All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 156
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News
UK financiers don't see disaster with closed tax loophole
UK film financiers have been striking a philosophical note about yesterday's Budget 2008 government announcement that 'sole traders' who spend fewer than 10 hours a week on film-related activities will no longer be able to offset predicted losses on film investment.Previous UKGovernment clampdowns, whether last year's sudden closure of so-called ...
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News
MK2 blasts off with nWave's 3D Fly Me To The Moon
Ben Stassen of nWave Pictures has sold another major territory on animated feature Fly Me To The Moon, which made history in Berlin last month as the first 3D film to screen as part of the European Film Market.The latest deal Stassen has concluded on the film post-Berlin is with ...
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News
Duncan Jones wraps shoot on Moon starring Sam Rockwell
Sci-fi feature Moon has just wrapped principal photography at the UK's Shepperton Studios.The film, which marks the feature directorial debut of Duncan Jones (formerly known as Zowie Bowie), stars Sam Rockwell. Moon is being made through London-based production outfit Liberty Films. The producers are Stuart Fenegan, Nicky Moss and Trudie ...
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Features
France - Critical faculties
"He would never talk about his problems but it was impossible not to feel his anxiety," says young French director Mia Hansen-Love of producer Humbert Balsan, who she worked with on her debut feature, Tout Est Pardonne, winner of the prestigious Prix Louis Delluc in France last year.Later this year, ...
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News
As Hermeling departs A-Film, Wolfers said to be tipped as MD
Following Pim Hermeling's departure from Dutch distributor A-Film (announced yesterday), Wilco Wolfers of Warner Bros Netherlands is being strongly tipped to be appointed managing director in his stead.Speaking to ScreenDaily.com, Philipp Wolff of W2Media BV, the investment company which already owned the majority of the shares in A-Film and has ...
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News
FilmIndustry Training Board: the next steps
Thefilm Industry Training Boardwill administer the mandatory levy on behalf of the film industry.An Order to establish a board was submitted to Parliament in November 2007, and in line with parliamentary procedures a debate was not called for.This was required to 'sit' in Parliament for 40 days, and upon completion ...
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News
UK mandatory training levy wins support despite concerns
Senior UK industry figures are strongly supporting a new mandatory training levy on producers proposed by Skillset and government, despite criticism from some producers.The Government is in the process of creating an industry training board (ITB), which will be able to impose a compulsory training levy on film-making.UK plans for ...
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News
Shooting begins on Salvage in Liverpool
Shooting begins today in Liverpool on British horror film Salvage, one of the three features commissioned under the Digital Departures scheme set up to celebrate Liverpool's year as Capital of Culture. All three films will premiere in Liverpool later in the year.Salvage marks the feature directorial debut of Lawrence Gough. ...
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News
NonStop seals EFM sales on Gnomes And Trolls
Scandinavian-based NonStop Sales is continuing to cultivate deals on its animated features, Gnomes And Trolls I and Gnomes And Trolls II. Following the European Film Market in Berlin, the films have now gone to 14 territories.Further deals on both titles confirmed yesterday include Media Film (Slovenia + Croatia), P.C.V (Greece ...
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News
Nordisk/Trust rack up sales on Lordi horror, Von Trier, Moodysson
As the EFM draws to a close, Nordisk and Trust are continuing to rack up sales on their Berlin slate. One heavy seller is their English-language horror film Dark Floors, starring Finnish rock band and Eurovision Song Contest winners, Lordi. Deals announced yesterday (Wednesday) included Turkey (Umut Sanat/Ozen FilmTAS), Benelux ...
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News
New Wave takes Ceylan's Cannes-bound Daydreams for UK
New Wave Films, the new UK distribution company set up by former Artificial Eye bosses Robert Beeson and Pam Engel, has made its second acquisition of the Berlin market, taking Daydreams, the latest feature from Turkish maestro Nuri Bilge Ceylan from Pyramide International.Like New Wave's first pick-up - the Dardennes' ...
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News
French Film Festival UK to welcome Lola Doillon, Jean Becker
The French Film Festival UK (7 - 20 March 2008) has revealed details of itsprogramme and guests. The event, likely to have added prominence as a showcase for French cinema in the UK this year following the cancellation of the Unifrance London 'Rendez-Vous,' takes place in Edinburgh, Glasgow,Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, ...
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News
Niels Arden Oplev preps Scandinavian detective opus
Danish director Niels Arden Oplev, whose Worlds Apart screened in official selection in Berlin, has revealed further details of his big budget new project Men Who Hate Women, an adaptation of the first part of Stieg Larsson's 'detective trilogy.' Oplev is directing the first part as both a feature film ...
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News
Andrzej Wajda lines up Tatarak with Krystyna Janda
Further details have emerged this week about Tatarak, the next project from revered octogenarian Polish auteur Andrzej Wajda whose Oscar-nominated Katyn screens out of competition in Berlin on Friday.Production will begin later this year on the film which is an adaptation of the book by Polish novelist and poet Jaroslaw ...
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News
Intercinema picks up two French titles from Films Distribution
Russian sales agent and distributor Intercinema, which is screening a promo reel of Fedor Bondarchuk's two-feature $36.5 million sci-fi opus The Inhabited Island here at the EFM on Thursday, has picked up a package of two of films from French seller Films Distribution.Intercinema's Raisa Fomina confirmed that she has bought ...
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News
Hungaricom has sales success with Egon & Donci, CATcher
Ambitious Hungarian distribution and sales outfit HungariCom has announced a raft of deals on its EFM slate.Its cartoon features are selling especially briskly. Here in Berlin the companyhas closed deals on Egon & Dönci and CATcher - Cat City 2 to HGC Entertainment for China and Media International Pictures for ...
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News
Five European festivals form 'Doc Alliance'
Five documentary festivals have hatched their very own pan-European programming initiative. 'Doc Alliance,' as the scheme is called, involves Switzerland (Visions Du Reel), the Czech Republic (Jihlava International Doc Festival), The Poles (Doc Review Warsaw), The Germans (Dok Leipzig) and the Danes (Copenhagen Documentary Festival). The idea is for each ...
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News
Ceylan's Daydreams are happy for Pyramide
Pyramide has been enjoying a strong response at EFM to Daydreams, the latest film from Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan which, like his last two features, is expected to be in competition at Cannes.BIM bought the film for Italy, Imagine for Benelux, Rosebud for Greece, Filmcoopi for Switzerland, Maywin for ...
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News
Slingshot Hip Hop finds sales home in Celluloid Dreams
Celluloid Dreams has picked up international sales rights to Sundance documentary competition entry Slingshot Hip Hop.The film was directed by Jackie Reem Salloum and produced by Rumzi Araj, Jackie Reem Salloum and Waleed Zaiter. Featuring the Palestinian Artists: DAM, Abeer, PR, Mahmoud Shalabi and Arapeyat. The deal was brokered between ...
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News
Nordisk, Trust rack up EFM sales, with US deal on Bornedal thriller
Nordisk Film has sold Ole Bornedal's Just Another Love Story to Netflix's Red Envelope Entertainment and Koch Lorber Films in the US following on from its screening in world dramatic competition at Sundance last month.The deal was negotiated by Thom Zadra of Red Envelope Entertainment, Richard Lorber of Koch Lorber ...