Small MPU – Page 1611

  • News

    Upswing tops Finnish Jussi awards

    2004-02-03T00:00:00Z

    At this year's Finnish film awards, the Jussi, held in Helsinki on Sunday night, Johanna Vuoksenmaa's popular comedy drama Upswing (Nousukausi) took top honours including best film as well as best script for Mika Ripatti and best music for Kerkko Koskinen.However, the Lasse Saarinen production didn't take more awards than ...

  • News

    ITALY

    2004-02-03T00:00:00Z

    Pupi Avati's Italian comedy sequel La Rivincita Di Natale, opened at number six at the box office, grossing $550,673 for Medusa Film seventeen years after the original film's release.Rivincita Di Natale, which features the same cast as Avati's 1980 comedy Regalo Di Natale including Diego Abantatuono, was released on ...

  • News

    AUSTRALIA

    2004-02-03T00:00:00Z

    Along Came Polly held on to the top spot in its second weekend on release despite its gross dropping by over half, although admittedly the original result was for a five-day holiday weekend and the figures have now reverted to the usual four days.The UIP release did A$1,436,260 from 202 ...

  • News

    Film law, new studio to feed Hungary's international ambitions

    2004-02-04T04:00:00Z

    Following the boost given to the local industry with a new film law passed in December, this September will see the opening of Hungary's most advanced film studio - which will boast Central Europe's largest sound stage.As founder and managing director Robert Szabados told Screen International the Stern Film Studio ...

  • News

    New German media fund backs its first feature

    2004-02-04T04:00:00Z

    US director Aaron Allred's thriller/love story Not A Lovestory is the first feature film project to be backed by the Babelsberg-based MPF Beteiligungs GmbH & Co Zweite KG (MPF) media fund.The production by Wanowski Brothers Filmproduktion and Doris Kirch's Blue Angel Entertainment Film Productions in co-production with EuroArts Medien and ...

  • News

    Russia's exhibition sector set for rapid growth

    2004-02-04T04:00:00Z

    The exhibition sector in Russia is set to grow once again this year driven by a box office that has been increasing by 80% a year over the past two or three years according to figures released by the Russian Ministry of Culture.While most of the action has been in ...

  • News

    Spain's Star Line unveils 2004 slate

    2004-02-04T04:00:00Z

    Spanish producer Star Line, producer of Berlin Panorama entry Bear Cub (Cachorro), is looking to repeat its two-fold production success of 2003 with its new slate for 2004.Following on the coattails of Bear Cub and the company's big-budgeted international production Carmen, Spain's third top-grossing local film last year, Star Line ...

  • News

    Murdoch unveils plans to pump up Indian investment

    2000-03-15T11:04:00Z

    Rupert Murdoch''s News Corp is planning a fresh investment of several hundred million dollars in India''s television and information technology markets, including the launch of a raft of new channels to add to Star TV''s present line-up.Murdoch, who is currently on a five-day tour of India, announced plans to add ...

  • News

    Indian filmmakers boycott film festival

    2004-02-03T00:00:00Z

    MIFF 2004, the Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentaries, Shorts and Animation, which runs from February 3-9, has run into trouble with 12 Indian filmmakers withdrawing their films from the festival in protest against censorship and the selection process.In addition, playwright and filmmaker Girish Karnad resigned as chairman of the ...

  • News

    Sarasota jury launches emerging Florida film-makers' fund

    2004-02-04T00:00:00Z

    In an unusual move the juryat this year's sixth Annual Sarasota Film Festival elected not to handout prizes for best narrative and documentary and instead ploughed the moneyback into the creation of an emerging Florida film-makers' fund.'After much discussion,we felt that the best contribution we could make was not to ...

  • News

    Greidinger named ShoWest 2004 International Exhibitor of the Year

    2004-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Moshe (Mooky) Greidinger,the chief executive officer of I T International Theatres, has been namedShoWest 2004 International Exhibitor of the Year.'Mooky Greidinger hastaken his prowess for building and operating state-of-the art theatre complexesin Israel and expanded to central Europe with great success,' ShoWest2004 co-managing director Mitch Neuhauser said in a statement.'Moviegoersin ...

  • News

    USA Video Interactive Corp named official AFM digital watermarking company

    2004-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Connecticut-based internet systems specialist USA VideoInteractive Corp (USVO) has been named the official digital watermarkingcompany of the 2004 AFM, which runs in Santa Monica from Feb 25-Mar 3.The company will unveil its digital watermarking technologyMediaSentinel at a press conference on Feb 27. The software package is based onUSVO's proprietary content ...

  • News

    AFM 2004 gears up with 246 market premieres

    2004-02-04T00:00:00Z

    The24th Annual American Film Market (AFM) will feature 246 marketpremieres and 379 films in 28 languages from 291 film and television companieswhen it takes place in Santa Monica from Feb 25-Mar 3.Announcingthe line-up at a press conference yesterday, AFMA president and chief executiveofficer Jean Prewitt and executive vice president and ...

  • News

    BVI readies independent French distribution venture

    2004-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Less than a week after it emerged that Buena VistaInternational's joint distribution venture with French studio Gaumont wasending, the distributor announced it will open an independent office in Francethis summer to handle all Walt Disney Studios films in the territory.Buena Vista International (France) will be headed up inParis by Jean-Francois ...

  • News

    JAPAN

    2004-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Despite opening on more screens and trailing more Academy Award nominations, Seabiscuit failed to dislodge The Last Samurai from its number one slot on the Japanese nine-major-cities chart, which it has occupied for eight straight weeks.Its $43,122 screen average was not only about half that of the Tom Cruise starrer, ...

  • News

    HUNGARY

    2004-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Nimrod Antal's Control and Tamas Sas' Dad Goes Nuts (Apam Beajulna) got another push at the Hungarian box office with the extra attention both received at the annual Hungarian Film Week running between January 27 and February 3.The only new release making the top ten list was The Rock and ...

  • News

    BELGIUM

    2004-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Algerian-born French director Alain Chabat scored another hit in Belgium last weekend with French comedy RRRrrrr!!!Released by Cineart in Belgium the film was unable to dethrone Warner Bros' Last Samurai, landing second place in the chart with $347,133 over the five-day weekend. However, RRRrrrr!!!'s take came from just 23 screens ...

  • News

    NORTH AMERICA

    2004-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Opening on $3.3m in unlucky 13th place was Warner Bros' crime caper The Big Bounce. It was a deeply disappointing bow for George Armitage's Elmore Leonard adaptation, which stars Owen Wilson and Morgan Freeman, and this was matched by a slew of poor write-ups.It averaged $1,448 from 2,304 and the ...

  • News

    Giles checks into Tartan as buying chief

    2004-02-05T04:00:00Z

    Tartan Films, the UK indie that recently changed its name from Metro Tartan, has appointed Jane Giles as its new head of acquisitions.Giles, who held a similar post at the Institute of Contemporary Arts' ICA Projects, joined Tartan at the beginning of the year and has already travelled to the ...

  • News

    Mountain buffeted by cold US wind

    2004-02-05T04:00:00Z

    Speaking yesterday at Screen International's Modernising European Cinema Summit in Berlin, Anthony Minghella expressed his dismay at the continuing criticism he faces in the US for shooting Berlinale opening film Cold Mountain in Romania.Even though his decision to film the Civil War drama in Europe rather than North Carolina ...