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All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 193
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New UK distributor builds release slate
Enjoy Cinema Ltd., the new UK theatrical distribution outfit set up earlier this year by Simon Gosling (ex-HanWay), has announced details of its first acquisitions.To mark the 10th anniversary of the end of apartheid, Enjoy is to release Jason Xenopoulos' Promised Land in the early summer. Based on the novel ...
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Lords lash out at tax loophole closure
Thecontroversy over the government's decision to close down film taxloopholes last month erupted in the House of Lords this week.LabourGovernment spokesman Lord Davies came under fire yesterday as the House OfLords debated the film tax crisis. An array of Tory peers queued up to attacklast month's abrupt decision by the ...
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Winchester finally becomes Content
The name Winchester Entertainment PLC is set to disappear, it was confirmed yesterday as further details of the merger between Winchester and Ed Pessman and John Schmidt's ContentFilm inc. were announced.Subject to shareholder approval at an extraordinary general meeting on 26 March, the new enlarged entity is to be called ...
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New indie collectives preach cost efficiencies
Is small beautiful' Certainly not was the verdict of the panellists on "Collective Power: Buying and Selling Alliances," speaking this month at Screen International's Modernising European Cinema Summit at the Berlin Film Festival - all of whom are involved in the new wave of indie-combos set up across Europe in ...
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Learning to love the critics
Is there a crisis in European film criticism' That was one key question being asked during Friday's European Film Academy event, "How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Critics."Panellist Ken Loach (in Berlin with competition entry Ae Fond Kiss) blamed the decline in critical standards on "market forces ...
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Delpy lines up dark directorial debuts
In Berlin with competition title Before Sunset, actress Julie Delpy has revealed further details of her two new directorial projects, both of which are slated to feature roles for her Before Sunset co-star, Ethan Hawke.The $4m Tell Me is a modern fairy tale about a woman trapped with a man ...
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Smith rides Intandem with August
Ex-Winchester boss Gary Smith yesterday announced that he was back in the film business with a new sales and production outfit, Intandem Films.The company is handling international rights on Bille August's thriller Return To Sender, the long-gestating project from writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (The World Is Not Enough) ...
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Hanway tipped to handle Foresight slate
HanWay (owned by Jeremy Thomas) is emerging as the prime candidate to handle international sales on many of the films made through Foresight Film, the new Section 48 production fund launched by Prescience Film Finance that aims to raise £10m for a £40m film slate in the 2004/2005 tax ...
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British industry rocked by $375m equity cull
The British filmindustry has been left in a state of shock following the surprise announcementthis week that tax authority the Inland Revenue is pulling down the"guillotine" on the UK's tax equity funds.Veteran producerJeremy Thomas warned that the move would have "major implications"for employment in the UK industry.Pointing out thatup to ...
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Sisters sales boost Highpoint's Dutch ties
London-based outfit High Point Films, in Berlin for the first time, has concluded another sale on its Oscar-nominated Dutch title, Twin Sisters. The film (which is being released in the US by Miramax) has now gone to Sweden (Atlantic Film) following earlier deals with Germany (Kinowelt) and Japan. The major ...
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UK's Soda scores with German Miracle
Effervescent new UK outfit Soda Pictures, set up in 2002 by Eve Gabereau and Edward Fletcher, confirmed yesterday that it has taken UK rights to The Miracle Of Berne from Bavaria Film.Soda plans to release the football-themed drama, set at the time of West Germany's 1954 World Cup win, in ...
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Content fields Beautiful offers
Following the Berlinale competition screening of Hans Petter Molland's Beautiful Country earlier in the week, Content International's Jamie Carmichael has received firm offers from the three major territories left unsold, Japan, Germany and Italy, and is expected to close deals in the next imminently.'It's a wonderfully intelligent and moving film ...
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Greenaway goes to battle in search of human soul
Speaking in Berlin following the screening of Tulse Luper's Suitcases, Part II, maverick British director Peter Greenaway revealed details of his next major project - a Russian language epic set in the aftermath of the 30 Years War.Augsbergenfeld, as the project is called, is a historical, baroque film about an ...
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UK Film Showcase unveiled
Further details have emerged of The UK Film Showcase, the new screenings initiative for British films being launched in London this summer.London mayor Ken Livingstone is investing roughly £50,000 into the event, due to be held in late June at the three-screen National Film Theatre in London. The Showcase is ...
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Berlin rekindles the spirit of Che Guevara
Last month, Che Guevara's old Cuban friend and travelling companion Alberto Granado was denied entry to the US for the Sundance World Premiere of Motorcycle Diaries, Walter Salles' film based on his 1952 journey round South America on the back of a Norton 500 with Guevara.Thankfully, the 81-year-old did make ...
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Sex drama entices Winterbottom
With $30,000 in development money from United Artists, last year's Golden Bear winner Michael Winterbottom has started shooting what promises to be his most contentious project yet - a fully sexually explicit relationship drama.He is yet to decide whether the film will ever be released or indeed even completed. "We're ...
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UK Film Council tickled by Spanish comedy
The UK Film Council is to make its first ever investment in a Spanish language film as part of a bid to extend ties with mainland European partners.Spanish comedy Only Human will receive £298,723 in UK lottery investment.The Meet The Family-style comedy to be directed by Teresa De Pelegri and ...
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Mountain buffeted by cold US wind
Speaking yesterday at Screen International's Modernising European Cinema Summit in Berlin, Anthony Minghella expressed his dismay at the continuing criticism he faces in the US for shooting Berlinale opening film Cold Mountain in Romania.Even though his decision to film the Civil War drama in Europe rather than North Carolina ...
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Momentum spells out European expansion plans
Momentum Pictures, the independent UK distributor which last year had a market share of 1.3%, is set for a growth spurt. Xavier Marchand, the new managing director, has revealed further details of the company's plans to move into Europe and to beef up its British presence."The onus is on us ...