All articles by Sandy George – Page 71
-
News
Lend Lease takes hit on Fox Studios investment
Lend Lease Corporation, which half-owns Sydney's Fox Studios Australia, has made a provision of $47m (A$80m) after tax to cover its losses from the failure of the 19-month-old Backlot, one of three distinct parts of the studio and entertainment development. It will also make an appropriate write-down of the value ...
-
News
AFI Awards get record number of entries
Twenty-five films have been submitted for the 2000 AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards, the biggest number of entries for nearly 10 years. Titles range from box office winners The Wogboy and Looking For Alibrandi, to highly-anticipated features such as Chopper and Bootmen, to tiny privately-financed fare such as Chasing Parked ...
-
News
Australia's Palace buys private Dope
Australian distributor Palace Films has picked up local rights to Australian title Dope, a privately-financed project from first-time writer-director J Harkness which is currently in pre-production.The cross-cultural love story cranks up in Adelaide on August 21 with Harkness and Mark Patterson producing. Adelaide-based Guerilla Films is the production company. The ...
-
News
Passover Fever to open Oz's first Israeli fest
Shemi Zarhin's epic comedy-drama Passover Fever (1995) has been chosen to open Australia's first Israeli Film Festival, to take place in Canberra from August 4-10.Israeli writer-director Joseph Pitchhadze will introduce the festival with a screening of his road movie Under Western Eyes (1996), part of a five-hour seminar examining representations ...
-
News
Scarfies sweeps New Zealand film awards
Scarfies dominated New Zealand's film awards on July 1 winning the best producer award which went to Lisa Chatfield, best director for Robert Sarkies, best writer for Sarkies and his brother Duncan Sarkies and best female actor which went to Willa O'Neill.Scarfies was the debut film for the entire creative ...
-
News
AFC overhauls funding guidelines
As part of its on-going revamp, Australia's major development agency, the Australian Film Commission (AFC), has issued new funding guidelines under which film-makers with a proven track record will be given the most support. Experienced talent will be given access to the lion's share of AFC funding - and at ...
-
News
Major territories in place for Crocodile Dundee 3
CLT-Ufa has acquired French and German rights to Crocodile Dundee In LA, the third film in the Crocodile Dundee franchise. UIP will release the film in the UK, Scandinavia and the local Australian market. Paramount Pictures has North American rights and plans to release the picture in April 2001.Kathy Morgan ...
-
News
Collins replaces Rhys-Jones at Roadshow
David Collins has been chosen to replace Libby Rhys-Jones as New South Wales general manager of Roadshow Film Distributors, based in Sydney and reporting directly to managing director Joel Pearlman in Melbourne. He starts on July 10.Rhys-Jones resigned from the biggest Australian-owned distributor at the end of May after a ...
-
News
Australia's FLICs get luke-warm response
Australia's two Film Licensed Investment Companies (FLICs) have convinced investors to tip in only about half of the tax deductible total of $23.9 (A$40m) that they were allowed to raise before the June 30 deadline.The government-sanctioned FLICs were formed 15 months ago as a pilot scheme with the aim of ...
-
News
Australia's Energee to create TV Magic Pudding
Australian animation house Energee Entertainment is planning to spin its not-yet-released first feature, The Magic Pudding, into a television series. International sales agent Icon Entertainment International has sold The Magic Pudding feature to more than a dozen territories including Bac Films for France and Gruppo Minerva for Italy. It will ...
-
News
Australia passes digital legislation
Australia has finalised controversial legislation restricting the number of TV channels in the digital era.Legislation passed late yesterday (June 29) - the final instalment in the laws that will determine Australia's digital TV future - confirmed the three commercial incumbents' continuing monopoly of free-to-air services for at least five years. ...
-
News
Oz investors won't let filmmakers wiggle out of it
Investors in Australian title The Wiggles Movie are considering taking legal action against production company Gladusaurus Productions, manager Movieco Australia, the promoter, and perhaps the distributor 20th Century Fox, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.The article reports that only about 13% of $964,000 (A$1.6m) in production funding has been returned ...
-
News
Little Crumb director to adapt Pete, The Rascal
Dutch writer-director Maria Peters, whose credits include the Netherlands' biggest local hit last year, Little Crumb (Kruimeltje), based on the novel by Chris van Abkoude, is developing another adaptation of the late writer's works.Peters is combining all eight novels in Van Abkoude's Pete, The Rascal (Pietje Bell) series into one ...
-
News
Australian film-makers win tax battle
Screen writers, actors, up-and-coming producers and others at the low salary end of the Australian film industry are breathing a sigh of relief following the Federal Government's decision to give them the same tax exemption that they recently gave to farmers.An earlier draft of Australia's new tax bill stated that ...
-
News
LA Confidential's Hanson hits Melbourne festival
LA Confidential's Curtis Hanson will attend the Melbourne International Film Festival when the US director's Wonderboys opens the event.Hanson will also participate in a q&a session during the 19-day event, which runs from July 19 to August 6.Home-grown talent will be showcased on the closing night, with the local premiere ...
-
Reviews
Cosy Dens wins audience vote at Sydney fest
Czech director Jan Hrebejk's black comedy Cosy Dens won the popularity vote among audiences at the Sydney Film Festival's traditional home, The State Theatre, while patrons of the new Dendy Opera Quays cinema voted for Dutch family film Little Crumb, directed by Maria Peters.The other favourites at The State were, ...
-
News
News Corp, PBL reportedly to quit Foxtel
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL), which together own 50% of Australian pay-TV platform Foxtel, reportedly plan to switch allegiances and sign a significant programming deal with competitor Cable & Wireless Optus (C&W Optus). News Corp-owned newspaper The Australian reported today (June 20) that ...
-
News
Oz giants get greenlight for joint Sydney cinema
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has greenlit a proposal from Australia's three largest exhibitors - Village Roadshow, Hoyts and Greater Union - to replace their separate cinemas on George Street, Sydney with a site in which they will share the same building, staff, box office and candy bar. ...
-
News
Pinefilm taps Sorby to head up acquisitions
Australian distributor Pinefilm Entertainment has appointed Nicole Sorby as head of acquisitions replacing Peter Downer who left the company last week following a breakdown in relations with owner and managing director Sean Rothsey.Rothsey was formerly a financial backer of The Globe Film Co, when Downer was one of three partners ...
-
News
Blockbusters bunch up in Oz
While the European box office fights soccer-mania and pre-summer seasonal box office lows, Australia's chart is riding high with help from the southern hemisphere winter and two hits carrying a high level of Australian content.Mission: Impossible 2 at number one has scooped $7.6m (A$13.3m) after just 12 days, a record ...