All Features articles – Page 486

  • Features

    Flashback to 2007

    2008-09-05T00:00:00Z

    Live!Dir: Bill GuttentagDist: Pretty Pictures130,207 admissionsWaitressDir: Adrienne ShellyDist: 20th Century Fox41,449 admissionsTeethDir: Mitchell LichtensteinDist: TFM40,237 admissionsBroken EnglishDir: Zoe CassavetesDist: Eurozoom31,061 admissionsGrace Is GoneDir: James C StrouseDist: TFM20,446 admissionsNever ForeverDir: Gina KimDist: Surreal Distribution15,984 admissionsThe Dead GirlDir: Karen MoncrieffDist: ARP15,320 admissionsFor Your ConsiderationDir: Christopher GuestDist: CTV International761 admissionsNo French distribution: Factory ...

  • Features

    Germany - Partner in climb

    2008-08-29T00:00:00Z

    German writer-director Philipp Stolzl is famous for music videos for such talents as Madonna, Mick Jagger and German metal band Rammstein, and he directed the video for James Bond theme song The World Is Not Enough.Yes, he acknowledges, he has worked with difficult and temperamental performers but none was as ...

  • Features

    In focus - Small pond, big ripple

    2008-08-29T00:00:00Z

    The stacks of recycled business cards are piling up after nearly two years of seismic shifts in the Canadian distribution business. The faces have remained the same - almost all the key executive are still in positions of power - but the dynamics have changed.First came last year's $2.3bn sale ...

  • Features

    Festival talk - 'The audience was in for a special moment'

    2008-08-29T00:00:00Z

    Which festivals do you rate highly and enjoy visiting' On that basis, what makes a strong festival'Of the big festivals, I love going to Cannes and Berlin. You know you are going to see a wide range of new films, and reconnect with many friends in the international film industry.Cannes ...

  • Features

    International - Metal crashes top 40

    2008-08-29T00:00:00Z

    The $34.3m take for The Dark Knight in 62 territories was the biggest story of the week for the international box office. Despite a prohibitive 16-rating, major successes include the $9.8m German debut on 754 screens. The Batman film now has a total of $377.6m.But Toho's Detroit Metal City was ...

  • Features

    Flashback to 2007

    2008-08-29T00:00:00Z

    My WinnipegGuy Maddin's My Winnipeg is a personal portrait of the Canadian maverick's home town and was originally produced by the Documentary Channel. It had its world premiere at Toronto last year, where it won the Toronto City award for best Canadian feature. In the wake of the festival it ...

  • Features

    United Kingdom - Supercharging

    2008-08-15T00:00:00Z

    You cannot really label B3 Media a film company - there is much more to it than that.Marc Boothe, one of the producers of Saul Dibb's Bullet Boy, founded Brixton-based B3 - which stands for 'Beats, Bytes and the Big Screen' - in 2000 based in a sprawling complex off ...

  • Features

    International - Kinng reigns supreme

    2008-08-15T00:00:00Z

    India and China are the hotspots in this week's international box office, with the former's Singh Is Kinng becoming the biggest Bollywood opener of 2008 after debuting in 21 territories, and the latter witnessing Red Cliff break Chinese box-office records - even in a week when the Olympics overshadowed the ...

  • Features

    Editorial - The lessons that count

    2008-08-15T00:00:00Z

    A striking feature of the international film industry that deserves more attention is the willingness of those at the top to share their experiences with those on the way up. Workshops, courses and mentoring schemes are everywhere and, while they vary in quality, they can nearly always draw on serious ...

  • Features

    Buzz Films - A strong year for Norwegian film is reflected in the world premieres at Haugesund

    2008-08-15T00:00:00Z

    99% HONESTDir: Rune Denstad Langlo99% Honest is a theatrical documentary based on a Norwegian TV series about four musicians from different ethnic backgrounds who form a hip-hop band. Director Rune Denstad Langlo and producer Sigve Endresen of Motlys produced both the TV series and the film, which will be released ...

  • Features

    Bosnia and Herzegovina - Out of the rubble

    2008-08-15T00:00:00Z

    Now the most important festival in the Balkans, the Sarajevo Film Festival was launched in 1995 during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It began by screening a selection of films from the Edinburgh and Locarno festivals in Sarajevo's Obala Arts Centre which, perhaps surprisingly given the circumstances, proved very ...

  • Features

    Flashback 2007

    2008-08-15T00:00:00Z

    The world premiere of Nic Balthazar's Belgium-Netherlands co-production Ben X, about teenage bullying, was the toast of last year's festival, picking up the main competition prize, known as the Grand Prize of the Americas, ex aequo with Claude Miller's A Secret. Ben X also won the audience award and the ...

  • Features

    International - Sunny shines at home

    2008-08-01T00:00:00Z

    Showbox's big-budget war epic Sunny enjoyed a strong $3.8m opening weekend at home, to become the second highest opener in the international market last weekend after Twentieth Century Fox's The X-Files: I Want To Believe, which grossed $9m from 22 territories.Hot on the heels of local blockbuster The Good, The ...

  • Features

    Feature - Locarno's Latin passion

    2008-08-01T00:00:00Z

    Celebrating its sixth year, the Locarno International Film Festival's annual Open Doors Factory (August 9-13) has become established as an important co-production event.Backed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SOC), each year Open Doors targets a key region and 2008 is the turn of the lesser-known Latin American ...

  • Features

    New Projects - Strength in depth

    2008-08-01T00:00:00Z

    AvatarUS dist: Twentieth Century FoxUS release date: December 18, 2009James Cameron's first narrative theatrical feature since Titanic stars Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Sam Worthington and Giovanni Ribisi in a story about the conflicts between humans and the inhabitants of a distant planet.Cameron shot Avatar on the new 3D Fusion System ...

  • Features

    United Kingdom - Taking The Chair

    2008-08-01T00:00:00Z

    The UK film industry can breathe a sigh of relief - it is not losing one of its most experienced producers and financiers, but gaining a friend. As of July, David Parfitt, a producer at Trademark Films and co-founder of the Limelight Fund, has taken over as chairman of the ...

  • Features

    Canada - Fantastic Forum

    2008-08-01T00:00:00Z

    It's sure not your Uncle Walt's Fantasia. Swedish vampires, contagious Spanish cannibals, feudal female Korean crime-solvers and general Japanese insanity have never been a big part of the Disney world, but they are the meat and potatoes (mostly meat) of Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival, the 12th edition of which ...

  • Features

    Send in the big guns

    2008-08-01T00:00:00Z

    The success of The Dark Knight has raised hopes of a Bat-powered box-office surge across the world.Some markets struggled in the first half of the year to match a strong 2007: Japan's box-office revenues, for example, fell 13.7% between January and the end of June, while Brazil dropped 8.8%. But ...

  • Features

    The lowdown - How does 3D work'

    2008-08-01T00:00:00Z

    The 3D projection formats introduced in the 1950s were cumbersome, labour-intensive and required two cameras projecting onto the same screen, making synchronisation difficult. Today, there are three far more sophisticated 3D digital projection technologies in the theatrical market: RealD, Dolby Digital Cinema and Imax 3D.All of them exploit the way ...

  • Features

    Feature - The Open Doors Projects 2008

    2008-08-01T00:00:00Z

    Faith (Guatemala)Dir/co-scr: Alejo CrisostomoProds: Alejo Crisostomo, Elias JimenezSet in the seething, violent atmosphere of Guatemala City, this project tells the story of an evangelist pastor who is invited to conduct a service at the local prison. There he meets a young fisherman accused of raping and murdering a 13-year-old girl. ...