All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 150

  • News

    Burma VJ - Reporting From a Closed Country wins Amsterdam top prize

    2008-12-01T13:22:00Z

    Burma VJ - Reporting From a Closed Country has won the VPRO Joris Ivens Award 2008, the main competition at IDFA (the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam). Burma VJ - Reporting From a Closed Country consists largely of material filmed in secret by a group of reporters during the uprising against ...

  • News

    Expose of the Burmese dictatorship win Amsterdam doc award

    2008-11-30T17:26:00Z

    Burma VJ - Reporting From a Closed Country has won the VPRO Joris Ivens Award 2008, the main competition at IDFA (the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam).The film, described by jury member Bianca Stigter, as 'a harrowing reminder of the power and the weakness of images,' was directed by Dane, Anders ...

  • News

    21st IDFAaward nominees announced

    2008-11-28T15:33:00Z

    The nominees for this year's International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Joris Ivens Award and $16,000 (Euros 12,500) have been announced. Burma VJ - Reporting From a Closed Country by Anders Ostergaard; Necrobusiness by Fredrik von Krusenstjerna, Richard Solarz and Monika Sieradzka; and Yodok Stories by Andrzej Fidyk. In the ...

  • News

    Profile - Pim Hermeling

    2008-11-28T00:00:00Z

    At the AFM in Santa Monica, several Dutch distributors were heard to grumble about the prices being charged by international sales companies for Benelux rights.Nonetheless, there was little evidence the Dutch buyers were keeping their wallets in their pockets. A-Film and Dutch FilmWorks both made major acquisitions of high-profile titles ...

  • News

    In Focus: Erik Van Looy's Flemish hit Loft

    2008-11-28T00:00:00Z

    With 500,000 admissions already posted and the Christmas holidays still to come, Erik Van Looy's Loft is the runaway local hit of the autumn in Belgium. Four weeks after its release on October 22, it had not only outperformed Quantum Of Solace and left Mamma Mia! The Movie gasping in ...

  • News

    In focus: Marketing theatrical documentaries

    2008-11-27T18:55:00Z

    We don't do documentary,' was the response from Wouter Barendrecht, co-founder of Fortissimo Films, when John Sloss of Cinetic Media approached him to see if Fortissimo might be interested in handling a small-scale film about child abuse called Capturing The Friedmans in 2003.At that time, Fortissimo did not handle docs ...

  • News

    Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty opens 21st International Documentary Festival

    2008-11-20T10:29:00Z

    The 21st International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has opened with the world premiere of Renzo Martens' Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty. On the eve of IDFA, international sales rights to Enjoy Poverty were picked up by Vienna-based outfit, Autlook Film Sales.The provocative, Congo-set film explores the emotional and economic value of ...

  • News

    Media Luna closes deal with Call Girl to Only Hearts in Japan

    2008-11-10T06:00:00Z

    Cologne-based Media Luna Entertainment has closed a Japanese deal onPortuguese drama Call Girl, a drama about a high class prostitute who is hired to seduce the local mayor.Only Hearts Co. Ltd has taken all Japanese rights to the film, which is directed by Antonio-Pedro Vasconcelos and stars Soraia Chaves. Media ...

  • News

    Siritzky gets science with Bogdanov twins

    2008-11-10T06:00:00Z

    Veteran producer/sales agent Alan Siritzky, owner of the Emmanuelle erotic franchise, is to partner with the controversial French twins Igor and Grichka Bogdanov, physicists best known for their popular TV series on science, on a feature documentary based on the brothers' 1991 best-seller God And Science (Dieu Et ...

  • News

    A-Film takes Benelux rights on four-film package from HanWay

    2008-11-10T06:00:00Z

    Re-energised Dutch distributor A-Film has snapped up a four film package from London-based HanWay Films. The films acquired are Harry Brown starring Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer, Sam Taylor-Wood's Nowhere Boy about the young John Lennon, Christine Jeff's Sunshine Cleaning starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, and Jon Amiel's Charles ...

