All Middle East articles – Page 131

  • News

    Bavaria takes on Toronto world premiere Krabat

    2008-08-06T11:22:00Z

    Bavaria Film International has picked up international distribution rights for Marco Kreuzpaintner's $15.5m (Euros 10m) fantasy film Krabat which will have its world premiere in the official selection of the forthcoming Toronto International Film Festival.Set in the 17th century, the story of Krabat, an orphan boy who is apprenticed to ...

  • News

    Weber steps down as CEO of Senator parent to take LA head job

    2008-08-06T10:13:00Z

    As of Sept 1, Marco Weber will acquire all shares in Los Angeles-based Senator Entertainment Inc. and step down as chief creative officer of the German parent company Senator Entertainment AG.Weber, who is currently CEO and President of Senator Entertainment Inc., will then focus solely on production of English-language films ...

  • News

    Ghent to honour Harold Lloyd with exibition, screenings

    2008-08-05T23:09:00Z

    The 35th Ghent International Film Festival will honour the late silent film star Harold Lloyd with an exhibition of personal photos and memorabilia and a screening of newly restored versions of Safety Last!, The Freshman, Speedy and Welcome Danger.The exhibition will feature photos, sheet music, scripts and costumes and has ...

  • News

    French illegal downloads equal to box-office admissions

    2008-08-05T17:26:00Z

    Illegal downloading of films in France has reached 450,000 per day according to a report by anti-piracy association ALPA.The figure represents the same level as box-office entries, the report said. Speaking to wire service Agence France Presse, Frederic Delacroix, the director of ALPA, said, 'We are facing a major phenomenon ...

  • News

    Harrison starts Unstoppable shoot in Portugal and Spain

    2008-08-05T11:48:00Z

    UK writer/director Richard Harrison started shooting yesterday in Portugal for his debut feature Unstoppable.The film is now shooting in Praia da Bordeira in Portugal, and will move to Andalucia on Aug 10 and wrap on Aug 31.The Portuguese government and Andalucian Film Commission have helped with location scouting and filming ...

  • News

    Sven Sturm to head new Paramount Pictures Germany

    2008-08-05T11:30:00Z

    Sven Sturm has been appointed general manager of Paramount Pictures Germany, the newly set up German operation from Paramount Pictures International.Sturm had been head of marketing at Sony Pictures Releasing (Germany) since 2000. Prior to that he worked at Universal Music in Germany. He takes the Munich-based post as of ...

  • News

    Beta Cinema handling 1936 Olympics drama

    2008-08-05T10:41:00Z

    Beta Cinema will handle international distribution for Kaspar Heidelbach's drama Berlin 1936 (working title) which begins shooting in North Rhine-Westphalia on Wednesday (Aug 6), just two days before the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.The production by Cologne-based Gemini Film, one of co-producers of the Dardenne brothers' Cannes ...

  • News

    Silent Light wins at Motovun

    2008-08-04T07:53:00Z

    Carlos Reygadas's Silent Light won the Motovun Propeller, the main prize of the 10th Motovun Film Festival, which wrapped Aug 1. The festival favourite and Cannes jury award winner was named Best Film by Slovenian actress Milena Zupancic, British director Pawel Pawlikowski and Pavle Levi, professor of film studies at ...

  • News

    Rome to honour Al Pacino with Gold Marco Aurelio

    2008-08-01T15:50:00Z

    Al Pacino will receive career honours at the International Film Festival of Rome when the third edition unspools this October.Career honourees at the festival's first two editions include Sean Connery and Sophia Loren.The Gold Marco Aurelio honorary award will be given to Pacino, who will be on hand to take ...

  • News

    Swiss cinema continues decline in first half of 2008

    2008-08-01T11:09:00Z

    Swiss cinema's market share has continued its downward trend, according to provisional figures for the first half of 2008, with local films only clinching a 2.3% slice of the box-office compared to last year's 7% and 2006's record 11.6%.Statistics collated by the industry body Procinema showed that the ambitious animation ...

