Small MPU – Page 1052
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ReviewsReligulous
Dir: Larry Charles. US. 2008. 100mins.A blunt satiric object applied to delicate subject matter, Religulous is a consistently funny if one-sided putdown of society’s blind devotion to its many religious faiths. In the hands of Borat director Larry Charles and American political comedian Bill Maher, the ...
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San Sebastian's Zabaltegi-New Directors names 14 selections
The San Sebastian Film Festival has unveiled the 14 films in its Zabaltegi-New Directors section.The section, with a Euros 90,000 prize to be shared between the director and the Spanish distributor, is devoted to film-makers presenting first or second films not previously screened at any other international competition. (Official Selection ...
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London animation fest to host UK premiere of Plympton's Idiots
The fifth London International Animation Festival (LIAF) is taking place from Sept 1-7, with more than 220 animated films from 27 different countries being shown at various London venues.Films being screened at the festival include the UK premiere of Bill Plympton's graphic pencil-drawn style Idiots and Angels, the French animated ...
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Gordon's $30m Tree takes root at MGM, Winchester
Chuck Gordon's Daybreak Productions has finally set up the first picture to fall under his independent financing structure now that MGM has committed to taking domestic rights to The Tree, a $30m comedy featuring hot rising star Johnny Knoxville.Winchester Films - which set up the international distribution structure for Gordon ...
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Haugesund's Co-Production Forum welcomes 18 projects
The third Nordic Co-Production Forum will host 18 feature film projects with budgets between Euros 1.6m-10m. The event opens today at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund.Total costs of the film which will be discussed by German, Canadian and Nordic producers amount to Euros 65m.110 participants have registered for ...
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Norrie leaves Capitol to become head of international at Salt
The Salt Company has appointed James Norrie as head of international.Norrie was previously head of sales at Capitol Films and previously worked at Icon International.Salt, recently relaunched from the previous sales incarnation Lumina Films, is part of the International Film Collective.The company's directors and founders are Samantha Horley, Robert Bevan ...
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Venice Horizons adds Iranian debut Tedium (Khastegi)
Tedium (Khastegi), the debut film of Iranian director Bahman Motamedian, is the first of two surprise films to be added to Venice's Horizon's line-up, the Biennale announced today.The Tehran-set film follows the experience of seven transsexuals within the confines of Iran's conservative culture. The film's title underscores the public and ...
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Beta Cinema handling sales on two Venice world premieres
Beta Cinema is to handle international sales on two Italian films - Marco Pontecorvo's Pa-Ra-Da, the opening film of the Horizons sidebar, and Uberto Pasolini's Venice Days title Machan - which are having their world premieres at next week's Venice Film Festival.Pa-Ra-Da, DoP Pontecorvo's feature film debut, tells the true ...
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Screen opinion:Tuning into a new era
Back in the 1970s, musician Benny Green wrote an essay on the demise of jazz. His lament was that every possible combination of notes had been explored, reworked, reversed and occasionally twisted into barely listenable shapes. 'We have to ask whether today's brilliant jazz musicians have left themselves any fresh ...
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In Focus: The awards season
Between last September and December, studios and independents unleashed 42 prestige English-language films on domestic audiences. On paper it was a bumper Oscar-qualification season which featured titles from Tim Burton, David Cronenberg, Sidney Lumet, the Coen brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ridley Scott, Robert Redford and Mike Nichols.But 2008 is a ...
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In Focus - The Year to Date
Watch out for awards recognition for:- Martin McDonagh (original screenplay) for In Bruges (Focus Features)- Sandy Powell (costume design) for The Other Boleyn Girl (Sony Pictures/Focus Features)- Horton Hears A Who! for animated feature (20th Century Fox)- Tom McCarthy (writer/director), Richard Jenkins (actor), Haaz Sleiman (supporting actor) and Hiam Abbass ...
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United States/India - A Taste For India
When producer Debra Martin Chase was looking for a location for the third film in Disney's Cheetah Girls franchise, she immediately thought of India.The Cheetah Girls first appeared in 2003 in a Disney Channel TV film about a four-member teen girl group making their way in Manhattan. After it became ...
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Profile: Anne Francois
This is a big year for Anne Francois and her company Tactics. The producer, who divides her time between Los Angeles and Paris, has been actively developing four projects for the last few years and she says the scripts are ready to go; 2009 is her target year to move ...
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Film Focus: The Descent 2
Getting to the set of The Descent 2 somewhat surprisingly does not require a trip underground. Like the 2005 original, the sequel shot mostly in caves recreated on studio sets - this time for a 40-day shoot at London's Ealing Studios with some location work in England and Scotland (the ...
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Nippon Herald takes Intermedia trio for Japan
Nippon Herald Films has clinched a three picture deal with Intermedia that covers the Harrison Ford-starrer K:19 The Widowmaker, K:Pax starring Kevin Spacey and The Wedding Planner with Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey.The deal marks the first multi-picture sale for Intermedia since it unveiled its star-studded slate just ahead of ...
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Interview: Barbet Schroeder
Now in his mid-60s, film-maker and self-proclaimed iconoclast Barbet Schroeder is busier than ever. His new feature, Inju, The Beast In The Shadow, will be in competition at Venice and will screen in Toronto, just a year after his documentary Terror's Advocate, about controversial lawyer Jacques Verges, screened in Cannes. ...
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In Focus: Australia's New Holland Pictures
New Holland Pictures launched in 2004 with the ambitious - for Australia - aim of producing three films a year.Four years on, and the company that was set up as a joint venture between leading Dutch film company Idtv Film and Australian producers Mark and Cathy Overett is proving that ...
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Preview: Venice film festival
The 65th edition of the Venice film festival (August 27-September 6) may well be remembered as the year the world's oldest film festival greeted a bright new future.After a very successful four years as artistic director, Marco Mueller has been reconfirmed for a second mandate, working alongside Biennale president Paolo ...
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Festival talk - The Gospel according to Marco
Which festivals are important to you'I enjoy being in Berlin and Cannes because that's where we start working and making international contacts, and it's when I first get an inkling of what's going to happen in the next few months in terms of artistic films and original, special films. I ...
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Venice 2008: Buzz films
BUZZ VENICE FILMSCOMPETITIONAchilles And The Tortoise (Akires To Kame) (Jap)Dir: Takeshi KitanoThe story: Follows a failed painter and the long-suffering family that supports him.The cast: Kitano takes the lead, alongside Kanako Higuchi and popular actress Kumiko Aso, whose credits include Dororo.The buzz: A well-established figure on the Lido, Kitano returns ...