Small MPU – Page 1656
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News
New kind of tax-based German production fund proposed
German feature film producers could receive an injection of Euros 70m-80m worth of fresh cash from an unexpected source - the pay-TV platform Premiere.The offer came after Premiere CEO Georg Kofler criticised the different VAT rates which apply in Germany for those subscribing to pay television (16%) and taking out ...
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News
UK animation grows up
A clutch of major UK animation features are cranking up, most with US Studio backing. Aardman aims to start shooting a new spoof-horror Wallace And Gromit movie with backing from DreamWorks SKG by September. Pathe is already in production on The Magic Roundabout, while Walt Disney Co has North America ...
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News
Cyprus becomes MEDIA Programme's 25th member
Cyprus has become the 25th member of the European Union's MEDIA Programme following the Slovak Republic which signed its association agreement on January 10. Both agreements have been back-dated to January 1, 2003.While the Slovak Republic has committed to pay Euross 160,000 annually as its financial contribution towards the MEDIA ...
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Sandy Lieberson named head of Film London
Veteran film producer Sandy Lieberson has been appointed chair of Film London, the new body charged with representing and developing the film industry in the UK capital.From April this year, Film London takes on the responsibilities of the London Film and Video Development Agency and the London Film Commission. As ...
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News
Conrad Hall wins ASC honours for Road To Perdition
Conrad Hall, who died on Jan4 this year, took top honours at the American Society Of Cinematographers (ASC)annual Outsanding Achievement Awards in Los Angeles over the weekend for hiswork on Road To Perdition. Theaward was accepted by his son Conrad W Hall.Hall beat out MichaelBallhaus for Gangs Of New York,Pawel ...
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News
Gordon Green teams with ContentFilm for Undertow
Hot on the heels of hiscritically acclaimed Sundance Film Festival prize-winner All The Real Girls, hot US director David Gordon Green has set his nextfilm Undertow at Edward Pressman and John Schmidt's ContentFilm with DermotMulroney, Josh Lucas and Jamie Bell in the lead roles.The project has been indevelopment for over ...
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Two Weeks Notice an international smash for Warner
Warner Bros enjoyed hugesuccess over the weekend with Castle Rock comedy Two Weeks Notice, grossing $15m in 23 territories. The film whichstars Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant remained at number one in the UK in itssecond weekend with $3.6m (£2.19m) at 417 sites beating Fox's opener Daredevil and bringing its ...
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Reviews
Blind Shaft (Mang Jing)
Dir: Li Yang. China-Ger. 2003. 92 mins.For most festival-goers at Berlin, the two first-time directors in competition were George Clooney and an unknown Chinese director. In the end, however, it was the latter who won the recognition, for Li Yang 's Blind Shaft is a solid, impressive debut. A watchable, ...
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News
Australian directors to honour Fred Schepisi
Fred Schepisi is to receive the major honour at the second annual awards ceremony of the Australian Screen Directors Association (ASDA). The outstanding achievement award recognises excellence for a body of work and will be presented by the president of the European Film Academy, German director Wim Wenders, at a ...
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News
Infernal Affairs leads Hong Kong Film Award nominations
Hit crime thriller Infernal Affairs leads the race for the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards with 16 nominations including best film, best director, for Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, and an impressive five nods in the best actor and supporting actor categories. The Media Asia production, which topped the Hong ...
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News
MGM roars back to financial health, reveals slate
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has announced its strongest quarterly operating results in 12 years, signalling a financial turnaround at the company under its new management structure of Alex Yemenidjian and his second-in-command Chris McGurk EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation), the cashflow measure by which Wall Street evaluates the performance of ...
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News
UK co-production tax breaks face uncertain future
It has been a gold rush to rival the Klondike, only this time many of the prospectors have been rushing the other way across the Atlantic. Since the UK introduced generous tax breaks in 1997, international co-productions have rocketed by some 400%. Canadian-UK co-productions mark the biggest single rise at ...
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News
Good Bye, Lenin! - success at home and abroad
Wolfgang Becker's Good Bye, Lenin!, this year's winner of the Berlinale's Blue Angel award for the best European film, has become the top German opener at this year's local box-office and has been sold to more European territories by sales agent Bavaria Film International (BFI).Becker's tragi-comic farce starring Daniel Bruehl ...
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News
Indian delegation heads for AFM
Led by Mrs. Anjuli Duggal, joint secretary of India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, a 25-strong delegation of Indian film directors, producers and financiers is heading for the AFM. The delegation, the first ever to visit the AFM, plans to promote the Indian film industry in an international context amongst ...
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News
Producers team for Nettelbeck's Helen
Sandra Nettelbeck's next feature Helen is to be produced by MTM Medien & Television Muenchen's Andreas Bareiss and co-produced with Pandora Film's Karl Baumgartner, who produced her international hit Mostly Martha.Helen, which will be shot in English, centres on a law professor fighting to save her life and her family ...
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News
Sarajevo film festival launches Balkan script development project
The Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF) has attracted support from Rotterdam International Film Festival's Hubert Bals Fund and the Dutch foundation HIVOS for a "Regional Script Development Project" which aims to support film production in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia. SFF director Mirsad Purivatra announced that the new venture will be launched ...
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News
Mar del Plata completes competition line-up
Miguel Pereira, the new artistic co-ordinator of Mar del Plata, South America's leading film festival, has completed the competition line-up for his debut event, which runs March 6-15. The latest additions are Hugo Santiago's Le Loup De La Cote Ouest (France/Portugal), Matti Ijas' Blue Corner (Finland), David G Green's All ...
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News
Joint venture to distribute Hispanic films in the US
Spanish production company Plural Entertainment, Mexican producer-distributor Televisa Cine and Miami-based talent management and marketing firm Latin World Entertainment have formed a joint venture to distribute Hispanic films in the United States.The new venture aims to capitalise on the growing Latino market in the US and release at least five ...
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News
Rom-com holds off Daredevil in the UK
Romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice proved the big winner in the UK over Valentine's Day weekend despite the launch of 20th Century Fox's potential blockbuster, Daredevil.The top placed Warner Bros comedy showed an impressive second week performance, dropping off just 11% from its opening weekend to take a weekend score ...
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News
Buyers say yes to Noi
Noi The Albino (Noi Albinoi), Icelandic director Dagur Kari's debut feature which has won six festival prizes in as many weeks, has proved a winner with buyers as well. Handled by Paris-based sales and production outfit, The Co-Production Office, Noi has now been licensed to nine territories. Latest deals closed ...