Small MPU – Page 182
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Features
United Kingdom - Hints of Wales
Pauline Burt is in the enviable position of running a national film agency that does not have to beg producers to shoot in the region.Burt is the chief executive of the new Film Agency for Wales, which was launched in July 2006 and effectively replaced Sgrin, which had also been ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Crime Pays
If the film world has not heard from producer Peter James in a while, it is because he is revelling in his new incarnation as a bestselling crime author.James, who has long juggled film producing with writing novels, has moved up to the international literary premier league. New instalments in ...
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Features
Kosovo/Macedonia - Dogme learns new tricks
In late April, Aneta Lesnikovska screened her debut feature Does It Hurt' - The First Balkan Dogma in Skopje, Macedonia. The screening in her homeland followed various festival outings, starting with the world premiere in the Tiger Competition in Rotterdam and also including the Bermuda International Film Festival where the ...
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News
Art Films grabs Gramado winner Pantaleon
Brazil's Art Films has beaten off several other distributors to acquire local theatrical rights to Gramado festival winner Captain Pantoja And The Special Service (Pantaleon Y Las Visitadoras), a Peruvian title directed by Francisco Lombardi.The company acquired the film jointly with local video distributor Europa Video. According to Art Films ...
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Features
Industry moves
Den Hamer leaves Rotterdam film festivalSandra Den Hamer is to step down as director of the Rotterdam International Film Festival. She will start work as director of Amsterdam's Filmmuseum from September 1. A new director is now being sought for next year's festival which runs January 23 to February 3.Ng ...
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Features
Distribution - Making a splash
Expectations are high for the Australia and New Zealand box office this year - and not just because of the number of high-profile studio sequels scheduled to open over the summer months.Admissions have been rising steadily in recent years - from 76 million in 1997 to 83.6 million in 2006 ...
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Features
Digital Rights - Territory report - Was this the opening salvo'
Earlier this year Canada's performers' union, the Alliance of Canadian Television, Cinema and Radio Artists (Actra), held its first-ever strike. The six-week stoppage may come to be seen as one of the initial skirmishes in the North America digital rights war.Actra, representing 21,000 performers across the country, is the most ...
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Features
Digital Rights - Territory report - Australia
The agreements covering film production in Australia are in place until 2009, so all is calm between the unions right now. Digital and new media is not an issue - yet - because the agreements in place already capture the small amount of money flowing from new technologies.Actors' fees are ...
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Features
Digital Rights - Territory report - France
France's union system differs greatly from the US. While there are lobby groups and associations, there are no guilds per se which resemble the Hollywood heavies such as the WGA, DGA and SAG. The closest thing to those organisations is the Societe des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (Sacd) which represents ...
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Features
Cannes do attitudes
It is difficult to imagine what the mood was like at the inaugural Cannes film festival, which this year reaches its 60th birthday.The concept of an event celebrating cinema in all its manifestations and pitting films against each other competitively was still relatively novel back in 1946. The seaside resort ...
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Features
Market focus - Talk of the virtual town
Distributors are finding ways to capitalise on and measure the internet buzz of a film before its release with the help of digital marketing specialists.Historically, word of mouth has been nearly impossible to measure or track, offering marketers only limited anecdotal information. But the advent of blogs and viral online ...
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Features
Digital rights - Unions - The bill of rights
The start of a new round of labour talks often has Hollywood on edge. But this summer the anxiety level will be higher than usual when representatives of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (Amptp) begin negotiations over a new contract ...
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Features
Digital rights - The new media issue from both sides
The Writers Guild of America positionFor writers, a simple principle lies at the heart of discussions of new or non-traditional media such as the internet, mobile phones and other digital platforms. "If the companies get paid, we get paid. That's our view," explains WGA West executive director and lead negotiator ...
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Features
Digital Rights - Talking points - Any other business'
Home-video residualsThe home-video residual formula established in the mid-1980s before the video market took off has been a thorn in the guilds' sides ever since. The formula is variously characterised as being based on the 20% royalty on video sales that goes to the producer of a film, or as ...
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News
Gone In Sixty Seconds speeds to top of UK chart
Gone In Sixty Seconds sped to the top of the UK box office over the weekend with an opening three-day gross of $2.4m (£1.6m) from 394 sites, excluding previews of $230,000. This gave the Jerry Bruckheimer-Touchstone Pictures co-production a site average of $6,600 (£4,353), a stable opening considering the mixed ...
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Features
Digital Rights - Territory report - The UK
The UK's film unions regard the digital revolution with a mix of excitement and trepidation. In the short term, there is the threat of job losses. Lab technicians and cinema projectionists are among those already affected by moves away from celluloid. Production crews are also experiencing change as new technology ...
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News
Editorial opinion: festivals' right to choose
The one that got away is a favourite subject at every film festival. Selectors put their necks on the line at each event, picking their favourites for competition and it's only human to reward their efforts with invective about the ones they missed.One of the joys of the season for ...
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News
Festival fallout
The buzz about the films turned down by festivals is becoming as loud as the buzz about the films which are accepted. Ahead of Cannes, the biggest festival of them all, Patrick Z McGavin looks at why rejections are the talk of the town.At the 2004 Venice film festival, director ...
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News
The new US independent model
New York-based IFC Entertainment is in the second year of its day-and-date programme whereby 24 films a year hit theatres and VoD in 40 million homes on the same day. On the eve of Cannes, Mike Goodridge spoke to president Jonathan Sehring about the future of independent distribution. When the ...
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News
Northern stars
The first feature from a Newcastle-based film-maker draws inspiration from his time in UK indie bands. Wendy Mitchell reports.About a year ago UK film-maker Ashley Horner was facing a tough time in preparation for his first feature, The Other Possibility. 'Trying to prep the week's shoot in Berlin during the ...