All articles by Melanie Rodier – Page 27
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Mulher Policia wins top European Film Festival prize
The 4th European Film Festival in Lecce, Southern Italy, awarded its top Ulivo d'Oro competition prize to Portuguese director Joaquim Sapinho's Mulher Policia. The Portuguese-Spanish-French production, which won Euros 5,000, tells the story of a young widow who helps her troubled teenage son run away from the police.The Reunion, a ...
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Facing Windows shines at Italy's Oscar awards
Facing Windows by Ferzan Ozpetek was the big winner at this year's Donatello Awards, Italy's Oscars, scooping five awards including Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actress.The film, sold by Celluloid Dreams and produced by Tilde Corsi and Gianni Romoli's R&C Produzioni, is currently a major hit at the Italian ...
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Venice to 'encourage' Italian producers with festival retrospective
The upcoming 60th Venice Film Festival (Aug 27-Sep 6) will screen a retrospective on the 20th century's greatest Italian producers - which artistic director Moritz de Hadeln hopes will be an 'encouragement' for today's Italian producers.Entitled "The Industry of Prototypes," the retrospective will focus on the golden era of Italian ...
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Italian Oscars organiser to get new name and awards location change
Following an agreement with the EU Commission in Brussels, the Ente David di Donatello, the organisation that manages Italy's Donatello awards will be renamed 'Academy of Italian Cinema,' bringing it in line with the Cesars, the Goyas, the BAFTAS and the Academy Awards.It is hoped that the new name will ...
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Italian festival set to withdraw invitations to 22 Chinese guests
Italy's Far East Cinema Festival, one of the biggest Asian film events in Europe, is to withdraw invitations to 22 Chinese guests who were due to fly in to the country later this month, because of fears of the killer SARS virus. The festival, whose fifth edition will be held ...
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Italy follows France in big budget stakes
Taking a lesson from the French industry, Italian producers are lining up a string of big budget features in a bid to wow local and international audiences.Cast an eye over many of Italy's forthcoming films and one things stands out: despite the financial woes of the local industry, a slew ...
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Italian producer seals landmark international co-production deals
Veteran Italian producer Leo Pescarolo has sealed two landmark multi-million dollar international co-production deals with China and Canada.Fred Wang of Hong Kong's Salon Media Films has taken a 50% stake in the $18m English-language fantasy tale She, which Pescarolo developed through his Rome-based development outfit Imago Film.Salon Media Films, ...
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Murdoch gets greenlight for Italian job
The European Commission (EC) watchdog has approved the long-awaited merger of Italian pay-TV companies Telepiu and Stream, paving the way for Rupert Murdoch's single pay-TV platform, Sky Italia.The antitrust authority's thumbs-up comes after an arduous two-and-a-half year battle led by News Corp's own Italian pay-TV company, Stream, and Vivendi Universal's ...
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Italy's Mediaset records increased profits
Mediaset, Silvio Berlusconi's private Italian network, recorded a 45.7% rise in net profits in 2002 to Euros 362m. In 2001, net profits had slipped to Euros 248.4m on the back of losses linked to the company's minority stake in KirchMedia.Overall, however, the group's net financial position on December 31st 2002 ...
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Istituto Luce re-focuses on documentaries
Italy's 79-year-old state-owned Istituto Luce has decided to re-focus on its original role as Italy's leading maker of documentaries."We want to revitalise our role as a documentary-maker and give it new impetus. We will no longer just make "montage" documentaries, but will produce new ones too," said Istituto Luce ...
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RAI drafts in Fiera di Milano boss as new CEO
Less than two weeks after appointing a new president, Italian state broadcaster RAI has hired Fiera di Milano chief Flavio Cattaneo as its new CEO.Cattaneo, 39, had been president and CEO of the sprawling Fiera complex, which houses MIFED, since 2000. A trained architect, he has previously also worked in ...
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Sodano resigns from Eagle Pictures
Giampaolo Sodano, one of the Italian film industry's leading figures, has resigned from his position as president of Eagle Pictures, after helping the company more than double its revenue over the last three years."I simply decided it was time to move on. I had completed my task, so to speak. ...
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Italy's Mikado takes Coppola's Lost In Translation
Mikado Film, Italy's long-established arthouse distributor and producer, has bought Italian distribution rights to Sofia Coppola's new film, Lost In Translation.Lost In Translation is the second feature from Sofia Coppola after The Virgin Suicides and is being sold by Focus Features. Shot in Tokyo, it stars Bill Murray and Scarlett ...
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Italian cinemas fear summer drought
Walter Vacchino, head of Italy's association of exhibitors, has voiced concern about the upcoming summer film season in Italy."We are pleased that distributors are planning to release several Italian films during the summer - but we're very worried about the overall situation after examining distributors' upcoming slates, particularly for the ...
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Italy close to signing major production/distribution deal with India
Italy is close to signing a landmark co-production and co-distribution agreement with India, which is also expected to encourage Indian crews to shoot movies in Italy. The deal is one of the latest initiatives spearheaded by new Italian state Film Department chief, Gianni Profita."We are collaborating with Indian Film Commissions ...
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Ten films line up to compete at the Festival of European Cinema
Moonlight, the new English-language film from current Oscar nominee Paula van der Oest, will be among the titles screening in the official competition of the 4th Festival of European Cinema in Lecce, which runs from April 7th-12th. Sold by Gary Hamilton's Arclight Films, Moonlight is a romantic thriller about 13 ...
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Facing Windows leads Italian Oscar race
Italian-Turkish director Ferzan Ozpetek's drama Facing Windows (La Finestra di Fronte) has scored the biggest number of nominations at the Donatellos, Italy's Oscars, winning 11 nods in all the main categories. But competition for the awards on April 9 is set to be the strongest it has been in recent ...
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Delayed Medusa-Cecchi Gori films finally get Italian release
My Name Is Tanino and L'Anima Gemella, two Italian films which screened at Venice last year before being caught up in the financial storm currently gripping local mogul Vittorio Cecchi Gori, are finally set to be released in Italy, after Medusa sealed a joint distribution deal with the Cecchi Gori ...
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Mieli named new president of Italian state broadcaster
Paolo Mieli, a former editor of national Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, has been appointed president of state broadcaster RAI. The Italian parliament and senate's appointment of Mieli, a widely-respected journalist, historian and political commentator, followed the resignation of president Antonio Baldassarre and remaining board member Ettore Alberoni. Last week, ...
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Italian parliament seeks 'impartial' president for state broadcaster
In an apparent effort to contain ongoing criticism over Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's sway on state broadcaster RAI, the speakers of the two houses of the Italian Parliament have decided that the network's next president should be appointed from the opposition party.The unprecedented decision (Rai's president and three of its ...