Small MPU – Page 474
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Reviews
Vital
Dir/scr/cine/prod des/ed:Shinya Tsukamoto. Japan. 2004. 86mins.Tsukamoto is one of those directors whose name on the opening credits is alwaysgreeted with applause by festival junkies. A one-man band who hates to delegateany of the headline technical jobs, Tsukamoto will probably never break out ofthe cult ghetto, unlike his Japanese compatriots, Takeshi ...
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News
UK talent agencies join forces
The Rod Hall Agency, thetalent agency of Simon Beaufoy, Jeremy Brock and Simon Nye, is to form a jointventure with fellow agency Alan Brodie Representation. The team-up follows thedeath of the company's founder, Rod Hall.The new-look operation willincorporate Hall's name as well bring in clients mainly from the TV world, ...
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Kusturica looking at box office Miracle in Serbia
Emir Kusturica's Life Is A Miracle is to open on a huge50 prints in his home territory of Serbia and Montenegro on Sept 30.The film willopen in 40 cities and towns and will be distributed by Metro.The number ofprints is by far the biggest ever in the territory. By comparison, ...
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Dinard unveils British film festival line-up
Danny Boyle's Millions isto open the Dinard Festival of British Film (Oct 7-10), while Mike Leigh's VeraDrake will close the festival.Artistic director, HussamHindi has put together a programme which includes Gurinder Chadha's Brideand Prejudice - A Bollywood Musical, Roger Michell's Enduring Love,Mike Barker's A Good Woman and the controversial Nine ...
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Allen's Melinda set for big push in UK
Fox International is planning a big UK push for WoodyAllen's Melinda And Melinda following the film's positive reception lastweek at the San Sebastian Film Festival.Fox will release the film in the UK on January 28, withits launch backed by a touring Allen and members of the cast.Allen's last two films ...
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German funder dishes out Euros 4.2m to co-productions
A film about aclassical music love triangle and a feature about World War 1 nurses are among13 international co-productions awarded over Euros 4.2m in support byDuesseldorf-based Filmstiftung NRW in its latest round of funding.The largest amount - Euros 1m - went to HelmaSanders-Brahms' costume drama Clara about the love triangle ...
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Jim Henson appoints Blake to US development post
The Jim Henson Company, which was recently acquired by German powerhouse EM.TV, has appointed Juliet Blake as senior vice president, creative affairs at Jim Henson Television.In her new position Blake will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of primetime programming including the development of new comedy and drama series, movies ...
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Beyond The Sea to open AFI FEST
AFI FEST, theLos Angeles International Film Festival, will open on Nov 4 with the USpremiere of Kevin Spacey's Bobby Darin biopic Beyond The Sea.In addition theorganisers of the event have announced a presenting sponsor deal with Audiyesterday (23) and a name-change to AFI FEST 2004 presented by Audi,The centrepiece gala ...
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Second wave of layoffs implemented at Miramax
Barely six weeksafter the last round of Miramax lay-offs, the spectre of redundancy notices returned tothe mini-major yesterday (23 Sept) as a further 55 employees were told they werelosing their jobs as part of an efficiency drive.The numberaccounts for roughly 13% of the current 420-strong workforce. Most of thoseaffected have ...
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The Apology wins Slamdance script contest
Organisers of the 9th AnnualSlamdance Screenplay Competition announced the 10 winners at an awards ceremonyin Los Angeles yesterday (23).The competition culled thetop 10 screenplays from more than 1,800 submissions, judged by a panel ofscreenwriters, filmmakers and industry professionals.Cash prizes of $3,000,$1,000 and $500 went to the top three, while each ...
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IFTA AGM yields new executive committee, board lineup
The IndependentFilm & Television Alliance (formerly AFMA), has announced its new executivecommittee and board of directors following its AGM in Los Angeles yesterday(23).The seven-personexecutive committee, headed up by chairman Michael Ryan in his second year inthe post, includes new members Lewis Horwitz of Horwitz Entertainment FinancialServices as vice chairman of ...
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IPW picks up film rights to Groo The Wanderer
Marc Toberoff's IntellectualProperties Worldwide (IPW) has picked up the motion picture rights to GrooThe Wanderer, the long-running comicbook that has been described as Conan The Barbarian meets Shrek.Created by Sergio Aragoneswith writer Mark Evanier, Groowas first published in 1983 and has spawned more than 170 instalments. Thetitular hero fuses an ...
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MGM to continue producing after Sony deal
Sony and itsequity partners issued a joint statement with MGM yesterday (23) that they haveentered into a definitive agreement under which the investor group will acquireMGM for $12 in cash per MGM share, plus the assumption of MGM's approximately$2bn in debt.The investorgroup, which comprises Sony Corporation, Providence Equity Partners, TexasPacific ...
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IFP/New York Market Awards announce winners
Colombianphotojournalist Scott Dalton's La Sierra won the documentary feature directoraward and a $10,000 grant at the IFP/New York's IFP Market Awardsyesterday (23), which honour works-in-progress by established and emergingfilmmakers.Andrea Williamsclaimed $10,000 and the directing prize for A Spoonful Of Sugar, while Seith Mann's Come Sunday took home two awards and ...
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New distributor launches into Spanish market
Start-up Spanish distributor ABL Augusta has joined with twopartners to launch new distribution company Notro Films to reach the Spanish,Portuguese and possibly Latin American markets.The partners, who made their announcement at the SanSebastian International Film Festival (Sept 17-25), include ABL founder AdolfoBlanco, and Jose Maria Irisarri and Marcos Fernandez of ...
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Kinsey to open, Polar Express to close Chicago Film Festival
Bill Condon's Kinsey will open the 40th Chicago InternationalFilm Festival, which runs from Oct 7-21 and closes with Robert Zemeckis' animatedfeature The Polar Express.All in all thefestival boasts 111 features and 54 shorts from 44 countries, including theworld premieres of Pete Jones' coming out comedy Outing Riley and Ligy J ...
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Fortissimo recruits Mackey to launch London office
Veteran film sales executive Nicole Mackey is joiningFortissimo Film Sales to launch the company's new London branch office.Mackey joins Fortissimo from Capitol Films, where she washead of sales for the last two years. Before that she held a similar post atthe ill-fated Signpost Films and at LolaFilms UK. Previous sales ...
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Messier keen on Canal Plus, Platco collaboration
Vivendi chairman Jean-Marie Messier would like to see a link-up between Vivendi-owned Canal Plus and News Corp's planned digital platform, Platco, according to Reuters. Messier stated Thursday, April 6, that a merger between Canal Plus and part News Corp-owned BSkyB - in which Vivendi and Canal Plus have a 24.5% ...
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Germany names Downfall as Oscar contender
Oliver Hirschbiegel's World War II drama The Downfall(Der Untergang) has been selected as theGerman entry to compete in the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Filmcategory.The independent jury charged with selecting the film saidthat it succeeded in achieving a 'powerful and demystifying cinematicrealisation of the last days of Adolf Hitler and ...
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Dutch film tax system gets reprieve
Dutch producers have given a warm, but guarded, welcome tonews that the Dutch tax-backed support system for film is to be reprieved. Itseems that the system will benefit from Euros20m of tax money.The government announcement of a reprieve came as somethingof a surprise. At the beginning of the week the ...