All articles by Theodore Schwinke – Page 11
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News
Baltic Event gives best project award to Temptation of Saint Tony
The third annual Baltic Event co-production market announced four awards in Tallinn. The Temptation of Saint Tony, a local Estonian project, received $5,864 (Euros 4,000) for best project presented in the market. The black comedy is directed by Veiko Ounpuu and produced by Katrin Kissa, the same team behind the ...
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News
Vaclav Havel's play Leaving eyes big screen
Playwright and former Czech president Vaclav Havel says his new play is likely to become a feature film. (Leaving) Ochazeniwas published in book form in November and will see its stage premiere in May or June 2008.It is the first play in 18 years from Havel, a former dissident who ...
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Features
Production - The Baltic assault
The Baltic states, comprising Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, are emerging as Europe's newest low-cost production hub, says UK-born Gary Tuck, managing director of Lithuania-based Baltic Film Services, which entices and services international productions. These include Ed Zwick's Second World War drama Defiance, starring Daniel Craig, which is now shooting at ...
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News
Christopher Doyle to wrap Polish thriller in December
Australian filmmaker Christopher Doyle is scheduled to wrap shooting Dec 10 on Polish-language political thriller Warsaw Dark. The story is based on the 2001 murder, still unresolved, of Jacek Debski, Polish minister of sport and tourism. Doyle began filming Nov 12 on location in Warsaw with a Polish crew of ...
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News
Austria's Bohrer takes top post at new European Film Commissions Network
The newly established European Film Commissions Network (EuFCN) appointed Arie Bohrer of Location Austria and the Austrian Film Commission as its first board president Nov 23 in Prague. Delegates from the 55 member commissions representing 18 European countries also appointed Patrick Lamassoure of Film France as general secretary of the ...
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News
Sony Classics to distribute Menzel's King Of England in North America
Sony Pictures Classics will distribute Jiri Menzel's I Served The King Of England in North America. The deal was signed at AFM, according to the film's Czech producer AQS. The film is the Czech Republic's submission for foreign-language Oscar consideration. 'We are very proud to have as our American distributors ...
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News
Estonia's Black Nights unveils full competition line-up
The Black Nights Film Festival has unveiled the program for its eleventh edition, to be held Nov 15-Dec 9 in Tallinn, Estonia.This year's event features 205 films from more than 60 countries. Among the 11 titles in the Estonian Feature Film Competition are 186 Kilometers, from Andres Maimik and Autumn ...
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News
Up Hit Creek: Joel Schumacher and Paul Brooks in Romania
The secret to working in Romania is the smaller the budget, the better luck you're going to have,' suggests US director Joel Schumacher on the set of supernatural thriller Town Creek, which shot just outside Bucharest for 10 weeks this summer.'It's a small movie without major stars. It's gritty,' Schumacher ...
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News
Christophe Barratier revisits 1930s Paris
'From the beginning, it was all a question of cost because the film is very, very expensive,' says French director Christophe Barratier of the $38.2m budget for Faubourg 36, the follow-up to his hugely successful 2004 film, The Chorus.'You can't find the Paris of the 1930s in Paris itself anymore. ...
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News
Czech Culture Ministry drops tax incentives from film law proposal
Hopes for a comprehensive Czech film law which would benefit runaway productions as well as local films are fading, but there remains a chance that both foreign and local producers will see improved conditions in the middle distance. As Screendaily.com reported in July, Czech filmmakers and politicians have long been ...
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News
Czechs crown Menzel's King Of England for Oscar
The Czech Film and Television Academy has selected Jiri Menzel's I Served The King Of England as the Czech submission for the foreign-language film category at the Academy Awards. The Czech academy also considered Jan Sverak's Empties and Alice Nellis' Little Girl Blue. Since its premiere, I Served The King ...
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News
Poland chooses Andrzej Wajda's Katyn as Oscar contender
A Culture Ministry selection committee featuring Polish filmmakers Janusz Majewski, Jan Kaczmarek and Slavomir Fabicki made a unanimous decision in selecting Andrzej Wajda's film Katyn from among 16 contenders for consideration for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Katyn explores the events leading up to the Katyn massacre ...
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News
Gdynia announces 21 competition titles
A bumper crop of 21 titles will compete for the grand prize at the 32nd Polish Film Festival in the seaside town of Gdynia. Palm D'Or laureate Andrzej Wajda's highly anticipated new film Katyn will screen at the opening ceremony Sep 18. Katyn examines the Katyn massacre of 1940, where ...
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News
Hungary nominates Palfi's Taxidermia for Oscar race
Gyorgy Palfi's Taxidermia has been chosen for consideration for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar by Hungary's selection committee for the Academy Awards. Palfi's film won out over other recent high-profile Hungarian films, including Janos Szasz's Opium and Krisztina Goda's Children Of Glory. Bela Tarr's Cannes competition title The ...
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Features
Finland - The war zone
Marko Makilaakso is a tenacious film-maker. When film school turned him down, he started making his own short films and music videos, eventually establishing an award-winning career.A few years later, when the Finnish Film Foundation refused to fund his debut feature on the grounds it was a horror film, Makilaakso ...
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News
Empties and King Of England lead Czech box-office recovery
First-half box-office admissions in the Czech Republic grew 13% year-on-year, with local cinemas earning total revenues of nearly $31.3m (CZK 637m). If the trend continues in the second half, 2007 will outpace last year's 11.5m admissions, continuing a recovery from 2005's 9.5m admissions. The Czech Republic, which has a population ...
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News
Universal's Wanted finishes Czech leg of shoot
Timur Bekmambetov wrapped production on Universal's Wanted in the Czech Republic on Saturday. The crew now moves on to Chicago, where they will shoot Aug 7-17. Czech press reported Bekmambetov as saying the budget of the film was $50m. The film is the first in production and distribution deal between ...
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News
Czechs prepare to submit new film law calling for 20% rebate
Czech filmmakers and politicians are again preparing a new proposal for a comprehensive film law which would help lure runaway productions to Prague and provide sustainable support for local filmmakers. Among the proposal's reported features is a 20% tax rebate for film productions, foreign or domestic, shooting in the Czech ...
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News
Kormakur's Jar City take top honors at Karlovy Vary
Baltasar Kormakur's Icelandic thriller Jar City (pictured above) won the Grand Prix of the 42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic on July 8.Kormakur and producer Lilja Palmadottir will share the $20,000 cash prize. The film also received the FICC Don Quijote Award. Trust Film Sales is ...
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News
Bela Tarr: inmemory of the man from France
When his producer died early in production, Hungarian film-maker Bela Tarr fought to reconstruct his Cannes Competition title. Theodore Schwinke reports. For Hungarian director Bela Tarr, The Man From London is a memorial to the film's late French producer, Humbert Balsan.Balsan committed suicide in January 2005, two days before the ...