Small MPU – Page 537
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News
Brokeback Mountain leads SAG nominations list
Adding further to thethree films' fast-building awards season momentum, Brokeback Mountainhas received four awards nominations from the US Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Capoteand Crash three each.Less expected SAGnominations went to Judi Dench (for Mrs Henderson Presents), Ziyi Zhang(for Memoirs of a Geisha), Amy Adams (for Junebug) and theensemble cast ...
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News
Wild Bunch to launch sales for Leconte feature
French outfit Wild Bunch is to launch sales on Mon Meilleur Ami,(My Best Friend), Patrice Leconte's latestfeature at the Paris Rendez-Vous later this month. Touted as a comedy in the style of François Veber, Leconte's new film tellsthe story of a snobbish art gallery owner who gradually comes to realise ...
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News
Switzerland's box office attendance down by 14%
One of the earliest Europeanterritories to report end-of-year figures, Switzerland's 14% year-on-year drop and market dominance by UIPappear likely indicators of trends to be seen across the major mainlandterritories in the next few days. While year-on-year businessmay be in line with much of Europe the real interest in Switzerland comes ...
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Reviews
A New Day In Old Sana'a
A classic star-crossed-romance-cum-travelogue set in thealluring capital of Yemen, Bader Ben Hirsi's A New Day In OldSana'a skims over the lives of a doomed couple in a restrictive society.Fascinating forits glimpses into the lives of women in one of the Arab world's poorestcountries, it may prove too light for pure ...
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News
Lee and Spielberg join newcomers on DGA shortlist
The Directors Guild of America(DGA) has nominated past winners Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg and relativenewcomers George Clooney, Paul Haggis and Bennett Miller for its 2005Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film award. The DGA award is consideredone of the most accurate predictors of Academy Award success: the Guild'sfeature directing winner ...
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News
Jon Stewart to host Academy Award ceremony
JonStewart, best known as host of US political satire series The Daily Show, has been set to hostthe 78th Academy Awards ceremonyand TV presentation on March 5.Stewarttakes over the job from Chris Rock, who made his first appearance as Oscar hostlast year.Besideshosting cable channel Comedy Central's acclaimed Daily Show, Stewart ...
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News
Amy Israel joining Paramount Classics
Former Miramaxacquisition executive Amy Israel is joining Paramount Classics as executivevice president of production and acquisitions. The appointment is one of thefirst made by John Lesher, named president of the Paramount specialty label twomonths ago. Israel worked atMiramax for eight years during the nineties and was responsible for theacquisition and ...
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News
US video spending dips in 2005
US consumers spent $22.8bn buying and renting DVDs in 2005,an 8% increase on 2004, according to figures from trade organisation theDigital Entertainment Group (DEG). But overall US consumer spending on video- including VHS rental and sell-through as well as DVD - actuallydeclined slightly, from $24.5bn in 2004 to $24.3bn. The ...
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News
Arte, GMT team up for gender series
Franco-German broadcaster Arte is partnering with French drama producer GMT to produce 10 TV movies under the strand name Masculin/Feminin (Male/Female), which will examine issues of equality between men and women around the world.As with previous Arte drama series, Petites Cameras, Masculin/Feminin is to be shot using DV cameras.Two of ...
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News
Anchor Bay CEO dies of heart failure
Mo Claridge,CEO of UK home video company AnchorBay Entertainment, passed away on Christmas Day at age 54. The cause of deathwas heart failure.Claridge joined Anchor Bay four years ago when itacquired Digital Entertainment Ltd., thehome video company he founded. He led Anchor Bayinto theatrical distribution in the past two years. ...
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News
Poland's box office admissions down by 30%
In what is likely to be oneof the biggest year-on-year deficits in Europe latest Polish figures for 2005show box office down 28.7% and admissions down 30% last year. The figures from localmarket tracker ES Media show the territory suffered a massive 50% admissionsdrop in the first quarter due to the ...
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News
Greek company Audiovisual Enterprises buys Prooptiki
Audiovisual Enterprises, the only publicly listed Greekentertainment media group, has bought out its rival Prooptiki.The acquisition worth $25.3m (21m Euros) places Audiovisual at the forefront oftheatrical distribution and further consolidates its lead position in video-DVDdistribution. Prooptiki's former share holders, Managing Director Mitropoulos and deputy Irini Souganidou will head updistribution of ...
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News
Bafta's first round of voting shows early frontrunners
As of this morning, Baftamembers are starting their second round of voting for the British Academy's annual film awards,with The Constant Gardener leadingthe first-round shortlist in the major categories. The Bafta second-roundvoting shortlist for best film includes the following 15 titles: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, ...
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News
BBC FOUR announces nominees for world cinema prize
BBC FOUR has announced the nominations for its third annual world cinemaaward. Thisyear's shortlist is: Wong Kar Wai's2046, Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall,Zhang Yimou's Houseof Flying Daggers, Agnes Jaoui's Look at Me, Alejandro Amenabar's The SeaInside, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul'sTropical Malady. Thenominees were selected by UK film critics, film festivaldirectors, and heads of ...
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News
UK box-office figures for 2005 are up by 1%
It started well and so itfinished. Final box office figures for the UK/Ireland market reported today bystatistics trackers Nielsen EDI showed the territory had managed the seeminglyimpossible - it improved on 2004's record box office by 1%. The Nielsen EDI results forthe official box office year - measured from January ...
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News
Argentina experiencing film production boom
In a country ravaged byeconomic and political disarray just over four years ago, Argentina iscurrently enjoying a film production boom.More than 70 feature anddocumentaries films were produced in 2005, up from 2004 (54) and 2003 (67). There are 109 movies currentlybeing filmed, recently completed or in post-production and at least ...
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News
Thema plans to build new studio in St Petersburg
Thema, the Luxembourg-based productioncompany, is rapidly ramping up its activities - opening a new,5,000-square-metre state-of-the-art studio in St Petersburg, Russia bySeptember and starting a UK operation headed up by formerentertainment lawyer Kami Nagdhi.Thema, an offshoot of Russian financial servicesgiant AFK Sistema, has also expanded its investmentactivities in the last month, ...
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News
Guillou's bestselling Arn novels take to the screen
Two screen adaptations and a television seriesof Evil author Jan Guillou'sbest-selling historical Arnadventures are currently in development by Svensk Filmindustri. The project hasa $26.7m (22m Euro) budget, a considerable amount of money by Swedish industrystandards. Financing is currently in its final stages with Svensk awaitingconfirmation from several European film and ...
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News
Texas Instruments licenses DLP technology to Imax
Imax Corporation and electronics giant Texas Instruments (TI) have entered an agreement which will see the large-format entertainment company develop, manufacture and market projectors based on TI's (Digital Light Processing) DLP Cinema projection technology for large-format IMAX theatres.Texas previously licensed the technology to Imax-owned Digital Projection (UK) for standard (35mm) ...
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News
Hi-def DVD rivals reveal US product slates
Backers of the two rivalformats for high definition DVDs have announced their initial US productrelease plans and further details of player availability.In a publicity blitz at the ConsumerElectronics Show in Las Vegas, the five Hollywood studios backing Sony'sBlu-ray disc format revealed their initial slates for the next-generation DVDplayer.Sony Pictures HomeEntertainment ...