All articles by Staff writers – Page 4
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UK Chancellor pledges new tax reliefs for film-makers
Chancellor GordonBrown has said he will provide new tax relief for film-makers.Delivering his budget today, Brown said that he wouldreplace existing reliefs with new tax reliefs for low and high budget films. Further details will follow on ScreenDaily.com assoon as they are unveiled by the UK Treasury.Brown had been pushed ...
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Warner ventures into Chinese DVD distribution
Warner Bros has becomethe first US studio to establish an in-country DVD/VCD distribution andmarketing operation in China.Warner Home Videoannounced yesterday the formation of CAV Warner Home Entertainment Co., a jointventure with China Audio Video that is based in Shanghai and is nowoperational.The announcement followsextensive analysis by Warner Home Video of ...
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Films Distribution scores sales on Berlin's Panorama opener
France's Films Distributionhas scored a slew of sales on Panorama Special opening film Live And Become(Vas, Vis Et Deviens)The film directed by RaduMihaileanu, the France-based Romanian who previously made Train De Vie,has been licensed to Golem Distribucion for Spain, Cinestar for Austria,Seville Pictures for Canada and Hopscotch for Australia. In ...
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INTERNATIONAL 3 February
Propelled by a $14.9mopening weekend in the UK, Meet The Fockers easily topped theinternational box office, grossing $18.8m from 20 territories and scoring anexcellent screen average of $10,937.But the real star performerswere two South Korean releases: Another Public Enemy and Running Boy.Selling more than half amillion tickets over the weekend, ...
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Napster mulls move into online film distribution
Napster, the fast-growing US digital music service, isconsidering moving into films and video games in an ambitious drive to win newsubscribers. Chris Gorog, Napster chairman and chief executive, saidin a report in today's Financial Times that the US-listed group couldapply its online music model to films, TV programming and other ...
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UK's b.TWEEN festival unveils cross-platform development lab
b.TWEEN the internationalFestival of Future Entertainment 2005, which celebrates interactive creativeprojects on TV, mobile, the web, DVD and video games, has announced this year'sconfirmed speakers and festival events.The festival, which runs14-18 February at Doncaster college in the UK, comprises a three-daycross-platform development lab and a two-day conference. The development lab ...
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Tokyo toasts Whisky
Uruguay jointdirectors Juan Pablo Rebella & Pablo Stoll's Whisky - a low-budget drama- won the Grand Prix at the 17th Tokyo International Film Festival,which wrapped Sunday. Mirella Pascual was awarded the Best Actress prize forher performance in WhiskyIm Chan-sang's President's Barber won both BestDirector and the Audience Award, while and ...
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Beyond Films announces Cannes sales
Beyond Films hasannounced sales as the Cannes Film Festival comes to an end.Cold & Dark, a British horror film in post production starringLuke Goss and Kevin Howarth and directed by Andrew Goth has sold in thefollowing territories:-Japan - Gaga Communications; Mexico - Cine, Video Y Televisio;n Russia -Beliven EnterprisesA Good ...
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Nexo takes on The Woodsman for Italy
Nexo has taken Italian rights to The Woodsman, Nicole Kassell's directorial debut which is inDirectors Fortnight, from Lee Daniels Entertainment.The acquisition comes hard on the heels of Nexo's successwith Monster which has grossed over$2m after three weeks on release in Italy. Like Monster, The Woodsmanwill be distributed domestically in the ...
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UK/IRELAND 18 May
UIP's Van Helsingheld on to the top spot in the UK and Ireland over the weekend, in the absenceof any tough competition.The film grossed a further £2.4m between Friday and Sundaygiving it a cumulative gross of £9.6m so far.However, Troy's £89,286 from its single screenplatform in London's West End, indicates ...
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Focus takes int'l on Cronicas
Focus Features has picked upinternational rights to Cronicas, theserial killer drama starring John Leguizamo and Leonor Watling screening in UnCertain Regard tomorrow. John Sloss's Cinetic Media is handling North Americansales.Shot in Ecuador by directorSebastian Cordero, Cronicas was produced by Producciones Anhelo's AlfonsoCuaron and Jorge Vergara. Focus also handled sales on ...
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Lord Of War cast rounds out
Ethan Hawke, BridgetMoynahan, Jared Leto, Jeffrey Wright and Donald Sutherland have joined NicolasCage in the cast of Lord Of War, Andrew Niccol's action-adventure whichis being produced by EMC, Ascendant Pictures, VIP3 Medienfonds, Saturn Filmsand IMG, with financing being provided by the producers and Rand Merchant Bankin South Africa through IMG.Arclight ...
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Tarantino to screen 'Japanese edit' of Kill Bill
Jury chairman and formerPalme D'Or winner Quentin Tarantino confirmed yesterday that Cannes would hosta special screening of Kill Bill in its entirety. Kill Bill Vols 1and 2 in a so-called Japanese edit (complete with intermission) will screen onthe final night of the festival, shortly after his jury has come to ...
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Screen International's Review of the Year 2003
2003 was the year that Old Europe, to steal from Donald Rumsfeld's war cry, took a reality check in preparation for the New. Local film support apparatuses were re-engineered, national boundaries questioned and distribution-led cinema more fully embraced. Vivendi finally surrendered Universal and with it Europe's ill-advised claim to studio ...
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Leth parks bike doc in favour of opera opus
Acclaimed Danish documentary maker and poet Joergen Leth, whose The Five Obstructions, his collaboration with Lars von Trier, is being shown as part of IDFA's special programme and which has been nominated for a European Film Award, has confirmed that he has put his Tour de France project on hold ...
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Dans Grozny Dans wins inaugural cph:dox
Copenhagen's first international documentary film festival cph:dox, which wrapped this weekend, saw its major awards go to Jos de Putter's Dutch film Dans, Grozny, Dans and Jose Padilha's Brazilian Bus 174. "Dans, Grozny, Dans is a deeply humanistic tale of a dance group and their dedicated teacher in a tale ...
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My Architect breaks theatrical record
Growing evidence of the theatrical viability of documentary films came this week with the US performance of My Architect. The film by Nathaniel Kahn was released last Friday and broke the house record at the Film Forum cinema in New York, ...
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Killing Machine named as first EFA 2003 winner
Rithy Panh's powerful Frenchdocumentary S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine was this week named asone of the first films to win a prize at the forthcoming European Film Awards.The film, about thedirector's return to one of Pol Pot's most notorious concentration camps,appears as part of IDFA's reflecting images section. It ...
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More US critics protest MPAA screener ban
The Chicago Film CriticsAssociation have joined their Los Angeles counterparts is suspending theirend-of-year critics awards in protest over the decision by the Motion PictureAssociation of American to prevent screener tapes from being seen at home by anyoneexcept Oscar voters.A statement from the Chicagocritics explained that their association was "disturbed by ...
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UK Film Council supports int'l co-productions
The UK Film Council is investing a total of £1.7m from its New Cinema Fund in five international co-productions.In My Father's Den starring Spooks lead actor Matthew Macfadyen, currently shooting in New Zealand received £405,000, while French language films L'Ecole and Lila Dit Ça (Lila Says) received £397,330 and ...