Small MPU – Page 1428

  • News

    Japan's Toei names new president, posts fiscal 2001 results

    2002-06-03T04:05:00Z

    Toei, one of the Japan's major film studios, is expected to name current president Tan Takaiwa as its new chairman. Managing director Tsuyoshi Okada, son of outgoing chairman, Shigeru Okada, will take over as president.Tsuyoshi Okada's appointment will see him hit the ground running to regain financial stability for the ...

  • News

    New directors awarded German Film Board funds

    2002-06-03T04:05:00Z

    The new generation of German cinema is the focus in the Federal German Film Board's (FFA) latest round of production funding which totalled Euros 2.5m.Backing between Euros 100,000 and Euros 270,000 was given to feature debuts by Marco Kreuzpaintner (Ganz Unz Gar) and Joachim Masannek (Die Wilden Kerle) and second ...

  • News

    Melbourne's St Kilda fest becomes premiere short film event

    2002-06-03T04:05:00Z

    Melbourne's St Kilda Film Festival will next year quadruple the cash prize for Best Australian Short Film to $5,650 (A$10,000), making it the most lucrative award for short films in the country. This is in addition to the $11,300 (A$20,000) already awarded at the festival.Festival director Malcolm Blaylock told the ...

  • News

    Spanish Huesca film festival to honour Kaurismaki

    2002-06-03T04:05:00Z

    Finnish actress Kati Outinen, recently awarded the best actress prize at Cannes for her work in Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without A Past, is one of the stars expected to turn out for this year's 30th anniversary edition of the Huesca Film Festival of Spain (June 6-15).Outinen will be on ...

  • News

    Screendaily.com holiday break

    2002-06-03T04:05:00Z

    Owing to the Golden Jubilee holiday in the UK, Screendaily.com will be providing a limited news service until Wednesday 5th June.

  • News

    One Day Out wins top prize at South Korean shorts festival

    2002-06-03T00:00:00Z

    Kim Sun-kyung's 16mm short One Day Out (pictured) has won the Busan Asian Short Film Festival Grand Prize, which was awarded on Sunday. A Special Jury Prize was awarded to Choi Jin-young's Too Happy To Die.Highlights of the South Korean five-day BASFF, under the auspices of festival directors, Jeon ...

  • Reviews

    Ten Minutes Older - The Trumpet

    2002-06-04T00:00:00Z

    Dirs: Werner Herzog, Jim Jarmusch, Chen Kaige, Aki Kaurismaki, Spike Lee, Victor Erice, Wim Wenders. 2002. 92 mins. There are enormous advantages to the short-film format. It allows directors a creative freedom rarely enjoyed these days by even the most bankable names. For the audience, it offers a chance to ...

  • Reviews

    Bad Company

    2002-06-04T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Joel Schumacher. US. 2002. 111 mins. Given producer Jerry Bruckheimer's track record with odd-couple action movies (Beverly Hills Cop, Bad Boys, Enemy Of The State), and the promising pairing of Anthony Hopkins with Chris Rock, action comedy Bad Company could hardly be a better proposition or a bigger disappointment. ...

  • News

    Tavernier's latest finds safe passage in US with Empire

    2002-06-05T00:00:00Z

    Empire Pictures, the NewYork-based art-house distributor that released Patrice Chereau'sBerlinale Golden Bear-winner Intimacy unrated in the US last year, has acquired American rights to anotherBerlin Film Festival award-winning French title, Bertrand Tavernier's Laissez-Passer.The deal was confirmedlast week by Empire Pictures president Edmondo Schwartz and John Kochman,director of international sales at ...

  • News

    Worldwide film spending predicted to jump by $20bn by 2006

    2002-06-05T00:00:00Z

    Global spending on filmedentertainment will expand at a promising 5.7 percent compound annual growthrate over the next five years, increasing from $59bn in 2001 to $79bn in 2006,predicts PricewaterhouseCoopers as part of its latest five-year outlook reporton the worldwide media and entertainment sector.Fueling that growth willbe strong box office receipts, ...

