Small MPU – Page 1603
-
News
ARGENTINA
The Return Of The King continues to reign over Argentina's box office after three weeks. New entries Spy Kids 3-D Game Over, Mona Lisa Smile and 21 Grams took over the top slots, pushing down Disney's Brother Bear and Clint Eastwood's Mystic River. Argentinian comedy /drama Hoteles by Aldo ...
-
Reviews
Super Size Me!
Dir: Morgan Spurlock. US. 2003. 98 minsSundance buyers were drawn to this highly entertaining documentary like kids to candy and Big Macs for good reason: director Morgan Spurlock does to McDonalds fast food what Michael Moore did to both General Motors and the National Rifle Association in his canonical documentary ...
-
Reviews
The Woodsman
Dir: Nicole Kassel. US. 2004. 85mins.As Capturing The Friedmans made abundantly clear, there is no crime more heinous in the public imagination than paedophilia. So a dramatic feature that has a paedophile as its protagonist would seem to be engaging in taboo for taboo's sake. Which is why The Woodsman, ...
-
News
Doolan joins Irish Arts Council as film specialist
The Irish Arts Council has appointed Jane Doolan to the new part time consulting role of Film Specialist. She will be responsible for developmental work and for providing policy advice to the Arts Council on film.The Arts Council is a major source of funding in Ireland for cultural organisations such ...
-
News
Hungarian critics name Pleasant Days as best film
The Hungarian Film Critics association has named director Kornel Mundruczo's festival favorite Pleasant Days as the best Hungarian production of 2003.Producer Viktoria Petranyi accepted the B. Nagy Laszlo prize for Mundruczo who is currently abroad developing his next feature, Delta.Benedek Fliegauf's Oscar submitted Forest received the best first film award.The ...
-
News
Polish box office falls as local films misfire
Polish box office and admissions slipped year-on-year during 2003.Yearly admissions fell 8.6% to 23.4m and box office 7.4% to $86.7m (ZLO319.7m) in 2003.The fall mirrors the worldwide box office decline and also follows a disappointing year for local titles, which saw only one major Polish release, Jerzy Hoffman's When The ...
-
News
Seven scripts selected for top Oz development scheme
Seven creative teams have been selected for Australian script development programme SPARK 2004, developed by the Australian Film Commission (AFC) and the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS).Australian cinema has often been accused of neglecting its scripts and scriptwriters. Acting, camerawork and production design are usually first rate, while ...
-
News
Animal Logic drafts in veteran Smith for liaison role
Animal Logic, Australia's foremost visual effects studio, has appointed Greg Smith to the newly created position director of communications and public affairs.The former executive, who was instrumental in the firm's key move to Sydney's Fox Studios in 1998, will be Animal Logic's "senior liaison person with government and industry bodies", ...
-
Reviews
Napoleon Dynamite
Dir: Jared Hess. US. 2004. 86mins.Napoleon Dynamite, which was met in Park City by raucous cheers and bursts of unsuppressed chuckling, is exactly the kind of off-beat comedy that delights otherwise earnest festivals such as Sundance. Within hours of its first screening, word on this occasionally-inspired portrait of Loserville, Idaho, ...
-
News
Godard loses copyright case in Paris court
Paris' high court has ruled against filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard for copyright infringement in his 1987 film King Lear.According to Agence France Presse, author Viviane Forrester brought the suit claiming Godard had used a text from her book La Violence Du Calme that was recited in the film without her authorisation.Godard ...
-
News
High Point takes over Irish Dead Bodies sales
World sales outfit High Point Films, has taken on international sales on Irish thriller Dead Bodies.Produced by Dublin based Distinguished Features, headed by David McLoughlin and Clare Scully, Dead Bodies is directed by Robert Quinn and stars Andrew Scott as a young slacker whose world is turned suddenly upside down ...
-
News
Madrid targets foreign shoots with film commission launch
Long the capital of the Spanish film and television sectors, Madrid has finally made official the launch of its much-anticipated Film Commission.An estimated 70% of Spanish films shoot in Madrid, yet producers have long complained of complications shooting here. A large clutch of producers turned out to Friday's presentation to ...
-
News
Thirty projects set for debut Talent Project Market at Berlin
Feature films from 23 countries as far flung as the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, Iceland, Ukraine and Hong Kong are among the 30 projects selected for the first Talent Project Market at next month's Berlinale Talent Campus.The Talent Projects were picked from 256 entries by an international jury comprising the Berlinale ...
-
News
Berlin's Panorama unveils complete line-up
Berlin's Panorama section has unveiled its full line-up across its main programme and the Special, Dokumente and Short Films strands.The line-up comprises 34 features, 16 documentaries and 26 short films. The films are from 32 countries and include twelve directing debuts and 14 films which are to be digitally projected, ...
-
News
Redbus dives into Open Water
UK distributor and producerRedbus Pictures has acquired UK rights to low budget shark thriller OpenWater, which premiered at Sundancelast week.Redbus bought the picturefrom Lions Gate Films and plans to release it on 300 plus prints in the latesummer or early autumn later this year.Based on the true story oftwo married ...
-
News
Rotterdam debates the future of digital
Independent cinema versus corporate America was the underlying theme of a big set-piece debate at the Rotterdam festival yesterday (Sun 25 Jan).The discussion on digital cinema and its potential threats to conventional film-making took the form of a parliamentary debate, a format which inevitably produced colourful language and a spirit ...
-
News
Homework, Monster Road among top Slamdance honorees
KevinAsher Green's sensual drama Homework has won the 2004 Slamdance GrandJury Sparky Award for best narrative feature, while Brett Ingram's profile oflegendary animator and Frank Zappa collaborator Bruce Bickford in MonsterRoad won the equivalent documentary prize.Inother awards at the weekend ceremony, the Grand Jury Sparky Award for bestnarrative short went ...
-
News
Along Came Polly opens top in Australia for Universal
Universal's comedy AlongCame Polly got its international campaign off to a strong start inAustralia through UIP at the weekend, opening top on an estimated $1.9m from193 sites.The film will open in therest of the world over the next three months, starting with Portugal on Feb 6.The dance drama Honeyraised its ...
-
News
Sony forms Internet venture with Toyota, Tokyu
Sony is teaming up with Toyota Motor Corp and Tokyo-based private railway Tokyu Corp in a joint venture to provide broadband Internet services via cable TV.The venture, called AII Kikaku, will start operations as a planning company in early April with each of the partners providing an equal one-third share ...
-
News
CTFDI scores success abroad with Mona Lisa Smile
Mona Lisa Smile grossed $8.6m on 2,065 screens for Columbia TriStarFilm Distributors International (CTFDI) at the weekend.It opened number one inGermany on a notable $2.8m from 601 screens, and also secured top berths inAustria ($335,000 from 78) and Switzerland ($550,000 from 85).The drama opened second inFrance behind The Last Samurai ...