  • News

    Les Plages D'Agnes sold to Zazie for Japan, Cineart for Benelux

    2008-11-09T06:00:00Z

    As the AFM reaches the midway stage, Les Plages D'Agnes from veteran French auteur Agnes Varda, has been sold to a handful of new territories.Deals have been closed by French sales Roissy Films with Zazie Films for Japan, Cineart for Benelux and Seville Pictures for Canada. A UK deal is ...

  • News

    Wild Bunch Benelux buys Boheme, takes Imagine package

    2008-11-09T06:00:00Z

    Wild Bunch Benelux Distribution, the new Amsterdam-based distribution operation set up by Pim Hermeling, has revealed further details of its initial slate.The new company is a joint venture between Hermeling and French powerhouse Wild Bunch, which has long been seeking to build up a pan-European distribution network. Jan Van Aert ...

  • News

    Brisseau's erotic arthouse Aventure defies market blues

    2008-11-09T06:00:00Z

    In what is by common consensus a cautious market, controversial French auteur Jean-Claude Brisseau is continuing to lure buyers with his crossover brand of erotic/art house cinema. During the AFM, Brisseau's latest feature A L'Aventure, sold internationally by Films Distribution, has gone to the UK (Axiom), Japan (Zazie), ...

  • News

    Alcine takes Japan from Rai Trade on Avati pic

    2008-11-09T06:00:00Z

    In its first major Asian sale of the market, Italian outfit Rai Trade has closed a deal on Pupi Avati's new feature Giovanna's Father with Japan's Alcine. The film premiered in official selection in Venice earlier this autumn, picking up the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor for Silvio Orlando. Deals ...

  • News

    Affleck and Alba star in Winterbottom's Killer Inside Me for Wild Bunch

    2008-11-08T08:00:00Z

    Prolific UK director Michael Winterbottom is to hit the film noir trail with The Killer Inside Me, a $13 million adaptation of a novel by Jim Thompson (The Grifters) starring Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba. Wild Bunch has worldwide sales rights on the film excluding the US which Endeavor ...

  • News

    Magnolia scores with The Girl From Monaco for US

    2008-11-08T06:00:00Z

    Magnolia Pictures has pounced on US rights to The Girl From Monaco, Anne Fontaine's French box office hit which played at Locarno and Toronto this year.The deal was confirmed yesterday by Yoann Ubermulhin of French sales agent Pyramide International.'We are really glad to have our first collaboration with Magnolia on ...

  • News

    Isabel Coixet to start Map In Tokyo with Lopez, Kikuchi

    2008-11-08T06:00:00Z

    Isabel Coixet, the Spanish auteur behind Elegy and The Secret Life Of Words, is to start shooting her next film Mapa De Los Sonidos De Tokyo (Map Of The Sounds Of Tokyo), on November 16, in Tokyo. Madrid-based Imagina International Sales is handling international sales here.The film will be ...

  • News

    Tokyo Theatres takes Japanese rights to Cantet's The Class

    2008-11-08T06:00:00Z

    Laurent Cantet's Palme D'Or winner The Classis Asia-bound. Here at the AFM, Paris-based sales agent Memento Films International hasclosed a Japanese deal with Tokyo Theatres and is reporting interestfrom Singapore and Thailand.Cantet's film, about a teacher in a high school in a tough part of theParis suburbs, was one of ...

  • News

    Ondamax lines up Latin titles for festivals in 2009

    2008-11-08T06:00:00Z

    Miami-based production and sales outfit Ondamax will be targeting Sundance and Berlin early next year with a slew of new Latin American projects. The lineup includes Ana Luiza Azevedo's Brazilian drama Before The World Ends, San Sebastian prizewinner Gasolina and documentary, Oso Blanco about the most notorious prison in Puerto ...

  • News

    Rex Media kicks off sales on Russian Interceptor trilogy

    2008-11-07T06:00:00Z

    A Matrix-style trilogy is being planned around stories by cult Russian sci-fi writer Vasily Golovachev, led by the first film The Interceptor which is currently in post-production. The $10m film is being sold here by George Lascu's Rex Media. Lascu is also beginning pre-sales on the next two installments. The ...