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All Features articles – Page 494
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Features
In Focus - Postcard from Berlin
Breakout filmsHappy-Go-LuckyAudiences were enchanted by Mike Leigh's story of a young schoolteacher navigating modern life (with memorable flamenco classes and driving instruction). Sally Hawkins was the source of the buzz, stepping up from minor roles in previous Leigh films to win the Silver Bear for best actress (review, p21).Hey Hey ...
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Features
In Focus - Market beats festival to number one spot
The Berlinale kicked off in fine style with Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones documentary Shine A Light, but the general consensus - at least for buyers - was that this year the festival line-up was upstaged by the market.The focus turned to the European Film Market (EFM) following a perceived lack ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Love is all around
Mike Leigh has not named his new film Happy-Go-Lucky ironically. He readily says the Berlinale Competition title is "lighter" than 2004's devastating 1950s abortionist drama Vera Drake. "It's upbeat and funny and life affirming," the director says. Still, he says the project "does have some weight to it".Actress Sally Hawkins, ...
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Features
Video-on-demand - Territory snapshot: Eastern Europe - Doc Air fest makes waves
The Czech Republic's Doc Air is the only online distributor in Central and Eastern Europe specialising in documentary features. Users can stream the video or download either DivX or DVD files to their computers. The service currently offers 150 titles and has 30-50 downloads a day at roughly $1.46 (EUR1) ...
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Features
Production - Jumping to the next level
The high-profile collapse in 2006 of Peter Jackson's Halo adaptation could well have dampened the ardour with which millions of dollars are spent transforming video games into blockbusters each year. Yet it seems Hollywood has not only returned to embracing video-game adaptations but is pitching them as upscale tentpoles on ...
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Features
Purple heart
Hadeel Reda got more publicity than she had bargained for during the making of The Hottie And The Nottie, the first project from her Los Angeles-based production company Purple Pictures.With Paris Hilton starring and executive producing, the project - also starring Joel David Moore and Christine Lakin, with Tom Putnam ...
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Features
International - The winning Gaul
Asterix At The Olympic Games won the gold medal again this weekend, generating $24.5m after expanding in six territories. Pathe's family film opened at number one in Spain, where it took $2.7m, beating rival openers No Country For Old Men (starring local favourite Javier Bardem) and 30 Days Of Night. ...
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Features
Awards Countdown - People - Awards People
UK director Paul Greengrass is renowned for his dynamic and visceral style that puts the audience in the centre of the action. Editor Christopher Rouse, who worked with Greengrass on United 93 and also cut The Bourne Supremacy, shares the director's aesthetic sensibilities."We are both relentless in exploring the potential ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Aria on song
From the office of his Aria Films in London, the Italian-born producer Carlo Dusi is keen to expand his realm. "Historically, a lot of the films I have been involved in have been firmly in the arthouse sector," Dusi says. "That is a dirty word here, but not for me, ...
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Features
United States - Star man
For Rigel Entertainment, getting into the feature film business was a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" proposition, says founder, president and CEO John Laing.After 15 years as a backer, producer and worldwide distributor of TV programming, including the Robocop and Pacific Blue series, Laing felt Rigel could ...
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Features
Ireland - The Irish Revival
Irish producers have their work cut out right now. With an 18% budget increase to $34.3m (EUR23.2m) for the Irish Film Board (IFB) there is more money available for low-budget, locally developed projects than ever before. Yet there are also fewer international film projects shooting in Ireland. Previously, projects such ...
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Features
Local exposure
Czech cinemas enjoyed their highest-grossing year ever in 2007, with box office receipts reaching a total of $66.9m (ckr1.2bn). This represents a 20% increase on 2006, although ticket prices also increased 3% in 2007. Admissions were 12.8 million, up 11% from 2006.Much of the success has been down to strong ...
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Features
New Talent - European Stars of Tomorrow
Ambra Angiolini, ItalyAngiolini had already made her name in the 1990s as a TV starlet and presenter before returning to performing in theatre some years later, reinventing herself as a serious actress. She made her film debut last year in Ferzan Ozpetek's Saturno Contro, gaining overnight credibility and winning a ...
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FeaturesAwards Countdown - Johnny Depp
Nominated for his third best actor Oscar in five years, Johnny Depp tells Mike Goodridge why he worried he wouldn’t be up to playing Sweeney Todd
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Features
Australia-UK - See-saw on the rise
When London-based acquisitions executive Iain Canning and Sydney producer Emile Sherman vie for the best projects under their new See-Saw production banner, the ace up their sleeve will be a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures International (PPI) to invest equity.They also hope their pooled skills and experience will be a ...
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Features
International - Asterix the champion
France's Asterix At The Olympic Games won first place in the international arena by a long run this weekend as the family film enjoyed a mammoth $38.3m take and accounted for 20.8% of the top 40 revenue.The latest instalment of the comic book adaptation played across 3,002 screens in 19 ...
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Features
Argentina - Out of the past
"I am 100% French...and I am 100% Argentinian," says the Buenos Aires-born writer-director Lucia Cedron. Her family story played an important part in her debut feature Lamb Of God, the opening film at this year's Rotterdam International Film Festival. Cedron is the daughter of film-maker and political activist Jorge 'The ...
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Features
Smart money
Benjamin Waisbren does not mince words when he weighs up the film business from a financier's point of view (and using financiers' parlance). "Film's a wonderful, iconic art form; it's not a great asset class," says the New York-based president and CEO of new film-finance operation Continental Entertainment Group (CEG). ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Mountain high
It has been an exciting year for Summit Entertainment. The company - with ex-Paramount executive Rob Friedman - tapped into a $1bn financing fund via Merrill Lynch to move into US distribution and in-house producing, making it a fully vertically integrated studio with development, financing, domestic distribution, production, and foreign ...
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Features
United States-Italy - Spike goes to war
Spike Lee's The Miracle At St Anna is alternatively being billed as the director's Second World War project and as his Italian project. Both are true - it is his first war film and the first project he has shot almost entirely outside the US."It's a miracle this film got ...