  • News

    Postcard from Karlovy Vary

    2008-08-01T00:00:00Z

    Karlovy Vary is known as a relaxed setting, ideal for renewing contacts. A little business was done in the pine-fringed Czech spa town during the festival (July 4-12), four films picked up local distribution, and the Eastern European line-up went down well with enthusiastic audiences, many of whom were backpacking ...

  • News

    Venice Film Festival: Italian squad takes on rest of world

    2008-08-01T00:00:00Z

    The Italian flag will fly high over the Lido this year. Following a strong showing at Cannes, four local titles will screen in competition at the 65th Venice film festival, with the Italian industry out in force with 20 films.Artistic director Marco Mueller reportedly had to make an official request ...

  • News

    Grande ambitions: Locarno preview

    2008-07-31T16:31:00Z

    On the eve of this year's 61st Locarno International Film Festival (August 6-16), the organisers are in bullish mood. Festival director Frederic Maire is clearly delighted to secure Julian Jarrold's Evelyn Waugh adaptation Brideshead Revisited as the festival's opening film.'It's a very strong film, which looks really classical but is ...

  • News

    Projects by Fliegauf, Alvart, Sax receive backing from German funds

    2008-07-31T10:49:00Z

    New productions by Benedek Fliegauf, Christian Alvart, and Geoffrey Sax are among 35 projects receiving over $12m in support from the German Federal Film Board (FFA) and Leipzig-based Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung (MDM).At its latest sitting the Berlin-based FFA supported such projects as Hungarian director Fliegauf's first English language production, Womb, produced ...

  • News

    Russian box-office sales boom in first half of 2008

    2008-07-31T07:34:00Z

    Cinemas in Russia and the CIS saw a 3.7% year-on-year increase in admissions in the first half of 2008 while sales in the first six months of the year ballooned 38.2% over the same period in 2007. According to Russian Film Business Today, more than 56m tickets were sold in ...

  • News

    Match Factory handles Venice competitors Jerichow, Teza

    2008-07-31T06:00:00Z

    Cologne-based The Match Factory will handle international sales on two Venice competition titles - Christian Petzold's Jerichow and Haile Gerima's Teza - screening as world premieres at the festival.Jerichow marks The Match Factory's second collaboration with Petzold after his Berlinale 2007 competition film Yella which won lead actress and Petzold ...

  • News

    Colin Brown steps down as Editor-in-Chief of Screen International

    2008-07-31T06:00:00Z

    Colin Brown is stepping down as the longstanding Editor-in-Chief of Screen International to pursue new entrepreneurial ambitions in the global media and entertainment sphere.Announcing the amicable departure, Natasha Christie-Miller, Managing Director, Retail & Media at Emap Inform, Screen's parent company, paid tribute to Brown's long and profitable association with the ...

  • News

    John Goodman, David Wenham confirmed for Pope Joan

    2008-07-30T14:12:00Z

    US actor John Goodman and Australian-born David Wenham have joined the cast of Soenke Wortmann's adaptation of Donna W. Cross' bestselling novel Pope Joan, which begins principal photography in Germany's Saxony-Anhalt next week.Goodman will play the part of Pope Sergius - the role he had also been expected to play ...

  • News

    Locarno to honour Chahine with Destiny screening

    2008-07-30T12:07:00Z

    The Locarno International Film Festival will pay tribute to the Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, who died last weekend at the age of 82,with a special screening of his film Destiny (Al Massir) on the Piazza Grande on August 7.This film had also been shown eleven years ago at the festival ...

  • News

    Juraj Jakubisko strikes back with empire story 200 Years Of Solitude

    2008-07-30T10:12:00Z

    Juraj Jakubisko is preparing a film from the time of Great Moravian Empire, which dominated Central Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries.The Slovak director said he might release 200 Years Of Solitude (working title) in two or three parts.Jakubisko describes the project as an epic look at the time ...