All articles by Staff reporters – Page 5
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George Romero starts pre-production on Diary Of The Dead
George A Romero and producing partner Peter Grunwald have begun pre-production on the iconic filmmaker's latest zombie tale, Diary Of The Dead. Romero/Grunwald Productions is producing and financing the under-$10m project with Los Angeles-based Artfire Films and will commence production in Toronto on Oct 11.The story centres on a group ...
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Jia's Still Life is surprise winner of Venice's Golden Lion
Still Life (Sanxia Haoren) byChinese film-maker Jia Zhangkewon the Golden Lion for best film at the 63rd Venice Film Festival.The film had been thesurprise inclusion in Venice'scompetition, only announced earlier this week. Still Life is about how ordinary villagers' lives will be impactedby the Three Gorges Dam project. The festival's ...
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Hungary's Istvan Szabo to head Pusan jury
Hungariandirector Istvan Szabo willhead the jury at the Pusan International FilmFestival in Korea.Otherjurors will be Hong Kong producerDaniel Yu, Korean actress Moon So-Ry, French directorBruno Dumont and Iranian director Abolfazl Jalili.They willjudge New Currents, the festival's only competitive section for emerging Asianfilm-makers. The top prize comes with $30,000.Pusan also announced ...
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Dead Sheep and War Tapes win at Britdoc
The first Britdoc festival,presented in association with Nokia, wrapped on Friday night with 37 UsesFor A Dead Sheep winning the Britishcompetition and The War Tapeswinning the international competition.Ben Hopkins' 37 Uses ForA Dead Sheep, about the PamirKirghiz tribe, was described by the British jury as "an outstandingachievement in documentary filmmaking ...
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Disney to cut 650 jobs in restructuring
The WaltDisney Co. will cut 650 jobs worldwide as part of a major new restructuring.The studio will now focus on more Disney-branded family films, aiming to produceand distribute about 10 Disney live-action andanimated titles per year, but only two to three more adult Touchstone titles per year. Amongthose leaving will ...
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Programme hots up for Screenwriters Festival
With just days to gobefore the UK's inaugural Screenwriters Festival in Cheltenham, the organizerscontinue to add to the impressive roster of speakers and estimate that morethan two hundred new and established screenwriters from across Britain will flockto the three-day event (June 27-30).Among the latestadditions to the Festival, which is being ...
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China pulls Da Vinci Code to protect local films
Chinese state-owneddistributors China Film and Huaxia Film Distribution are pulling The Da Vinci Code from all movietheatres across China starting June 9 in order to prepare for the upcoming "localfilm protection month".The two companies sent an urgentnotice to all cinema proprietors yesterday (June 7) demanding them to pull thefilm in ...
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IFTA conference to discuss new platforms & formats
The introduction of newdistribution technologies and content formats will be subject of the 8thannual Production Conference to be hosted by The Independent Film &Television Alliance (IFTA) on June 16 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.Opening with a keynote from ByronAllen, the chairman and CEO of Entertainment Studios, the event will revolvearound ...
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MGM adds Weinstein trio to release slate
Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studioshas added three new titles to its 2006-2007 North American theatrical releaseslate, all of them supplied by The Weinstein Company, which will oversee theirmarketing.The first of these MGMreleases will be Bobby, EmilioEstevez' account of the night that Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down at theAmbassador Hotel in ...
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Cannes announces final film schedule
The Cannes Film Festival has announced the final screening schedule for its 2006 edition. The schedule for all sections of the festival is now available as a .pdf file here.Cannes Market screenings, with schedules being updated, are available at the Marche du Film website.
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StudioCanal to acquire UK distributor Optimum Releasing
Confirming rumours that had been buildingfor weeks, French distributor StudioCanal announcedtoday that it will acquire UK distributor OptimumReleasing.The companies said, "The deal will helpOptimum grow by combining its resources with those of StudioCanal.This will give Optimum access to one of the largest film catalogues in theworld and to StudioCanal's line-up ...
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Tartan UK signs three-year deal with Arts Alliance Media
Tartan Films Distribution(TFD) and European digital distribution service provider Arts Alliance Media(AAM) have signed an exclusive three-year digital rights and services dealcovering theatrical digital cinema and home distribution via video on demandand electronic sell-through.The deal marks the firsttime a content provider has signed up for the entire package of AAM's ...
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EFP selects 22 producers for Cannes Producers On The Move
European Film Promotion(EFP) has selected 22 aspiring producers for the Producers On The Movenetworking initiative that will take place during Cannes.The initiative, supported bythe European Union's the MEDIA Programme, offers young filmmakers the chance tomeet and discuss projects with members of the press and industry executives.Producers On The Move hasspotlighted ...
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Francke to head UK regional screen agency EM Media
Lizzie Francke has been named executive producer for film at UKregional screen agency EM Media.EM Media, which is supported by the UK Film Council among other UKgovernment organisations, recently secured £6m of finance from the EuropeanRegional Development Fund (ERDF) to invest in East Midlands film and media;Francke will be responsible ...
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Cutting Edge Music signs music deal with Lucky 50 Productions and Bauer Martinez Entertainment
One of the UK'sleading providers of music services to the film industry, Cutting Edge Music,has entered into a joint venture with Lucky 50 Productions, the wholly-owned U.S.production entity of Bauer Martinez Studios.The joint venture, Music Rites, will have the exclusive right toacquire, administer, exploit and supervise the available music from ...
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Look Both Ways wins best feature at London Australian Film Festival
The 12thLondon Australian Film Festival (March2-12) closed on Sunday having welcomedover 5,000 people through the door which represents, an 11% rise on 2005figures with box-office takings also up by 13%. The audience voted for their favourite filmsthroughout the festival and awarded Best Feature to Sarah Watt's debut feature Look Both ...
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Screen International boosts FilMart relationship
Screen Internationalannounced that it will introduce daily publications at Hong Kong's FilMart in March. Supported by trade development council, the TDC, the dailies will bepublished throughout the March 20-23 event and will be similar in concept tothe leading dailies published in Berlin and Cannes.Screen's Publishing Director Tim McLoughlinsaid: 'The ...
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Paramount's specialty arm takes domestic on Truth
Paramount Pictures' new specialty division has acquired worldwide rightsto Participant Productions' documentary An Inconvenient Truth which had itsworld premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year.Davis Guggenheim's film features former US vice president Al Gore in astudy of global warming. The science of global warming is weaved in with Gore'spersonal ...
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Shochiku, Celluloid Dreams join forces for Hana
Japan's Shochiku and France's Celluloid Dreams have partnered to handleinternational sales of Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda's upcoming samuraidrama Hana (Hana Yori Mo Naho). Celluloid Dreams will handleEuropean sales for the film while Shochiku's international sales division handlesthe rest of the world. The deal marks the firstcollaboration between the two companies, ...
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Japan's box office down by 6% according to Eiren
Japan's box office generated $1.69bn (Y198bn) in 2005, a 6% decrease from2004, according to data released by the Motion Picture Producers Association ofJapan (Eiren). This was in line with a dropin admissions from 170 million in 2004 to just over 160 million last year. Figures were more positivefrom a domestic ...