All articles by Sandy George – Page 65
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Alibrandi producer takes ABC role
Robyn Kershaw, the producer of last year's award-winning film Looking For Alibrandi, will take up the role of head of drama at Australian national broadcaster ABC from July 2. Changes to ABC staffing, programming and operations have been the source of some controversy over the past year, with managing director ...
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Australia moves towards film-friendly tax rules
Taking a leaf out of film-friendly tax laws in countries such as Canada, Ireland and the UK, Australia has taken a first step towards film-specific legislation providing a clear-cut pathway for local taxpayers to invest in offshore films shooting in Australia. Australians, in theory at least, can invest in such ...
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Australia's Southern Star posts 35% rise in sales
Australia's Southern Star Group registered sales revenues of $101m (A$193m) in the 12 months to March 31, a 35% rise over the previous year. The company's operating profit before tax and abnormals was $4.4m, double the previous result. Executive chair Neil Balnaves attributed the improvement to better cost controls, foreign ...
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Kimatrai to take over Fox office in Australia
Korean cinemas were besieged by a raft of new releases, but it was not the predicted winner that took the spot. Beating Blade II, was CJ Entertainment's unlikely blockbuster The Way Home. It also had a mighty impressive two-day screen average of $13,700.It is the story of a seven-year old ...
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Oz industry reacts bitterly to tight Govt budget
"We are fighting for survival," said Catriona Hughes, chief executive of Australia's Film Finance Corporation (FFC), in reaction to the very small increases for film announced in this week's budget.Other commentators noted that the proposed A$50m budget for the FFC, the Australian industry's biggest film investor, is only half that ...
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Australia unveils $16m funding boost
Australian film-makers and Australia-based productions have secured a funding boost worth $16.6m (A$31.6m) for the next four years from the state government of Victoria.Film production secured an extra $8.2m over the period, bringing the toal available to about three times current levels. Local film administration and support agency Film Victoria, ...
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Village makes new retreat from Euro exhibition
Village Roadshow has sold its sold 13-screen cinema site in Switzerland to Pathe, and its 45 Hungarian screens at six sites to Intercom, its jointventure partner in the region. The company has also offloaded its remaining 50% property interest in Village Entertainment Park to the Pradera European Retail Fund, and ...
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Crocodile Dundee in LA in Australia
Crocodile Dundee In LA, the third film in Australia's most successful franchise ever, was the most popular film over the Easter weekend grossing A$2.25m ($1.13m) from 234 screens from its opening Thursday April 12 to Monday April 16. In its favour were two public holidays, but these were offset by ...
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Thinking outside the Fox: Slaviero quits Oz branch
Robert Slaviero, Australian managing director of Twentieth Century Fox Film Distributors, created a shock wave when he officially resigned on Tuesday (Apr 17). Slaviero said it was an amicable separation and he is doing everything possible to create a smooth transition up to his departure on July 6.It is very ...
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Australia rings the changes to awards rules
Starting this year, films will only qualify for Australia's principal awards system if they have had a theatrical release in the previous year. Until now eligibility for AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards has instead been on the basis of when a film was made, often resulting in released pictures being ...
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Sydney prepares to welcome Matrix marathon
Warner Bros in Los Angeles and the Premier of New South Wales Bob Carr in Sydney simultaneously announced today that Australia will host production of two sequels to the action thriller The Matrix, Warner Bros' biggest hit to date with a worldwide gross of US$450m. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne ...
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One small step for The Dish; a leap for Premiere
Sydney-based Richard Sheffield and Wellington-based Larry Parr will launch New Zealand distribution entity Premiere Filmed Entertainment with the Australian hit film The Dish. The film, which had revenues of $16.8m from Australian cinemas alone will be released mid-year as a joint venture with its producers, Melbourne-based Working Dog. The film, ...
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SingTel set to buy Cable & Wireless Optus.
After months of speculation Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) looks sure to buy Cable & Wireless Optus, Australia's second biggest telecommunications company and parent company of pay TV platform Optus Television.Optus has welcomed SingTel's offer of $2.3 (A$4.57) per share, which values Optus's equity at over $8.5 billion (A$17 billion), but it ...
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Chopper star Eric Bana returns to comedy roots
Having burst onto cinema screens as violent Australian criminal Mark "Chopper" Read, Eric Bana is to return to comedy, the genre in which he made his name as a stand-up and TV comedian.Bana's second Australian film after last year's Chopper will be Nugget, the story of three road workers who ...
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Dirty Deeds is Australia's model for future growth
If Australia's filmmaking ambitions can be encapsulated in a single film, it is writer/director David Caesar's $5m gangster movie Dirty Deeds, which has pulled off a number of investment firsts.Dirty Deeds is Nine Films & Television's first production commitment, after more than a decade in which there has been no ...
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Australia's cinema wars move into the courtroom
Reading Entertainment Australia is heading for the courts over the issue of access to first-release films according to The Age newspaper. Using its Market City cinema site in the heart of Sydney as its latest battle arena, it is claiming in the Federal Court that Roadshow Film Distributors is in ...
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Seven Network pulls out of Asia TV service
The Seven Network has dumped the Asian satellite service Australia Television (ATV), which it took over from public broadcaster the ABC in 1997. It made the move despite being chosen in favour of five other tenderers to revamp the service with Federal Government money.The announcement drew a new round of ...
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Village Roadshow, Network Ten see venture fail
The ambitious internet leisure site SCAPE has gone into voluntary administration only 18 months after Village Roadshow and Network Ten negotiated the joint venture. The news was announced in a joint statement to the Australian Stock Exchange today. The first such formal coupling between a broadcaster and an entertainment giant ...
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Australian independent exhibitors push for change
Australia's independent cinema owners are planning to push through a number of changes in the code of practices between distributors and exhibitors. The code generated considerable controversy when it was introduced three years ago, but despite increasing transparency in the industry it has failed to satisfy many independents.The Cinema Owners ...
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Village Roadshow A$3.8m short after financial scam
Village Roadshow managing director Graham Burke has told the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) that Village Roadshow Ltd's (VRL) net loss is A$3.8m from a financial scam that saw nearly A$30m wrongly removed from company accounts in 1998 and 1999. Burke was speaking on the eve of Andrew Ross Henry, ...