All articles by Tim Dams – Page 60
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Foreign hopefuls jockey for position in Oscar race
The foreign language Oscar race kicks off in earnest thisweek after the deadline for submissions closed on Friday (Oct 1).The last few days before the deadline saw a flurry ofheavyweight films added to the long list of contenders (see list, below).They included Venice prize winner The Sea Inside by Spain's ...
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Dinard Festival of British Film unveils jury
The Dinard Festival Of British Film has unveiled its juryfor this year's event (Oct 7-10).Actors Hugo Speer, Phil Davis and Kieran O'Brien make up theBritish contingent on this year's jury.Veteran French TV personality Jacques Chancel is this year'sJury President, presiding over an eight strong jury. His fellow FrenchJury includes actresses ...
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Night Watch named as Russian Oscar entry
Russian blockbuster Night Watch has been selected to represent Russia at next year'sAcademy Awards ceremony. .Night Watch has rakedin some $16m, breaking all box-office records in Russia's post-Soviet historysince premiering on July 8.The action-packed fantasy thriller featuringstate-of-the-art special effects turns contemporary Moscow into a battlegroundfor a century-old fight between the ...
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Portman Film sold to UK radio magnate
Chris Wright, chairman ofradio group Chrysalis, has acquired a majority stake in UK sales agent andco-producer Portman Film and TV.The acquisition is apersonal investment by Wright, who remains chairman of Chrysalis, and alsobecomes executive chairman of Portman with immediate effect.The major property ofPortman is the current ITV television show Doc ...
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Warner Bros strikes ITV licensing deal
UK broadcaster ITV hassigned an exclusive licensing agreement with Warner Bros. InternationalTelevision Distribution (WBITD) for free television rights to new and libraryfeature films.Under the terms of the deal,ITV will have access to feature films from Warner Bros' 2003, 2004 and 2005theatrical slates including titles such as Harry Potter and the ...
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High Point picks up Van Gogh's Cool
London based sales outfit High Point Films has picked upinternational rights to Theo van Gogh's Cool.The film had its world premiere earlier this month at theToronto International Film Festival in the Contemporary World Cinema section.Targeted at a youth audience, Cool is an urban, music-driven thriller that uses amixture of professional ...
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Red Kite flies with animation film arm
Edinburgh based animation production company Red Kite haslaunched a film arm, Red Kite Films, and is working on a new feature-lengthfilm Nocturna.The film, a collaboration with Spain's Filmax Animation andFrance's Animakids, sees Red Kite making its first foray intotheatrical-release animation features.Nocturna tells thestory of Tim, an orphan who sees a ...
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US buyout firm in 'exclusive' Cine UK takeover talks
US buyout firm the Blackstone Group is in reportedly inexclusive talks to buy British cinema chain Cine UK for about £120m ($216million) after last month missing out on buying the rival Odeon chain,according to Reuters.Quoting 'people familiar with the situation'Reuters said an agreement to buy the business, owned by J.P. ...
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Dinard unveils British film festival line-up
Danny Boyle's Millions isto open the Dinard Festival of British Film (Oct 7-10), while Mike Leigh's VeraDrake will close the festival.Artistic director, HussamHindi has put together a programme which includes Gurinder Chadha's Brideand Prejudice - A Bollywood Musical, Roger Michell's Enduring Love,Mike Barker's A Good Woman and the controversial Nine ...
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UK 22 September
Michael Mann's Collateralhad a solid opening through UIP, taking £2.4m to secure the number one slotin the UK.It knocked Open Water,distributed through Redbus, down into second place in its second week. The lowbudget shark attack film has now taken an impressive £3.4m.Elsewhere, three Britishproduced films struggled to make a major ...
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Punto Y Raya named as Venezuelan Oscar contender
EliaSchneider's Punto y Raya (Step Forward) has been named as Venezuela'sofficial entry for best foreign language consideration in this year's Oscarrace.Thehighest grossing local film of the year in Venezuela, Punto Y Raya wasalso winner of the Rita Award for Best Picture at the recent 2004 Los Angeles,Latino Int'l Film Fest ...
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Smith to drive UK's£50m film training strategy
Alexander producer Iain Smith has been named as the new chairof the Skillset Film Skills Strategy Committee.The committee is in charge ofguiding the delivery of A Bigger Future - the £50m five year trainingstrategy for the UK film industry.Smith, who has sat on theFilm Skills Strategy Committee since it was ...
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Rio ready to roll with 2004 festival line-up
The Rio International Film Festival (Sept 23-Oct 7) hasunveiled its 2004 line-up, which features a selection of 300 films with astrong focus on Brazil and Latin America.The festival's World Panorama section features highlightsfrom festival favourites over the past year, including Pedro Almodovar's BadEducation, Alexander Payne's Sideways and Lukas Moodysson's AHole ...
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Future Film acquires worldwide Kaurismaki rights
Scandinavian distributor Future Film has acquiredworldwide TV and DVD rights for 19 of Finnish director Mika Kaurismäki'sfeature films.The package includes films spanning the director'sentire career, from his very first films TheLiar (1981) and Saimaa-ilmiö (1981) to his newestfeatures.Also included are films such as The Worthless (1982), Helsinki-NaplesAll Night Long (1987), ...
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UK film investment company enters Australian market
UK tax financing outfit Future Film Group (UK) has joinedforces with investment bankers Goldstream Capital Group (Australia) to launchFuture Film Australia Pty Ltd.The company aims to finance and produce Australian-sourcedfilm projects for the international market.Future Film Group's Tim Levy commented: "This marks aserious and carefully considered investment by Future Film ...
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Eisner to retire from Disney in 2006
Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Michael Eisner will retire inSeptember 2006, when his contract expires, the company said on Friday."Until then I shall continue to exert every effort tohelp the company achieve our goals, to assist the Board in selecting the newChief Executive Officer, and to make the transition expeditious, ...
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De Laurentiis acquires Naples football club
Italian producer Aurelio De Laurentiis has taken overNaples' new football club, which will start life in Serie C, the country'sthird division.Twice Italian champions Napoli were recently declaredbankrupt but the franchise for the city was taken up by a new club formed by DeLaurentiis.Althoughformally the club has a new name they ...
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Leigh's Vera Drake to open London Film Festival
Mike Leigh's Vera Drake has been named as the opening night film for The Times bfi 48th London Film Festival on October 20.David O. Russell's I Heart Huckabees will close the festival on November 4.The Opening Night Gala will be the UK premiere ofLeigh's Vera Drake, which starsImelda Staunton and ...
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Politics takes centre stage at Edinburgh
Politics - and specifically theimpact of September 11 - has emerged as one of the strong themes among theBritish films showing at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival (August 18-29).Kenny Glenaan's well received Yasmin, which tracks how the attack onthe World Trade Centre alters the world of a non-devout Muslim ...
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McDonald's adds heat to Super Size Me in UK
Super Size Me directorMorgan Spurlock says a series of national newspaper adverts taken out in the UK by fast food chain McDonald's in response to his filmare both "fantastic" and "laughable"McDonald's has taken out full pageads in The Times, The Guardian, TheIndependent, The Scotsman and TheHerald. The ads, said one ...