All articles by Sandy George – Page 68
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Rothwell wins New Zealand film-makers' vote
Director Hamish Rothwell was made young film-maker of the year by the Screen Producers and Directors Association of New Zealand (SPADA), on the first evening of their annual conference (November 9). The title is a vote of confidence for the commercials director's stylish debut feature Stickmen, which will be released ...
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Anderson moves to UIP Australia
Expatriate Australian Jon Anderson is returning home to take up the role of marketing manager of UIP Australia from November 20. Anderson was most recently Columbia TriStar's London-based director of marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Throughout the 1980s he worked for the merged Fox Columbia company in ...
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Fox Studios Australia slashes entry prices
Fox Studios Australia has reduced admission prices to its Backlot entertainment area in an effort to increase visitor numbers. The move represents a partial merger of the Backlot with the adjacent Bent Street cinema and restaurant precinct.From mid-November adult prices to various attractions, which include the Titanic experience and the ...
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Joint Security Area a hit for South Korea
South Korea's current local box office hit, Joint Security Area (JSA), has attracted 1.875 million admissions in Seoul and over 4.1 million admissions across the country since its release on September 9. Set in one of the most militarised frontiers in the world, the film tells of the friendship between ...
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Macquarie strikes distribution pact with UIP
Australian private investment vehicle Macquarie Film Corp (MFC) has signed a two-year distribution pact with UIP. Under the terms of the deal, UIP will have first option to handle the Australian theatrical release of all titles backed by MFC. The two partners will jointly devise marketing strategies and share p&a ...
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Local film dishes up Australian record
Rob Sitch-directed The Dish has crashed through the record barrier with the highest weekend opening gross for an Australian film at the local box office. The Roadshow release grossed $1.56m (A$2.985m) from 281 prints on its four-day opening weekend - more than any other Australian film in history. Including its ...
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Media Vision takes Oz comedy quartet
LA-based sales outfit Media Vision has picked up four "edgy mainstream comedies" which are being produced by Australia's Lance Peters and US producer Marina Martins under the joint production banner Cop-Outs Production. Peters has written all four projects which will shoot in Australia. LA-based Australian expat Marina Rose will co-produce. ...
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Oz's Pinefilm in line for cash boost
Australian distributor Pinefilm Entertainment is in the final stages of negotiations to merge with an unnamed public company, in a move that will provide it with considerable new cash resources for film acquisitions. Pinefilm managing director Sean Rothsey confirmed the talks but said a non-disclosure agreement prevents him from naming ...
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Alston issues warning to Oz post sector
Australian communications, IT and arts minister, Richard Alston, has warned the local post sector that it has only about 18 months left to exploit its current competitive advantages, because bandwidth, which connects it to the rest of the world, is "virtually unaffordable".Australian post-production companies enjoy the dual advantages of being ...
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Chopper leads race for AFI Awards
Andrew Dominik's Chopper, about one of Australia's best-known living criminals, topped the nominations for the AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards with 10 nods including best film, best director and best screenplay.The other three titles vying for best film are Looking For Alibrandi with a total of nine nominations and Better ...
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REP, Dendy go on pre-MIFED buying spree
Australian distributor REP Films has picked up US comedy Human Nature, while sister company Dendy Films has acquired Swedish hit Together and Thai film The Iron Ladies. Iron Ladies follows the adventures of a transsexual volleyball team hoping to win the national championships. According to sales agent Fortissimo, it has ...
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Iran's Meshkini wins Pusan's New Currents prize
Iranian title The Day I Became A Woman, directed by Marziyeh Meshkini of Iran's Makhmalbaf family, won the jury prize in the Pusan film festival's New Currents section, dedicated to Asian film-makers' first or second features.The award includes distribution of the winning film in Korea or $10,000 to the director ...
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Palace, Pusan Story share top prize at PPP
The staff cutbacks sweeping through AOL Time Warner following its recent merger approval have now reached as far as the New York and London offices of Fine Line Features, the specialised offshoot of New Line Cinema.On Tuesday, Fine Line's New York staff were informed that their ranks would be pruned ...
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South Korea keeps up screen quotas fight
South Korea's Coalition for Cultural Diversity in Moving Images (CDMI) is an organising a symposium involving government ministers on November 8 due to continued fears that the country's screen quota system could be abolished.The CDMI, which has carried out a global campaign for the retention of quotas over the last ...
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Virgin takes top honours at Pusan
Korean writer-director Hong Sang-Soo's third film, Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, was awarded best film and best script by Pusan Film Critics on Sunday night in a ceremony that coincides with Korea's 5th Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF).The best director award went to Bae Chang-Ho for My Heart, while ...
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Hewison to head Melbourne Film Festival
The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has appointed James Hewison as executive director. He was formerly marketing manager (Victoria) for public broadcaster the ABC. Since 1993, when he returned from living in Paris for five years, Hewison has worked for Palace Cinemas, played a key role in re-establishing the French ...
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First Look acquires US rights to Chopper
Beyond Films has confirmed that US rights to writer-director Andrew Dominik's Chopper have been sold to First Look Pictures, which plans to stage a theatrical release in March 2001.Chopper screened at the Edinburgh, Toronto and Telluride Film Festivals and has now been in the Australian top 20 list for eight ...
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Telstra set to revise Pacific Century deal
Australian telecommunications giant Telstra is set to consider a second revision of its $2.7bn (A$5bn) alliance with Richard Li's Hong Kong-based Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) this week. Since being announced in April, the deal - which would create one of the largest internet, data and business services groups in the ...
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Olympic fever impacts Australia's box office
One week into the Olympics and most Australian cinemas are reporting revenues down by 25-50%, with games venue Sydney being the worst affected. Unseasonably fine spring weather is further exaggerating the fall in business, particularly as it's helping to draw non-sport lovers out of doors.Although the Olympic site is 14 ...
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Nine Network strikes Paramount supply deal
Australia's Nine Network has struck a supply deal with Paramount Pictures, securing the rights to half of the studio's theatrical output from 2000/01 and all of it from the following year.The Australian network is also gaining access to programming from the Paramount Television group up to the 2001/02 US broadcast ...