Small MPU – Page 1386
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News
India's film and cable industries fight piracy
The Indian film industry and cable operators have reached an agreement to curb video piracy, with the film sector coming forward to make available "properly authorized" old films, legally to the cable operators for telecast over cable. The agreement would allow cable operators to telecast an Indian film -after it ...
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News
Italy's Medusa buys Cecchi Gori package
Rome's leading distribution outfit, Medusa Film, has finalised a late deal to buy five completed films from Cecchi Gori, enabling the former Italian number one to inject some cash back into its beleaguered film distribution and production operation. Medusa is believed to have paid between 68 and 70 billion lire ...
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News
US is wild about Harry
Warner Bros scored the biggest opening in North American box office history over the weekend as Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, the film of the best-selling novel by JK Rowling, grossed a phenomenal estimated $93.5m in the three day period from Friday to Sunday.The film also broke the ...
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News
Clooney, Soderbergh together again on Solaris
Actor George Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh are reteaming for the third time on Solaris, an erotically charged film version of Stanislaw Lem's 1961 science fiction novel which will start production in April 2002 for James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment and 20th Century Fox. Clooney will star in the film which ...
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News
Potter rewrites UK box office record book
As expected Warner Bros' highly anticipated children's title Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone has laid waste all previous box office records in the UK taking a massive $13,714,811 (£9,600,368) over its opening three-day weekend. This shatters the previous record of $10.8m taken by Star Wars: Episode I - The ...
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News
German cinema ticket tax proposal sparks outrage
German Culture Minister Julian Nida-Ruemelin's plans to increase the national cinema ticket tax by "a few percent" has prompted the local exhibition sector to vow to fight any increase "on all political, legal and internal industry levels".While German exhibitors have been vocal in their appeals for greater diversification on the ...
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News
Hi Dharma sets new S Korean admissions record
South Korean comedy Hi Dharma (pictured) has set a new box-office record by drawing 203,600 viewers in Seoul on its opening weekend and earning over $4m nationwide.. Filling seats to a 93% capacity, the film broke the previous 2-day Seoul record of 197,426 admissions set in 2000 by Mission: ...
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News
Media Asia loses second high-profile executive
Peter Poon has quit Hong Kong studio, Media Asia where he was deputy general manager and took particular responsibility for international distribution.The surprise move is the second high-profile departure at Media Asia since the summer. Earlier, chief executive Thomas Chung was shifted away from day-to-day management of the group to ...
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News
Icon boards Scottish serial-killer project
Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey's Icon Entertainment has boarded The Bothy, a tentatively titled UK thriller budgeted at $10m-$15m.The project tells the story of an American serial killer on the loose in the Scottish Highlands during the worst storm in living memory. Ros Borland and Catherine Aitken are producing for ...
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News
Scandi films triumph at Mannheim festival
Scandinavian cinema dominated the awards at the 50th edition of the International Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival in Germany (November 8-17).The Art of Film Award for Best Fiction Feature Film went to Danish filmmaker Tomas Gislason's P.O.V. (Point of View), while Norwegian Erik Smith Meyer received the Award in the Best Short ...
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News
Academy has record number of Foreign Oscar entries
Fifty-one countries have submitted films for consideration as best foreign language film of 2001, according to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president, Frank Pierson.It is the largest number of films ever entered in the competition, beating last year's record by five films. Films from Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania and ...
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News
London film fest set to exceed 2000's admissions
The London Film Festival appeared to weather the opening of Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone in its middle weekend to hit 106,000 admissions on Sunday, according to the festival's figures.With five days to go, the tally puts the event on course to beat last year's total sales of 112,000. ...
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News
Lantana makes history at AFI awards
It was a one-horse race at the annual AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards on November 16. Lantana made history by being the only film to win the seven top awards: best film for Jan Chapman, best director for Ray Lawrence, best actor and actress for Anthony LaPaglia and Kerry Armstrong, ...
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Equity Pictures fund lines up new projects
A second season of Tales From The Neverending Story TV series is among three projects being lined up for backing by the new Munich-based private media fund Equity Pictures.Launched by producer Andreas Thiesmeyer and financial expert Josef Lautenschlaeger, Equity Pictures is inviting private individuals to each put up a minimum ...
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News
O'Sullivan's Heart Of Me set to roll in UK
The Heart Of Me, a drama set in 1930s London starring Helena Bonham Carter, Olivia Williams and Paul Bettany, starts production this week in the UK.Directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan, the film tells the story of two sisters, one of which has an affair with the other's husband. Years later the ...
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News
Swiss film award nominations announced
Thomas Imbach's Happiness Is A Warm Gun, Stefan Haupt's Utopia Blues and Lutz Konermann's Lieber Brad have each received two nominations for the 2002 Swiss Film Awards which will be presented during the Solothurn Film Days on January 16, 2002.Imbach and Haupt's films have been nominated in the Best Feature ...
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News
Catalan nationalists call for Harry Potter boycott
Catalan nationalists have called for a boycott of Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, which goes on release next week.The Convergence of Catalonian Christian Democrats (CDU), a party which forms part of the governing coalition in the Catalan region, have launched the protest because the film has not been dubbed ...
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News
Clark's Bully wins Stockholm's Bronze Horse
The Bronze Horse for the best film at the 12th Stockholm International Film Festival 2001 went to Larry Clark's controversial Bully, while the festival's Lifetime Achievement Award went to Jean-Luc Godard for "his indefatigable excursions into new cinematographical landscapes, for his youthful lust for rebellion which has only grown ...
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USA Films picks up star-laden Eight Women
USA Films has acquired domestic distribution rights to Francois Ozon's Eight Women - the all-star French musical murder mystery produced by Marc Missonier and Olivier Delbosc of Fidelite Productions. The deal was made with French sales agent Celluloid Dreams.Eight Women features eight French screen actresses - including the legendary Catherine ...
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Reviews
Seafood (Haixian)
Dir: Zhu Wen. China. 2001. 84mins. This idiosyncratic and extremely personal debut film by the poet-novelist Zhu Wen won't be to all tastes, but its offbeat sensibility and intriguing glimpses of a little-seen side of contemporary China earned it the Special Prize in the Cinema of the Present competition at ...