articles by Sandy George – Page 51
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News
AUSTRALIA
Three films that could not be more different from each other, Roadshow's star performer The Matrix Revolutions on 453 screens, Columbia TriStar's In The Cut on 56 screens, and Hopscotch's Spellbound on just 13 screens, were the stand-outs in terms of their screen average on the weekend. Each notched up ...
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Whale Rider dominates NZ nominations
There are no prizes for guessing which film has dominated the nominations in this year's New Zealand Film Awards. Whale Rider, which has grossed NZ$6.4m in New Zealand and NZ$60m around the world, is a finalist in 14 of the 15 categories. But the same two films sit alongside Whale ...
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Japanese Story sweeps Australia's IF Awards
Australia's key IF Awards announced last night (November 12) were like a re-run of the Film Critics Circle Awards of two weeks earlier with Gettin' Square earning David Wenham best actor and Japanese Story winning best film for Sue Maslin, best director for Sue Brooks, best actress for Toni Collette ...
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Hating Alison Ashley rises again
Scriptwriter Christine Madafferi's adaptation of Robin Klein's coming-of-age book Hating Alison Ashley is back on track, albeit with a new director, following yesterday's decision by Film Finance Corporation Australia to again back the project. Hating Alison Ashley was approved in May with LA-based expatriate Rod Hardy in the director's chair ...
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Osborne prepares Magic Fingers in NZ
Producer Barrie M Osborne, who relocated from the US to New Zealand to work with director Peter Jackson on The Lord Of The Rings, is set to continue his relationship with the country - and to keep putting myth and fantasy up on the big screen. He is now in ...
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NEW ZEALAND
The Matrix Revolutions blitzed the opposition in New Zealand as it did around the world, grossing a highly impressive NZ$1,266,716 from 77 screens for a screen average of NZ$16,451. Such was its power that it also pulled The Matrix Reloaded back into the chart in thirteenth spot, despite being on ...
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Good Woman starts shooting
Mike Barker's A Good Woman, billed as a scandalous but comic tale set in New York and Italy's Amalfi Coast during the 1930s, has begun principal photography on location in Sorrento.Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Wilkinson star in the film, which is based on Oscar Wilde's classic play Lady ...
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Major boost for NZ film industry
An additional $6.2m (NZ$10m) is going to the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) for 2004, all government agencies are to be reviewed, and NZ$900,000 over two years has been provided for the establishment of an independent Screen Council and NZ$960,000 over two years for marketing body Film NZ.The additional NZ$10m ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
The Matrix Revolutions did an extraordinary A$8,011,504 in its first four-day weekend from a whopping 454 screens, giving it an enviable A$17,646 screen average. That meant Roadshow must have swept away with at least two-thirds of Australia's total gross, taking into account its other films on release. Intolerable Cruelty, in ...
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Bradley is appointed FFC chair
The Australian Government has named Graham Bradley as the new chair of the Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) board, effective from January 1 next year.For the eight years to September last year he was chief executive of Perpetual Trustees Australia Ltd, a publicly listed funds management and financial services group, ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND
Calendar Girls showed amazing resilience in its fourth weekend by reclaiming the top spot from S.W.A.T, which is on 13 more screens and only in its second week. The gap between them only amounted to NZ$5,000 but Calendar Girls' highest-in-the-chart screen average indicates there is a lot more life in ...
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Australia's Ocean splits in two
After three and a half years together as partners, Jonathan Shteinman and Emile Sherman are dissolving their Sydney-based sales agency and distribution/production outfit Ocean Pictures. Both of them are now setting up their own seperate distribution/production entities.The first film under the Sherman Pictures banner is likely to be theatre director ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
UIP's Intolerable Cruelty held on to the top spot in its second weekend and BVI's Kill Bill Volume 1, which has been on screens for three weekends, clawed its way back up to second position. That meant displacing Roadshow's Freddy vs Jason, which actually dropped two places to fourth position ...
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Oz cinemagoing habits revealed by new research
New research indicates that 70% of all Australians aged 18 years and over, or about 12.8m people, go to the cinema at least once a year. Over a half (56%) go more than five times and almost a quarter (23%) go more than 10 times.The research is part of a ...
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Australia singles out Japanese Story, Gettin' Square
Un Certain Regard film Japanese Story dominated the prizes at the 2003 Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, held in Sydney on Friday night (Oct 31).Japanese Story won best film for producer Sue Maslin, best director for Sue Brooks, best actress for Toni Collette, best cinematography for Ian Baker, and ...
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Australia's Animal Logic gears up for CGI Feet
Visual effects veteran Hael Kobayashi has relocated from LA to Sydney in the new role of digital artists manager at Australian effects house Animal Logic.Animal Logic is gearing up for production to start next year on director George Miller's Happy Feet, the first CGI animated feature to be produced in ...
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News
NEW ZEALAND
New openers had a boost in New Zealand last weekend as Monday (Oct 27) was a public holiday providing an extra day for films to tally figures (the chart covers the normal four-day Thurs-Sun period). After a strong performance on previews the weekend before, Columbia TriStar's S.W.A.T. recorded a mighty ...
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Working Title readies New Zealand Number
Writer/director Toa Fraser's Number 2 looks like being the first New Zealand film to secure the involvement of Working Title Australia (WTA) - and the third feature since Tim White opened the company's Sydney office in November 2000.While the board of the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) has offered its ...
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News
AUSTRALIA
Intolerable Cruelty lead the field with a A$1,916,705 gross from 228 screens on its opening weekend. Putting aside the only IMAX picture in the chart, it also had the best screen average. This positive start, combined with its star power and the good word of mouth surrounding it, indicates a ...
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New Zealand to host Women In Film International summit
About 350 delegates will converge on Auckland from April 21-24 next year for the biennial conference of Women in Film and Television International (WIFTI), immediately following a two-day board meeting that will set the agenda for the next 12 months."It will be an exciting blend of networking opportunities and professional ...