All articles by de.seguin@gmail.com – Page 17
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News
TIFF announces 32 titles for September
The Toronto International Film Festival today announced more than 30 films destined for this September's event, including Bela Tarr's Cannes title The Man From London, Alexander Sokurov's Alexandra, Jacques Rivette's Ne Touchez Pas La Hache and Volker Schlondorff's Ulzhan. The announcement also includes several titles confirmed last week, including the ...
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EdgeStone Capital Partners acquires 49% of Canada's MPD
Canada's distribution landscape shifted again today as Canadian private equity firm EdgeStone Capital Partners announced plans to acquire the 49 per cent share of Motion Picture Distribution LP owned by Movie Distribution Income Fund. The other 51 per cent will be controlled by Goldman Sachs, part of the US investment ...
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News
TIFF to hold pre-festival press screenings in New York, LA
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will be press screening select titles in New York City and Los Angeles in advance of the September event, according to TIFF director of communications Andrea Grau. The pre-screenings are part of TIFF co-director Noah Cowan's effort to boost the profile of films that ...
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News
TIFF to hold pre-festival press screenings in New York, LA
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will be press screening select titles in New York City and Los Angeles in advance of the September event, according to TIFF director of communications Andrea Grau. The pre-screenings are part of TIFF co-director Noah Cowan's effort to boost the profile of films that ...
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News
Toronto to gets its Golden Age
Shekhar Kapur's The Golden Age will make its world premiere at September's Toronto International Film Festival, according to news reports in Toronto. Other films confirmed are Francois Girard's Silk, starring Kiera Knightley and Michael Pitt and backed by Picture House and New Line International, and Cannes titles No Country For ...
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News
Charlotte Mickie leaving Dreamachine to reunite with Robert Lantos
Canadian producer Robert Lantos is stepping back into the distribution business, according to industry sources in Toronto. While it's unclear whether the new operation will be part of Lantos' production company Serendipity Point Films, it is certain that veteran sales executive Charlotte Mickie has left her post as a director ...
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News
Hjerdt takes audience prize at Toronto 's Worldwide Short Film Festival
Swedish filmmaker Jorgen Hjerdt won the $5000 Telus Audience Choice Award as the 13th Canadian Film Centre Worldwide Short Film Festival (WSFF) wrapped on Sunday. In all 10 awards and over $116,000 (C$125,000) in cash and prizes were presented. The C$10,000 Bravo! FACT Award for Best Canadian Short Film went ...
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News
Telefilm Canada greenlights six French-language projects
Telefilm Canada has greenlit six French-language feature film projects, including France-Canada coproduction Instinct De Mort, directed by Jean-Francois Richet and starring Vincent Cassel, Gerard Depardieu and Roy Dupuis; and Belgium-France-Canada coproduction Un Ange A La Mer. Instinct De Mort (Mesrine) partners French producer Thomas Langmann of Paris production house La ...
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News
MPD sale met by low-ball offers, says owner Fund
The proposed sale of Canadian film distributor Motion Picture Distribution LP (MPD) is mired by low-ball offers, according to Movie Distribution Income Fund, the publicly-traded entity which owns 49 per cent of MPD's limited partnership.Alliance Atlantis (AAC) owns the controlling 51 per cent. AAC is in the process of being ...
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Reviews
Billy The Kid
Dir. Jennifer Venditti. US. 2007. 85mins.Billy The Kid ventures into a small, contained community to focus on a single life and thereby turns the camera on the world. The Grand Prize winner at SXSW in Austin, where it premiered in March, and an audience favourite at Hot Docs in Toronto, ...
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News
Joost adds short film channel Movieola to line-up
Internet television service Joost has added Canadian short film channel Movieola to its content mix. A unit of Toronto-based Channel Zero, a specialty digital broadcaster, Movieola currently has over 1m subscribers in Canada. The Joost platform uses secure P2P streaming technology to deliver more than 150 channels via broadband. Joost ...
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News
Radio-Canada to pump $11m into features
Radio-Canada, the French-language arm of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, has announced it will invest $11.3m (C$12m) in French-language feature film production through 2010. It will mark the third multi-year cycle of production financing via Radio-Canada's 'cinema d'ici' initiative begun in 1999. Said Allaire, ''We get involved at the script stage ...
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News
Radio Canada invests $11m in French-language features
Radio-Canada, the French-language arm of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, has announced it will invest $11.3m (C$12m) in French-language feature film production through 2010. It will mark the third multi-year cycle of production financing via Radio-Canada's 'cinema d'ici' initiative begun in 1999.Francine Allaire, director of dramatic programming for the public broadcaster, ...
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News
Spider-Man 3 snags $20m worldwide on IMAX
Spider-Man 3: The IMAX Experience has grossed more than $20m worldwide since its May 3 premiere, according to Sony Picture Entertainment and IMAX. It is the fastest-grossing digitally-remastered giant-screen release of a conventional film, earning its take in 31 days. Not surprisingly, the film marked the widest release in IMAX's ...
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News
Canadian author sues Universal over Knocked Up
A Canadian writer is suing Universal Studios, alleging that its hit film, Knocked Up, borrows from her work. The film, writer-director Judd Apatow's follow-up to The 40 Year Old Virgin, follows the post-coital relationship of a young professional and the slacker who impregnates her during a drunken encounter. Rebecca Eckler, ...
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News
DVD: specialty forces
The specialty DVD market has thrived in recent years. But with the market under pressure Denis Seguin looks at how niche distributors are making their product stand out. Consider the sophisticated bachelor pad circa 2003, art-dressed to impress a visitor: on the coffee table, an issue of The New Yorker ...
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High-end DVD distributors
Denis Seguin looks at a selection of company players in the high-end DVD sector. Click on bolded compnay name for more information.Artficial EyeUK-based Artificial Eye, along with its Curzon Cinemas circuit, is a stalwart of the art cinema scene. Its video division has kept pace with a vast catalogue of ...
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Rozema rolls on HBO/Picturehouse's Kit Kittredge
Patricia Rozema has commenced principal photography on Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery for HBO Films and Picturehouse. The long-awaited return to features for Toronto-based Rozema features Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin in the title role. The screenplay is by Ann Peacock, who wrote The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, ...
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Canada promises piracy clampdown to visiting Schwarzenegger
He didn't come seeking it, but The Terminator's presence in Canada's capital triggered the promise of a new Canadian anti-camcorder bill. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Canada on a trade mission, promoting everything from his state's fruit and vegetables to wine, high technology and climate-change awareness, but it ...
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News
Warner's Dark Knight shooting sequences in IMAX
Director Christopher Nolan is shooting four sequences from the forthcoming Batman franchise picture The Dark Knight using IMAX cameras, according to the giant-screen company. While the reformating of conventional feature films into IMAX is commonplace, IMAX says the move is 'unprecedented' and marks 'a revolutionary integration' of 35mm and 15/70 ...