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All articles by Sandy George – Page 58
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A major setback for Australia's Film Finance Corp.
Film Finance Corporation (FFC) chair Geoff Levy today released a three-paragraph media statement that must be one of the most ill-considered and misleading the organisation has ever issued. It announced that the search had resumed for a new chief executive, arguably, the most important job in Australia's film industry. But ...
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Fox takes Australian rights on Perfect Strangers
Twentieth Century Fox Distributors Australia has acquired Australian theatrical rights to Perfect Strangers, its first New Zealand film, with a sale price believed to be the biggest ever paid to sales agent the New Zealand Film Commission for that territory.While a local distribution deal has yet to be signed, the ...
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Rabbit-Proof Fence scoops 10 AFI nominations
Period drama Rabbit-Proof Fence, directed by Phillip Noyce (pictured), has dominated the AFI (Australian Film Institute) Award nominations with ten nods,. But with only one less is first-time director Tony Ayres' Walking On Water, a highly contemporary story about the effect of a young man's death on his family and ...
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Heather Rose dies, aged 36
Heather Rose, who got a standing ovation at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival for her performance as Julia in director Rolf de Heer's competition title Dance Me To My Song, died suddenly last week in South Australia a day after her 36th birthday.She was born with severe cerebral palsy, confined ...
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Hoyts has a go at Swimming Upstream
Hoyts Distribution has acquired Australian rights to Swimming Upstream from Summit Entertainment. Although principally produced out of the US, the film was shot in Queensland last year and directed by expatriate Russell Mulcahy, and stars two of the country's most internationally acclaimed actors, Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis. Hoyts acquisition ...
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Australian critics applaud films with strong indigenous themes
The Australian Film Critics Circle has nominated Australian Rules, produced by Mark Lazarus, Rabbit-Proof Fence (Phillip Noyce, Christine Olsen), The Tracker (Rolf de Heer, Julie Ryan), and Walking On Water (Liz Watts) for best film in this year's awards.Noyce and de Heer have also been nominated for their role as ...
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Norwegian sales agent backs two southern hemisphere projects
Norwegian sales agent BV International Pictures has penetrated yet another corner of the globe by signing for a film in Australia and another in New Zealand. The UK/New Zealand co-production Castle Of Lies starring James Caan and the Australian road movie/comedy Thunderstruck are both grounded in reality but there the ...
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Rialto and Arclight team for Roger Dodger
Rialto Entertainment, the only New Zealand company that distributes films in Australia, and Australia's newest sales agent, Arclight Films, have co-acquired what they describe as one of the few buzz films from the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals, namely the New York comedy Roger Dodger.The story of a schoolboy's attempt ...
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Beyond, MBP relationship sours
The partnership between German investor MBP (Medienbeteiligungs-und-Produktions Gesellschaft MBH & Co KG of Munich) and Australia's Beyond International, parent company of sales agent Beyond Films, seems to have soured. Beyond has asked the Supreme Court of New South Wales to make a judgement on whether MBP Medien AG is obliged ...
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Hopper, Griffith will do it their way in Sinatra Down Under tale
Screen legend Dennis Hopper will play Frank Sinatra, Melanie Griffith his girlfriend and David Hemmings his lawyer in new film The Night We Called It A Day, which goes into production in Sydney on Oct 21 directed by Paul Goldman.The core of the story, however, belongs to Joel Edgerton. He ...
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Melbourne film studio gets government go-ahead
A major new film studio complex in the Australian state of Victoria got the greenlight this week, after the state's government agreed to commit US$22m (A$40m) of public funding to the US$60m ($A110m) project.To be built in the state capital of Melbourne, Central City Studios (CCS) will have five new ...
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Northbeach launches into Australian distribution market
Yet another player has joined the growing band of small Australian distributors specialising in independent and foreign films. Northbeach Film Distributors, owned by journalist and publisher David Pearce, is planning a limited release of Spanish director Ventura Pons' first English language film Food Of Love, a comedy drama starring five ...
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Australia's Beyond blames losses on revaluation of film catalogue
Beyond International managing director Mikael Borglund has played down the company's US$12m (A$22m) loss for the year ending June 30, saying it was principally due to a $10.7m revaluation of non-performing films and television programs from the catalogue. Total writedowns were actually $12.6m with the addition of online investments and ...
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Michael Thornhill wins Australia's Cecil Homes Award
Filmmaker Michael Thornhill has won this year's Cecil Homes Award in a unanimous vote by the board of the Australian Screen Directors Association.The award is for a filmmaker who has promoted the art of directing and advocated the role of the director and he has done that tirelessly -- often ...
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Global Rule One relaxed in Australia for the first time
After months of negotiation, an agreement has been reached that relaxes the effect of Global Rule One on Australian productions, particularly where budgets are low, and where the cast on these productions are Australian, New Zealand or other non-US members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). With the number of ...
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Village Roadshow buoyed by exhibition turnaround
Village Roadshow has achieved a remarkable turnaround in its exhibition division, with the ongoing policy of selling off certain territories clearly paying off and a string of popular films and new screens adding to the bottom line. Village Roadshow's exhibition arm posted a profit of A$28.6m for the 12 months ...
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Linda Tizard tipped to become FFC boss
The close-knit Australian film industry is awash with talk that Linda Tizard is to become the new chief executive of the Film Finance Corporation (FFC), arguably the most influential film job in the land. But the FFC says that no selection has yet been made and no ministerial stamp given, ...
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The Illustrated Family Doctor gets the greenlight
Acclaimed commercials, short film and documentary director Kriv Stenders has finally got his dark and irreverent debut feature The Illustrated Family Doctor over the financing line. He wrote the script in conjunction with David Snell, author of the novel on which it is based.The commitment of UK-based sales agent ...
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The Illustrated Family Doctor gets the greenlight
Acclaimed commercials, short film and documentary director Kriv Stenders has finally got his dark and irreverent debut feature The Illustrated Family Doctor over the financing line. He wrote the script in conjunction with David Snell, author of the novel on which it is based.The commitment of UK-based sales agent ...
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News
Epic Matrix shoot wraps in Oz as runaway production levels rise
The 12-month Sydney shoot of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions has just wrapped, leaving the legacy of a $110.6m contribution to the state economy and a host of titles lining up to shoot in production-friendly Australia. Brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski shot the futuristic films simultaneously and will ...