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All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 154
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News
Revolver takes UK rights for Synecdoche, New York
Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut Synecdoche, New York is British-bound. On the eve of the film's London Film Festival screening, UK distributor Revolver has taken rights for UK and Eire. The deal was negotiated between Joel Kennedy of Revolver and Mark Lindsay of Kimmel International, the international sales agent.Kaufman, who scripted ...
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News
Erik Van Looy's Loft soars to top of Belgian box office
Erik Van Looy's new feature Loft, which was recently picked up for international sales by London-based The Works, is becoming a bona fide box office smash in its home territory of Belgium.Loft, which opened last week, has now posted 125,000 admissions, five times more than the number two film in ...
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News
Too many specialty films being released says Miramax's Daniel Battsek
Too many specialty films being released, according to Miramax President Daniel Battsek.Giving the keynote speech at Film London's second Production Finance Market (October 20-21), Battsek addressed the continuing problem of oversupply in a market that is not expanding.Asked whether Miramax had been helped by the recent closure of Warner independent ...
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News
Fortissimo Films appoints Kees Koot to Chief Finance Officer
International film, TV, and sales outfit Fortissimo Films has appointed Kees Koot as its Chief Finance Officer. Koot will head Fortissimo's finance department out of its head office in Amsterdam. Koot joins Fortissimo from Dutch distributor A-Film Distribution where he was Finance Manager and helped create the company's Accounting and ...
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News
Amsterdam Filmmuseum and Thought Equity Motion in $40m project
The Amsterdam Filmmuseum has entered into a partnership with US company, Thought Equity Motion.The move is part of the Netherlands' hugely ambitious 'Images For The Future' project to digitise the country's entire film, radio and TV holdings. The Filmmuseum has around $40m (Euros 30 m) to spend on its digitisation ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Quantum leap
A London hotel a month before the worldwide roll-out of Quantum Of Solace, the 22nd James Bond movie, from October 31, and Marc Forster is looking exhausted. He signed on to direct the film in the summer of 2007 - in other words, he had a little over a year ...
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News
Alki David's 111 Pictures options Jeffrey Archer novel
A Prisoner Of Birth, the latest novel from flamboyant and controversial ex-politician Jeffrey Archer, is to be brought to the screen. The book has been optioned by 111 Pictures, the London-based production, distribution and sales company run by Alki David.The aim is to turn the novel into a four-hour mini-series. ...
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News
London Film Festival opens today with Frost/Nixon premiere.
The Times BFI London Film Festival (15-30 October) begins today with the world premiere of Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon. Click here for full previewHoward, cast-members Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Toby Jones, Matthew Macfadyen and subject of the film Sir David Frost were all expected at the premiere.Other ...
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News
UK producer Mark Shivas has died aged 70
Film-makers have paid tribute to British producer Mark Shivas, who has died of cancer aged 70.Shivas, who died peacefully amongst family on Saturday October 11, was one of the principals in production company Headline Pictures. An immensely popular producer and one time Head of Films at the BBC, he worked ...
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News
UK producer Mark Shivas dies age 70
British producer Mark Shivas has died aged 70 from cancer, it was confirmed today.Shivas was an immensely popular producer who was Head of Drama and then Head of Films at the BBC. He worked with many of the best British directors of his era as well as with several international ...
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News
MIPCOM focus: Is TV tuning back into film'
The relationship between Europe's film distributors and their local TV broadcasters is peculiarly vexed and complicated. It mingles dependency and resentment. Tensions were exacerbated around a decade ago, as the market for TV pre-sales for film contracted in an alarming fashion. The collapse of the Kirch media group in Germany, ...
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Features
Festival talk: Sandra Hebron - 'As the name implies, a degree of festivity is important'
Which festivals do you rate and enjoy'I rate New York, Telluride and Vienna from a programming point of view. In terms of all-round usefulness, Cannes continues to reign supreme, for the sheer volume and range of what it is possible to see there, combined with the benefits of having so ...
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News
In Focus: Lance Daly's Kisses
Lance Daly's crowdpleaser Kisses began its festival journey in Galway this summer, where it won the best Irish film award. Click here for review.Its international premiere followed in competition at Locarno, and by the time the film screened in Telluride and Toronto, Focus Features International had come on board to ...
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News
Preview: The Times BFI London Film Festival
There is a fierce debate about the future and the identity of The Times BFI London Film Festival (LFF). Stewart Till, chairman of the UK Film Council (UKFC) has made no secret of his desire to see the LFF transformed into a 'bigger, louder festival' with 'more impact on the ...
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News
Episode 3 by Renzo Martens opens 21st edition of IDFA in Amsterdam
The 21st International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is to open next month with the world premiere of Episode 3 by Renzo Martens.IDFA runs from 20 to 30 Nov.The film is the third in a series of three films in which Martens questions the role of filmmakers and photographers in ...
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News
BAFTA rejects new best feature doc category
BAFTA has ruled out a new Best Feature Documentary category at this year's Orange British Academy Film Awards.With the growth of interest in the theatrical documentary, some film-makers have been calling for their own award. That sense of missing out has been exacerbated by BAFTA's decision to introduce an 'animated ...
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News
Rotterdam Festival undergoes revamp
Rotterdam is going in for a revamp. The 38th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), running 21st Jan to 1st Feb 2009, is to get a new and simplified format with three main sections - Bright Futures, Spectrum and Signals.The overhaul comes amid criticisms in recent years that ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Positive Signs
The world of visual effects has changed immeasurably since London's Double Negative set up shop 10 years ago.Co-founders Alex Hope, Peter Chiang and Matt Holben had all joined the industry when editing was done on videotape. "It was a world apart from the wonderful things we can do today," says ...
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Features
Belgium - Jungle fever
How do you shoot an epic Apocalypse Now-style drama in the Far East on a budget of $5.1m (EUR3.5m)' That was the challenge Belgian director Fabrice Du Welz set himself with Vinyan, the follow-up to his critical hit, Calvaire.The new film, shot in English and starring Emmanuelle Beart and Rufus ...
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News
BBC Films says it's 'business as usual' despite Tranter's move
BBC Films contends it will be 'business as usual' despite the news earlier this week that BBC Head of Fiction Jane Tranter will leave the UK to join BBC Worldwide in Los Angeles next January.Joe Oppenheimer, Executive Producer BBC Films, said day-to-day operations at BBC Films wouldn't be impacted by ...