Small MPU – Page 764
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News
Sydney's 50th Int'l film festival starts on an uninspiring note
On June 6, Sydney joined the nine other international film festivals to have reached their 50th year.It was hardly a sparkling evening, however. And even though Larry Clark's controversial festival entrant Ken Park had been banned by the national censors only days before, no mention was made in the bland ...
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John Dahl to receive alumnus medal from AFI
Film-maker JohnDahl will receive the 13th Franklin J Schaffner Alumni Medal on Jun 12honouring the 'extraordinary creative talents' of a graduate of theAmerican Film Institute (AFI) Conservatory.Dahl, whosecredits include The Last Seduction, Rounders and Red Rock West, graduated from the Conservatory in1982.He will collect the award at a ceremony atHollywood's ...
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Wachs set to exit Babelsberg post
Studio Babelsberg chairman Friedrich-Carl Wachs has shocked the German film industry by announcing that he plans to quit his position at the end of the month.Speaking at a hastily-convened press conference at the Berlin Film Festival, Thierry Potok, managing director of Babelsberg owner Vivendi's German property and services division, said ...
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Octane, Shade premiere at CineVegas
Marcus Hunter's Octane starring Madeline Stowe and Damian Nieman's Shade starring Sylvester Stallone and Thandie Newton willhave their world premieres at the fifth annual CineVegas International FilmFestival which kicks off on Friday (June 13) and continues to the followingSaturday (June 21).The festival, whose directorof programming for the second year is ...
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Bruce Almighty strikes down records in Brazil
BruceAlmighty sentinternational records tumbling over the weekend with a string of number oneopenings for Buena Vista International (BVI), grossing $6m to raise its non-UScumulative score to $13.7m.In Brazil thecomedy took a mighty $1.5m from 241 screens, scoring the eighth biggestindustry bow ever, the biggest comedy opening and the second biggest ...
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Global Film Initiative acquires first films for US distribution
The Global FilmInitiative, the US-based charitable foundation dedicated to the promotion ofcross-cultural understanding through cinema, has acquired five films for itsdistribution and education programmes.The filmsinclude Rashid Masharawi's drama Ticket to Jerusalem, about a Palestinian filmprojectionist's struggle to screen a film in Jerusalem's Old City,and Adoor Gopalakrishnan's drama Shadow Kill, which ...
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Taiwan welcomes Phone Booth for Fox, X2 hits Egypt
Fox International's thriller Phone Booth opened in Taiwan over the weekend on$241,000 from 70 screens.The film ranked second in themarket and contributed to the film's $1m international haul from 407 screens.It now has a $14.5m cumulative score.Elsewhere for Fox, 28 Days Later opened number two in Germany andAustria, grossing $1.1m ...
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News
Higgins joins Intermedia as senior vp of corporate communications & publicity
Dennis Higginshas joined Intermedia as senior vice president of corporate communications andpublicity, where he will oversee all the company's corporate branding andsupervise film publicity.Higgins willalso liaise with distributors of Intermedia's films and work with Intermedia'sMunich-based parent company Internationalmedia on its international marketpositioning. "Intermedia is a growing company and getting someone ...
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Hopscotch jumps on Fahrenheit 911
Hopscotch has acquired all Australian and New Zealand rights for Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, making it one of the first English language distributors to officially board the new documentary. Moore has already begun to examine the history of anti-American terrorism, trace the business dealings between the Bush and bin Laden ...
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News
Hong Kong's eSun ups Media Asia stake, eyes Golden Harvest
Hong Kong's eSun Holdings is increasing its stake in local film producer and distributor Media Asia Holdings and is also reportedly in informal talks to acquire an interest in rival film studio, Golden Harvest Entertainment.eSun is spending $6.4m (HK$50m) to raise its stake in Media Asia from 35.13% to 49.77% ...
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Sydney fights to screen banned Ken Park
The Sydney Film Festival has approached both the State and Federal Government in the hope that Ken Park can be shown twice next week as scheduled, despite the Classification Review Board upholding the Office of Film and Literature Classification's refusal to classify the film.Australian film festivals do not ordinarily have ...
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Reviews
Joao Botelho's satirical stab at US 'imperialism'
Dir: Joao Botelho. Portugal, 2003. 90minsThis was not a very good year for Cannes openers. After the debacle of Fanfan La Tulipe in the Official Section, the Directors' Fortnight, evidently thinking a light intellectual entertainment with a political theme would be the best choice to launch the programme of the ...
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Reviews
Today And Tomorrow (Hoy Y Manana)
Dir: Alejandro Chomski. Argentina-Spain. 2003. 86minsOne of the most talked-up films at Cannes, the Un Certain Regard entry Today And Tomorrow turns out to be a watchable, non-judgmental, low-budget portrayal of a young woman's descent into prostitution in post-slump Argentina. Given the hype surrounding the director - who is the ...
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Reviews
Tsatsiki, Mum And The Policeman
Dir: Ella Lemhagen. Sweden. 1999. 91 mins.Prod Co: Felicia Film with Film I Vast, Norsk Film AS. Int'l Sales: Nordisk Film. Prod: Anne Ingvar. Scr: Ulf Stark. DoP: Anders Bohman. Ed: Bernhard Winkler. Music: Popsicle. Main cast: Samuel Haus, Alexandra Rapaport, Jacob Ericksson, George Nakas.Already creating substantial buzz in Berlin, ...
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News
Karlovy Vary unveils Int'l film festival jury
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival has announced the line-up of its grand jury, with Canadian producer Rock Demers chairing a seven-member panel for the Czech event. Demers (pictured) leads a multinational team of seven judges including Indian director Buddhadeb Dasgupta (The Wrestlers); Czech actress Ana Geislerova (Return Of The ...
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News
France mulls sale and leaseback funding scheme
A new soft money scheme is being examined by French authorities, which could give local and foreign productions access to funding via a sale and leaseback system.Similar to schemes already established in the UK, Germany and more recently Belgium, the 'credit-bail' could give producers a 20% rebate on the cost ...
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Filmko up and running with Star Runner
Hong Kong's Filmko Entertainment is starting production next Monday (June 16) on $3m action romance Star Runner, a co-production with Hong Kong-based Sil-Metropole Organisation and South Korea's Polestar.Directed by Daniel Lee (A Fighter's Blues), the film will star Vanness Wu, from Taiwanese boy band F4, and popular Korean actress Kim ...
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Finland's Lumifilm takes Pelicanman to the big screen
Finnish production outfit Lumifilm, best known for its animated TV productions including the long running Urpo & Turpo series, this week starts shooting its first live-action feature film, Pelicanman, in Helsinki. The children's adventure film tells of a pelican, who becomes so fascinated by humans that he tries to be ...
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House Of Fools to open Munich film festival
Andrei Konchalovsky's House Of Fools (Dom Durakov), winner of the Jury Grand Prix at 2002's Venice Film Festival, will open this year's Munich Film Festival on June 28.The eight-day festival, which is the last under the management of founder Eberhard Hauff, will also include Oliver Stone's controversial documentary Comandante, Roberto ...
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Columbia's Anger manages Sandler's biggest UK opening
Teaming with Hollywood legend Jack Nicholson proved as beneficial in the UK as it did in the US for Adam Sandler as Anger Management scored the comedian's biggest UK release.Columbia TriStar's film took $2.9m (£1.8m) from 431 sites - a strong average of $6,827 - giving Sandler his biggest ...