  • News

    Fund veteran Marco Mehlitz named COO at Cinerenta

    2002-06-05T00:00:00Z

    Marco Mehlitz, the former head of production at VIF International Films, has been named chief operating officer of German production fund Cinerenta. He will be responsible for sourcing projects to be produced by Cinerenta and overseeing the projects alongside Michael Ohoven, CEO of LA-based Infinity International Entertainment, the US consultant ...

  • News

    Cowboy picks up North American rights to Sinclair's Toy Love

    2002-06-05T00:00:00Z

    New York-based Cowboy Pictures has acquired North American rights to Toy Love, the comedy from hot New Zealand director Harry Sinclair, which had its market premiere at Cannes. John Vanco of Cowboy negotiated the deal with Kathleen Drumm of the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) at Cannes and plans to ...

  • News

    Lew Wasserman 1913-2002

    2002-06-05T00:00:00Z

    Hollywood was paying tribute yesterday to the last great movie mogul Lew Wasserman, who died at the age of 89 on Sunday in Los Angeles. The patriarch of Universal Studios - or MCA/Universal as it was in his day - who ate lunch at his usual table on the lot ...

  • News

    Brazil changes Spider-Man rating in response to public outcry

    2002-06-05T00:00:00Z

    Sony Pictures' money-spinning Spider-Man is gathering an extra bit of mileage in Brazil thanks to a change in the film's classification during its first week on release in the South American nation. The film, which was released May 17 through Columbia-TriStar Film Distributors International (CTFDI) on an unprecedented 507 prints, ...

  • News

    Filmalbatros spreads its wings

    2002-06-05T00:00:00Z

    Filmalbatros, the outfit set up for Italian director Marco Bellocchio's competition film The Hour Of Religion (L'Ora Di Religione), is branching out for a wider production slate.The company was established a year ago as a joint venture between Bellocchio and Sergio Pelone's company Bottom Line and is now extending into ...

  • News

    Danish Film Institute backs foreign-language co-productions

    2002-06-06T04:05:00Z

    Two new foreign-language projects have tapped the Danish Film Institute's under-exploited funds. The two, both co-produced with Zentropa, are eligible for DFI support with a local minority co-production partner on board.Holland's Els Vandevorst will produce Sea Of Silence for her Isabella Films to be directed by the Oscar-nominated Belgian Stijn ...

  • News

    Karanovic shoots Loving Glances at F.A.M.E.

    2002-06-05T00:00:00Z

    Belgrade-based director Srdjan Karanovic's new picture Loving Glances, which gets underway next month, is the latest addition to the burgeoning slate of Film & Media Entertainment (F&ME).The romantic comedy, set among the former Yugoslavia's displaced communities, is Karanovic's first since Virdjina - A Kind Of Woman ten years ago. ...

  • News

    German media funds defend accusation of US bias

    2002-06-06T04:05:00Z

    The newly created interest group for Germany's media funds, Verband Deutscher Medienfonds (VDM) has responded to criticism from Culture Minister Julian Nida-Ruemelin and film industry figures that monies raised by the funds flow wholesale into US major studio productions.High-profile US productions that have tapped German equity funds include: The Fast ...

  • News

    De Niro quip gives birth to Siberian film festival

    2002-06-06T04:05:00Z

    While most people would consider a resort like Cannes or Venice as the ideal location for a major festival, the organisers of a new film festival - to be held mid-winter in Siberia - are hoping to turn that concept on its head.The new Spirit Of Fire competitive film festival ...

  • News

    Highlight takes German-speaking rights for Tadpole

    2002-06-06T04:05:00Z

    Highlight Communications, the Swiss-based distributor and licensor, has picked up German-speaking rights to Tadpole, a low-budget coming of age drama directed by Gary Winick.The sale was the only one to Germany that Miramax agreed during Cannes. "We have seen everyone, but the offers are just too low," said Miramax International ...