All articles by Sandy George – Page 61
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News
Queensland launches Gold Coast film festival
The Gold Coast City Council is one of the main drivers behind the launch this year of a film festival that it hopes will draw attention to the filmmaking capabilities of the region, and boost economic development. Over $54,000 (A$100,000) has already been raised from government sources.Queensland's Gold Coast, south ...
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News
Beyond, Chaos team for Australian home entertainment
A range of Australian cinema classics will be among at least 30 titles released on DVD and video in the next 12 months under a new deal between Beyond International and information technology group and home entertainment distributor Chaos. Upcoming titles licensed by Beyond will also be manufactured, marketed and ...
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News
Brown steps into vacated SPAA exec director job
Geoff Brown has been appointed executive director of the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) following the sudden resignation of Joanne Yates who joined only six months ago. Brown, already involved with the organisation as policy manager in an acting capacity while the incumbent was on maternity leave, is a ...
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News
Australia to get its first competitive film festival
Sydney Film Festival director Gayle Lake has confirmed that the festival will become a competitive event from 2003, the year it celebrates its 50th birthday, with filmmakers' first or second feature films being eligible. Australia does not currently have a competitive festival.A new directors program was introduced in 1999 and ...
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News
Icon adds Bend It Like Beckham to Oz release line-up
Icon Film Distribution Australia has acquired the rights to UK soccer hit Bend It Like Beckham, directed by Gurinder Chadha. The tentative release date is July in Australia and August in New Zealand. It is generally acknowledged that British films can work as well in the Australian marketplace as US ...
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News
Cinemas face cost of Disability Discrimination Act
While the international exhibition industry has always aspired to keep ahead of government regulations, especially those regarding access and facilities for the disabled, the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 has given rise to a new and challenging set of issues that could prove costly to resolve.In what many will hope ...
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News
Beautiful Mind puts Crowe at top of Oz actors' earnings list
Actor Russell Crowe's estimated 2001 earnings of $15.4m (A$29m), including from A Beautiful Mind, were not enough to put him at the head of the annual top 50 entertainers list published in the current issue of Australia's Business Review Weekly. Coming third, Crowe, however, easily led the fifteen actors on ...
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News
Beautiful Mind puts Crowe at top of Oz actors' earnings list
Actor Russell Crowe's estimated 2001 earnings of $15.4m (A$29m), including his take from A Beautiful Mind, were not enough to put him at the head of the annual top 50 entertainers list published in the current issue of Australia's Business Review Weekly. Coming third, Crowe, however, easily led the fifteen ...
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News
Bad Eggs smell good to Village Roadshow
While the comedy thriller Bad Eggs does not have a particularly large budget in terms of the norm in Australia, it has attracted the single biggest financial commitment to an independent feature in entertainment conglomerate Village Roadshow's long history. "Mass audiences demand big laughs and we believe that Bad Eggs ...
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News
Technicolor buys Southern Star's Duplitek
The Southern Star Group is expected to net about $26.4m (A$50m) from US-based video, CD, DVD and film print manufacturer Technicolor's acquisition of its duplication subsidiary Duplitek. Technicolour invested $17.4m (A$33m) in Duplitek nearly two years ago in a deal that gave it the right to expand its result minority ...
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News
Aurora beams for Australian script development
Australia has created its own version of development "hothousing" on the back of four feature scripts and their creative teams. The New South Wales Film and Television Office (NSWFTO) examined overseas models including Sundance, Moondance and Equinoxe before putting together its own A$500,000 Aurora programme, which has filmmaker Jane Campion ...
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News
Macquarie, Nine Net launch major production fund
Macquarie Bank and the Nine Network's production subsidiary today (March 21) formally announced a bold plan to entice investors to provide up to $33.2m (A$62.5m) for the production of eight feature films, two TV series and two telemovies. The third partner in the equation is Hoyts Distribution, which will distribute ...
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News
Icon picks up first Oz film for distribution
The Australian office of Icon Film Distribution has picked up local rights on its first Australian film. Paul Goldman is to direct the UK/Australian co-production The Night We Called It A Day which draws on singer Frank Sinatra's notorious 1974 tour of Australia, during which he became very unpopular with ...
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News
Queensland funds Warner Roadshow Studio expansion
Australia's appeal as a location for runaway productions is set to get another boost with Queensland Premier Peter Beattie's decision to grant a $4.3m (A$8m) loan to the Warner Roadshow MovieWorld Studios in order to increase its size by 50%. Once completed, the Gold Coast facility will be one of ...
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Reviews
The Tracker
Dir: Rolf de Heer. Australia. 2002. 98minsThe flood of Australian features with Aboriginal themes financed, coincidentally, two years ago are now finding their way to cinema screens. Philip Noyce's eagerly awaited Rabbit-Proof Fence has chosen to expose Australia's dirty laundry with its portrait of a 1930s government attempting to assimilate ...
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News
Rings tops NZ box office, nears $500m int'l gross
Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring has become the biggest box office earner of all time in its home territory, New Zealand - fittingly the first country where it has done so, but with other nations set to follow shortly. It is due to pass $500m internationally within ...
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News
Amalgamated confirms Oz exhibition revival
Australia's Amalgamated Holdings was the latest company with exhibition interests to confirm that the cinema business has recovered from the doldrums of 18 months ago. The owner of the Greater Union and Birch Carroll and Coyle cinema circuits recorded a 67% growth in net profit after tax to $9m (A$17.5m) ...
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News
Gary Hamilton to leave Oz's Beyond Films
Two names that have been synonymous for 12 years, Beyond Films and Gary Hamilton, are to separate. The founder and general manager of Australia's only consistently active film sales agent will step down from his post at the end of the month."Over the 12 years Gary has been with Beyond ...
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News
Village Roadshow's cinema sell-off boosts profit
Village Roadshow's exhibition arm has been given substantial credit for VRL's net profit after tax of $23.5m (A$45.3m) for the half-year to December 31, up 100% on the previous corresponding period.Only 15 months ago shareholders were told that VRL's unsatisfactory profits of the past two to three years were entirely ...
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News
AusFILM boosts location marketing activity
AusFILM is dramatically stepping up its marketing of Australia to the film world. The conglomerate of private companies and government agencies moves into Fox Studios Australia from March 11 and will triple staff thanks to a near fourfold increase in government funds.There is "considerable scope" to increase the 6% of ...