All articles by Wendy Mitchell – Page 82
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Warner UK signs digital download deal with AAM
Warner Bros Entertainment UKhas signed an electronic sell-through deal for Arts Alliance Media to offer digitaldownloads of Warner Bros movies and TV series.The first DVD title underthe new service is Superman Returns,which was available as of Dec 4 in the UK. The pact will cover Warnernew and catalogue products, including ...
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UK tax law confirmed to start January 1
The UK's new film tax breaks will indeed start Jan 1, 2007, as expected. The Chancellor of theExchequer Gordon Brown confirmed the date during his annual Pre-Budget Report.The government also confirmed that it will extend the former Section 42 reliefuntil the end of the year. The new rules givesmaller-budget films ...
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Lars von Trier unveils Lookey concept
Aftergiving the film world Dogme and Automavision, Lars von Trier has unleashed hislatest concept: Lookey.TheDanish director describes Lookey as a "basic mind game, played with movies asgame boards."VonTrier explains that a Lookey is an out-of-context visual element added to afilm, with five to seven to be found in each feature. ...
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UK producers elect 2007 Pact Council
UK producers group Pact hasannounced the independent production executives who have been elected to PactCouncil, effective January 2007.Alex Graham will hair withvice chairs Nick Rosen (TV), Andrea Calderwood (feature film), Mike Watts(children's & animation) and Andrew Chitty (interactive). The other council membersare Jane Bevan, Malcolm Brinkworth, Andrew Critchley, Christine Corner, ...
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Dogwoof buys Fissures and Stolen Holidays
UK distributor Dogwoof Pictures has acquired two new French titles: Fissures (Ecoute Le Temps) by Alante Kavaiteand Stolen Holidays (Les Petites Vacances)by Olivier Peyon. Both deals were struck with Wide Management in Paris. Thriller Fissures stars Emilie Dequenne, LudmilaMikael, Mathieu Demy, Jacques Spiesser and Etienne Chicot in the story of ...
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Cinesite's Brown named British Film Commissioner
Colin Brown has been appointed British Film Commissioner, afterrecently stepping down as chairman of Cinesite (Europe) Ltd. Brown replaces Steve Norris,who recently departed the commissioner post to become managing director of filmat Framestore. Both Cinesite and Framestore are leading UK production and effects houses.Brown had been a member ofthe UK ...
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Infinity buys Hula Girls from Fortissimo
Fortissimo Films hasclosed a three-picture deal with Taiwanese distributor Infinity Media. The deal covers LeeSang-Il's Hula Girls, Alex vanWarmerdam's Waiter and Pierre-PaulRenders' Mr Average. Infinity's RitaCheung negotiated the deal with Fortissimo's Michael J Werner. Werner said: 'Weare thrilled that Hula Girls and ourother two titles were so well received by ...
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Bollywood companies sign on for NME's VMD format
UK-based New MediaEnterprises has signed deals with six Indian film companies to make majorBollywood titles available on through NME's HD Versatile Multilayer Discformat. A bundle of 10 Bollywood titleswill be sold with a HD VMD player for the price of $299 through variousretailers. "Bollywood productions have an epic globalaudience but ...
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Summer Palace takes prize after Belgrade controversy
After last week'scontroversy, Belgrade's Auteur Film Festival has giveChinese feature Summer Palace its Freedom Award, the official jury prize. The festival had cancelledthe film's opening-night screening due to pressure from the Chinese Embassy,but then decided to organise two other screenings of Lou Ye's controversial feature,which premiered in Cannes.The Chinese governmentobjects ...
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Sean Ellis starts shoot for The Broken
Writer/director Sean Ellishas started principal photography for his second feature, The Broken. As previously reported, LenaHeadey stars and the cast also includes Richard Jenkins, Melvil Poupaud, UlrichThomsen, Michelle Duncan and Asier Newman. The psychological horrorfilm will shoot for seven weeks. Headey plays a woman who thinks she seesherself drive past ...
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WFTV to honour producer Norma Heyman
The UK's Women in Film and Television will present its 2006lifetime achievement award to veteran producer Norma Heyman. She will receive the honourat the WFTV annual awards luncheon on Dec 8 at London's Hilton Park Lane. Previous winners includeMaggie Smith, Judi Dench, Cilla Black, Barbara Windsor and Esther Rantzen. "Norma ...
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Catherine Le Clef to run Fortissimo's TV arm
Fortissimo Films has appointed Catherine Le Clef as seniorvice president - TV and ancillary sales.She will join Fortissimo from Paris starting Jan 1. In addition to running Fortissimo's existing TV activities,Le Clef will be charged with expanding the company's TV business to includedocumentaries for TV and made-for-TV movies.Le Clef had ...
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Punk to promote The Gigolos with My Single Friend
Punk Cinema is teaming withthe UK dating website My Single Friend to promote their newfilm The Gigolos to single young professionals. The site attracts 300,000visitors per month and has more than 70,000 members, and Punk notes that theseusers are "above-average cinema attendees and fans of intelligent, independentmovies."The campaign, which includesadvertising ...
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Microwave backs first two micro-budget features
Film London's new low-budget feature film scheme, Microwave, hasannounced its first two projects to go into production. They are Steven Sheil'sMum And Dad, a horror project about amurderous family living near a London airport (to be produced by Lisa Trnovski),and Eran Creevy's Shady (workingtitle), about a charismatic Muslim crack dealer ...
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This Is England wins BIFA Best Film
Newcomers caused a few surprises at the ninth British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) in London Wednesday night, with Red Road's Tony Curran and Kate Dickie taking the best acting prizes over more established names including Peter O'Toole and Helen Mirren.No single film swept the top honours -- Shane Meadows' This ...
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UK shoot starts for BBC and HBO sci-fi comedy
The shoot for Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel has started in the UK and will run through mid-January at Pinewood Studiosand on location.Anna Faris stars alongsideBritish comedians Chris O'Dowd, Marc Wooton and Dean Lennox Kelly.Gareth Carrivick isdirecting from a script by Jamie Mathieson.Neil Peplow and Justin Smithare producing with ...
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This Is England wins BIFA Best Film
Newcomers caused a fewsurprises at the ninth British Independent Film Awards(BIFAs) in London Wednesday night, with Red Road's Tony Curran and Kate Dickie taking the best actingprizes over more established names including Peter O'Toole and Helen Mirren.No single film swept the tophonours -- Shane Meadows' This Is Englandwon Best British ...
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McAvoy and Minghella on Orange Rising Star jury for Bafta
BAFTA has announced the jury for this year’s Orange Rising Star Award.
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Bonkers, Azur & Asmar win prizes at London Children's Festival
The London Children's FilmFestival wrapped Nov 26 with the UK premiere of the digitallyrestored The Wizard Of Oz. The two First Light YoungJuries awarded their top prizes to Martin Koolhoven's Bonkers (Holland) for theage 7-11 jury; and Michel Ocelot's Azur& Asmar (France) for the age 12-14 jury. The audience choice ...
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Regular Lovers takes EFA FIPRESCI prize
The European Film Academy and the international film critics associationFIPRESCI have announced that the EFA Critics Award 2006 - Prix FIPRESCI will goto Philippe Garrel's The Regular Lovers(Les Amants Reguliers). "Philippe Garrel made hisfirst film when he was 16, and by 20 had earned the reputation of the NouvelleVague's Wunderkind ...