All articles by Theodore Schwinke – Page 6
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News
Russian Film Hub - Q&A - 'Have a healthy budget and a lot of time'
Les WeldonProduction: Command Performance. Dolph Lundgren directed and starred in this action thriller, produced by Nu Image Films and Millennium Films. Shot on location on Red Square and elsewhere in Moscow for two days in autumn 2008, with other locations in Bulgaria.Why did you choose to shoot in Russia'We needed ...
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Will Russia's film boom survive the credit crunch'
In recent years, the Russian film industry has been remarkably robust. The 78 Russian films released in 2008 enjoyed a 22% share of the $830m CIS gross (excluding Ukraine), according to local analysts Nevafilm. Russian box office grosses alone came to $548.1m (rub19.9bn). State funding for production increased to $88.5m ...
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News
Russian Film Hub - The billion dollar club box office
The Russian box office is predicted to hit the $1bn mark in 2009. According to the European Audiovisual Observatory, Russia became Europe's fourth biggest market in 2008 in terms of admissions - 123.9 million (a 16% increase on 2007). And according to local analysts Nevafilm, the CIS (excluding Ukraine) generated ...
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Hungary - The week shall inherit
International festival programmers are some of the strongest supporters of Hungarian Film Week. Cristiana Giaccardi, head of programming for Locarno, where Hungarian films have enjoyed a strong presence in recent years, will attend this year's in the expectation of finding at least one title for Locarno's next edition. "We really ...
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News
Universal extends home entertainment deal with Warner in Russia
Universal Pictures International Entertainment (UPIE) and Warner Home Video (WHV) are to extend their existing home entertainment distribution partnership.Under the deal, Universal Pictures Russia will continue to distribute DVD and launch Blu-ray releases for Warner Bros and New Line in the Russian home entertainment market for a further three-year term.The ...
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Features
Czech republic - Lighting up the radar
Czech documentary film-makers Vit Klusak and Filip Remunda gained international attention and praise from Morgan Spurlock and Michael Moore for their 2004 debut feature Czech Dream.The documentary, in which the two student film-makers created an entire PR campaign for a non-existent supermarket, won several awards including best documentary at the ...
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News
Vladimir Putin promises $164m in annual support for Russian cinema
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday announced $76m (RUB 2bn) in immediate support of the Russian film industry and promised to allocate at least $164m (RUB 4.3bn) annually.Putin made the announcement in St. Petersburg at a conference on cinematography hosted by Russian World Studios (RWS). Russian news agency Kommersant reported ...
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News
Waltz With Bashir to open Warsaw Film Festival
Ari Folman will introduce his Cannes competition title Waltz With Bashir to Polish audiences at the opening ceremony of the 24th Warsaw Film Festival Oct 10. The festival concludes Oct 19 with Sergey Dvortsevov's Un Certain Regard winner Tulpan.The festival's international Warsaw Competition features 15 films. Dejan Zecevic's Serbian-Hungarian co-production ...
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News
Slovaks submit Blind Loves for Oscar
The Slovak Film and Television Academy will submit Juraj Lehotsky's documentary Blind Loves for consideration for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.Blind Loves, which screened in Cannes' Directors' Fortnight, follows four blind people as they experience love in their everyday lives. The film also screened at London BFI, ...
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News
Polish Film Institute announces more than $4m in production support
The Polish Film Institute (PISF) has awarded funding to four projects in its third funding session this year and has tagged a number of films as eligible for support in the coming months.Husband and wife film-makers Krzysztof Krauze and Joanna Kos-Krauze (Saviour's Square, My Nikifor) will receive $1.9m (PLN 4.5m) ...
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News
Wajda, Krauze & Kos-Krauze receive funding from PISF
The Polish Film Institute (PISF) has awarded funding to four projects in its third funding session this year and has tagged a number of films as eligible for support in the coming months. Husband-and-wife film-makers Krzysztof Krauze and Joanna Kos-Krauze (Saviour's Square, My Nikifor) will receive $1.9m (PLN 4.5m) for ...
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News
Czechs, Poles name Oscar submissions
The Czech Film and Television Academy (CFTA) has chosen Petr Zelenka's The Karamazovs as the Czech Republic's submission in the Academy Award contest for Best Foreign Language Film.The film is a Czech-Polish co-production between by Prvni Verejnopravni and Ceska Televize on the Czech Side and Warsaw Pact Filmproduction on the ...
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News
Little Moscow takes grand prize at Polish Film Festival
Romantic drama Little Moscow received $22,000 (PLN 50,000) and the Golden Lion award for best film at the 33rd Polish Film Festival on Sept 20. An international jury chaired by Polish director Robert Glinski selected the winners from among 16 competition films at the festival in the seaside town of ...
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News
Hungary names Iska's Journey as Oscar submission
Hungary will submit Iska's Journey for consideration for the Foreign Language Oscar.Csaba Bollok's feature, his second, is a tale of modern slavery, following a teenage girl's harrowing journey from an abusive home in a Romanian mining village. The film saw its international premiere in Berlin in 2007. It has screened ...
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News
Quay Brothers shoot film about Jan Potocki
Stephen and Timothy Quay have concluded a two-week shoot in Poland on film about Jan Potocki, a Polish aristocrat, soldier and scholar whose wide-ranging interests included ethnology, the occult and hot-air ballooning.Polish press reports the production cost $88,000 (200,000 PLN) and described the project as a 'modest, intimate production' of ...
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News
UK's Metrodome continues restructure after Media Pro takeover
UK distributor Metrodome continues to restructure staff following Media Pro's acquisition of a 61.4% share in the company.James Brown takes on the newly created role of head of acquisitions, where he will work alongside Kate Edwards, who has been promoted and will be running the business affairs department. Brown formerly ...
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News
EFA announces 2008 nominees for People's Choice Award
The European Film Academy has announced the nominees for this year's People's Choice Award. Among the 12 films are Joe Wright's Atonement, David Yates's Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, and Nic Balthazar's Ben X. From Sept 1 to Oct 31, film fans across the continent can vote ...
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News
Revolver and Metrodome sign deals for Film London micro-budget features
Film London has announced that the first two completed features produced through its Microwave micro-budget film-making scheme have secured theatrical distribution. Metrodome has acquired Eran Creevy's Shifty for the UK, Ireland and Eastern Europe (Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Croatia, Slovak Republic and Slovenia). The urban thriller charts 24 hours ...
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UK Film Council awards distribution support to 13 films
The UK Film Council's Prints and Advertising Fund has announced funding to support the distribution of 13 films. The P&A funding is aimed at promoting art-house, foreign and classic films to give audiences more choice.Revolver Films received $312,314 (£170,000) for The Wackness, Jonathan Levine's offbeat drama starring Ben Kingsley.The funding ...
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News
Fortissimo adds Food, Inc. to its Toronto line-up
Fortissimo Films has acquired documentary feature Food, Inc., which is set to receive its world premiere at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival. Produced and directed by Robert Kenner (PBS documentary series The American Experience), the film examines the American food industry and how conditions within the US borders affect the ...