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All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 162
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Features
United Kingdom - Coming up for chair
It is almost a decade since Colin MacCabe left his position as head of research and education at the British Film Institute (BFI). He is still an active producer - his latest project, Isaac Julien's Derek Jarman documentary, Derek, premieres in Sundance. Yet MacCabe cannot hide his dismay at what ...
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Features
2008 Preview - The future is rewritten
A Hollywood producer takes a shine to an up-and-coming European screenwriter. "I'm going to set you to work on the rewrite of my next film," the producer tells the writer. "Who wrote the first version'" the writer asks. "We haven't hired anyone yet," the producer replies.This story may be apocryphal ...
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Reviews
Caramel
Dir: Nadine Labaki. Lebanon-France. 2007. 96mins. Nadine Labaki's debut feature is an assured and wonderfully engaging romantic comedy. At times, its storytelling is soft-centred and self-indulgent, but there is enough barbed humour and ironic observation here to counterbalance the more syrupy moments. Caramel's status as festival crowd pleaser was quickly ...
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News
Brussels Fund starts $1.17m lab for maverick film-makers
In a move designed to ensure that maverick filmmakers do not slip through the net, Brussels-based VAF (The Flanders AudioVisual Fund) is setting up a new fund targeting new talent. The Filmlab, as the new scheme is called, will invest $1.17m (Euros 800,000) in supporting adventurous new film projects. This ...
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News
Colin McCabe demands end of 'tragic decade' for British Film Institute
Distinguished British academic and producer Colin MacCabe has today (Monday) publicly announced his candidature for the post of Chair of the British Film Institute (BFI).The current chairman Anthony Minghella is due to step down at the end of the year. Whether or not MacCabe’s application is successful, it is bound ...
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News
Free Roaming: UK producer Kevin Loader
Kevin Loader has an increasingly international outlook. The prolific UK producer (whose forthcoming credits include Good and Brideshead Revisited) is in post-production on The Oxford Murders, a co-production with Spain's Tornasol Films.Loader's Free Range Film is the UK partner on Alex de la Iglesia's $10m Spain-France-UK project. 'We had an ...
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Features
Belgium - Extra dimension
Earlier this autumn, Summit Entertainment acquired North American distribution rights to 3D animated feature Fly Me To The Moon. Following three stowaway flies inside the helmets of lunar astronauts, the film was directed and produced by Ben Stassen, also co-founder of Belgium-based nWave Pictures. "It makes it easier to control ...
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News
Participant, Magnolia back Gibney's new lobbying documentary
Participant Productions (the outfit behind Oscar winner An Inconvenient Truth) is partnering with US distributor Magnolia on Burning Down The House, a new Alex Gibney feature-documentary about the murky world of political lobbying.This is a subject that has caused huge controversy in the US since political lobbyist Jack Abramoff was ...
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News
Gonzalon Arijon's Stranded takes top prize at IDFA
Gonzalon Arijon's Stranded (France) has won the VPRO Joris Ivens award, the top prize at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).The award comes with a cash prize of Euros 12,500. The film, about the survival story of the Uruguyan rugby team after a plane crash high in the Andes, was ...
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News
Wide sells Sabine to a dozen territories including US, UK
Underlining that there is still an appetite among theatrical buyers for feature documentaries, Paris-based Wide Management has been racking up sales on two of its titles that screened this week at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).Sandrine Bonnaire's Her Name Is Sabine has been an especially strong draw for distributors. Bonnaire's ...
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News
After Bergman: the death of arthouse'
The American Film Market (AFM) has never been especially fertile territory for auteur cinema. This has always been a market for mainstream product and straight-to-video fodder, not arthouse titles. Nonetheless, one trait was very noticeable among independent sales agents in Santa Monica earlier this month. Companies which used to handle ...
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News
Profile: Philip Knatchbull, Curzon Artificial Eye
Philip Knatchbull, CEO of Curzon Artificial Eye, has a distinguished film background to live up to - his father, John Brabourne, produced the likes of Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo & Juliet and David Lean's A Passage To India.But Knatchbull has a different sort of film mission. He aims to grow Curzon ...
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News
Central Partnership sells Revenge, Wolfhound to Weinstein Company
Russian sales company Central Partnership has struck a number of deals in the wake of the American Film Market earlier this month. Titles that have lured buyers include thrillers Revenge and fantasy epic Wolfhound, already a substantial box-office hit in Russia. Revenge has been sold to North America/UK/Australia/New Zealand and ...
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News
Curzon Artificial Eye, NFTS back Ahmed's The Last Thakur
Shooting will begin next month in Bangladesh on Sadik Ahmed's The Last Thakur, the 'Spaghetti Eastern' that is being co-produced by Curzon Artificial Eye and the UK's National Film & Television School. The film is being executive produced by Philip Knatchbull, Nik Powell and Daniel Chamier. The producer is Tamsin ...
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Features
Documentaries - IDFA - And nothing but the truth ..
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa) (November 22 to December 2) in the Netherlands will celebrate its 20th anniversary in some style with five world premieres in its feature competition line-up and what are bound to be some very heated debates.Among the special guests at this year's event, which ...
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Features
Portugal - 'Thirty years of contacts'
When details were first announced of the inaugural European Film Festival Estoril (November 8-17) in Portugal, predictably some on the festival circuit were unenthusiastic about another autumn date. Nonetheless, under the direction of Portugal's best-known producer, Paulo Branco, the new event looks set to attract plenty of big-names.Branco was first ...
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News
Dent and McQueen join new team at Curzon Artificial Eye
London-based exhibitor-distributor Curzon Artificial Eye has appointedLouisa Dent as its new Managing Director. Dent, the former MD of UGCFilms UK, will take up her position full-time from January 2008.Curzon Artificial Eye has also confirmed that Alan McQueen (who formerly ran UK independent distributor Downtown Pictures) has beenrecruited to help increase ...
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News
NonStop deals CG-animated Gnomes & Trolls to CIS
Scandinavia's NonStop Sales has sold Gnomes And Trolls, the 3D-animated comedy fairy tale executive produced by Toy Story writers Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolo, to Ukranian Rights Management in Kiev for the CIS and is in advanced negotiations with China and Turkey.As soon as Gnomes And Trolls is delivered in ...
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News
Ondamax takes on sales for prison doc White Bear
Ambitious new Latin American outfit Ondamax has taken on sales for documentary White Bear chronicles the story of one of the world's most notorious jails, the 'White Bear' in Puerto Rico. The film, now in post-production, was co-financed by Buena Onda Americas and the Puerto Rican Film Commission. Directed by ...