All Middle East articles – Page 133

  • News

    Sarajevo documentary competition includes five world premieres

    2008-07-22T22:12:00Z

    The Sarajevo Film Festival's documentary competition is to include five world and three internationalpremieres.The programme opens with Slovenian film Sky Too High, Soil Too Hard by Rudi Uran, which looks at the lives of young people in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, scene of the brutal massacre of 8,000 men ...

  • News

    Bals Fund Plus gives $317,000 to bring on Dutch co-producers

    2008-07-22T16:07:00Z

    The Hubert Bals Fund Plus initiative, from the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Netherlands Film Fund, is granting a total of $317,470 (Euros 200,000) for Dutch co-producers on new films.Dutch companies Isabella Films, IDTV Motel Films, Waterland Film and Volya Films will each receive $79,360 (Euros 50,000) to each ...

  • News

    UK, Israel pledge to develop film co-production treaty

    2008-07-22T14:52:00Z

    UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, this week visiting Israel, has announced plans for a UK-Israel film co-production treaty. Brown and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said they would work together to develop the treaty to encourage closer ties between the UK and Israeli film industries.Negotiations will start in the coming ...

  • News

    Torsten Koch and Oliver Koppert to head Constantin's distribution arm

    2008-07-22T12:00:00Z

    Torsten Koch and Oliver Koppert have been appointed as managing directors of Constantin Film's theatrical distribution arm Constantin Film Verleih with effect from Oct 1.Koch, who has been Marketing & Publicity Director for Constantin Film since 1999, will serve as Marketing/Distribution Managing Director for Constantin Film Verleih, while Koppert will ...

  • News

    Paramount sets up Acquisitions Group for International, Vantage

    2008-07-22T11:01:00Z

    Paramount Pictures has created the new Paramount Worldwide Acquisitions Group (PWAG), a centralised acquisitions and local productions arm that will service Paramount Pictures International and its worldwide territories as well as US-based Paramount Vantage.PPI president Andrew Cripps and Paramount Vantage president Nick Meyer jointly announced the plans today.Matt Brodlie, Paramount ...

  • News

    Deauville competition includes Snow Angels, Towelhead

    2008-07-22T10:30:00Z

    The line up for the 34th Deauville Festival of American Film includes the first directorial effort from American Beauty writer Alan Ball, Towelhead. Also on deck for the competition are David Gordon Green's Snow Angels and Tom McCarthy's critically acclaimed The Visitor. In total, the competition includes 11 films, five ...

  • News

    Locarno Critics Week world premieres include Mr December

    2008-07-22T10:13:00Z

    Locarno's Critics Week sidebar will present four world premieres and three international premieres in this year's programme of creative documentaries.The complete lineup of seven titles is:Apology Of An Economic Hitman, dir: Stelios Koul (Greece), international premiereBill - Das Absolute Augenmass, dir: Eric Schmid (Switzerland), world premiereFour Wives - One Man, ...

  • News

    Stillking hopes to lure Tarantino's Bastards to Czech Republic

    2008-07-22T10:10:00Z

    Prague-based Stillking Films is in talks with Lawrence Bender and Quentin Tarantino to bring Tarantino's upcoming project Inglorious Bastards to the Czech Republic.Stillking marketing director Romana Paskova told local press that the company had offered the producers various locations but that the project was under a strict embargo.Earlier reports mentioned ...

  • News

    Six-stage Russian World Studios to open in September

    2008-07-22T10:08:00Z

    The elephant doors will soon open on a new film-making facility in St. Petersburg. Russian World Studios, after three years of construction delays, plans to open its new studios in September.The facility will feature six sound stages - four of them 750-square meters - plus support and post-production facilities. Russian ...

  • News

    Era New Horizons hosts 650 screenings at eighth festival

    2008-07-21T16:35:00Z

    Poland 's Era New Horizons festival kicked off July 17 with Jerry Skolimowski's Four Nights With Anna and Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo, and will continue until July 27 in Wroclaw, Poland.The festival, in its eighth edition, will close with the Dardennes' Lorna's Silence. The festival will host 650 screenings of ...

  • News

    Fortissimo takes on Omarova's Native Dancer

    2008-07-21T12:37:00Z

    Fortissimo Films has acquired world rights (excluding CIS) to writer-director Guka Omarova'sNative Dancer, about a spiritual healer from Kazakhstan. (The film debuted in Sochi under the title Baksy.)The film was co-written and produced by Sergei Bodrov. Native Dancer was co-produced and financed by The CTB Film Company, The National Studio ...

  • News

    Maire's replacement search to start after Locarno festival ends

    2008-07-21T10:41:00Z

    The search for a successor to Frederic Maire as Locarno Film Festival's artistic director will be launched once this year's edition has ended on August 16.In response to rumours circulating within the Swiss press about possible candidates for Maire's post, festival president Marco Solari stressed: 'Everything is still open. We ...

  • News

    Local hits drive German box-office boom

    2008-07-20T20:55:00Z

    Thanks to such local hits as Til Schweiger's romantic comedy Rabbit Without Ears and Dennis Gansel's school drama The Wave, box-office takings for German films increased year-on-year by almost 50% in the first half of 2008.While German films posted $ 103m (Euros 64.4m) in the first six months of 2007, ...

  • News

    Seven Days (Shiva) is tops at 25th Jerusalem Film Festival

    2008-07-18T16:49:00Z

    Seven Days (Shiva) by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz, which opened this year's Cannes Critics Week, was the big winner competition vying for the Wolgin awards for the Best Israeli films at the 25th Jerusalem Film Festival. There were only three other competitors.Having pared down their picture by some 12 minutes, ...

  • News

    Intramovies takes on Bondi's Locarno premiere Black Sea

    2008-07-18T15:04:00Z

    A day after the official announcement of this year's Locarno Festival programme, Italian sales outfit Intramovies has swooped on competition title Black Sea (Mar Nero) from new director Federico Bondi.A world premiere in Locarno,Black Seawas produced by Film Kairos.'It's an arthouse film, a quality picture with a social theme,' Intramovies' ...

  • News

    Georgian drama Washington takes $10,000 Bals prize in Yerevan

    2008-07-18T13:57:00Z

    At the second DAB Co-Production Forum in Yerevan, the Hubert Bals Fund Award has been given to Washington by Andro Sakvarelidze & Giga Chkheidze of Georgia.Washington was named best out of the 12 projects presented and will get the prize money of $9,970 (Euros 5,000) to support development.Washington is seen ...

  • News

    Kinowelt's distribution chief Miros leaves company

    2008-07-18T13:53:00Z

    Georg Miros, head of marketing and sales at Leipzig-based Kinowelt Filmverleih since 2003, has left the company as of today to pursue new professional challenges.Miros had been responsible for the successful release of such films as Deep Blue, Million Dollar Baby, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The March of the Penguins, ...

  • News

    EC approves new film tax schemes in Latvia and Sardinia

    2008-07-18T12:09:00Z

    The European Commission has approved two film support schemes that address the specific problems faced by film communities in rural or smaller European areas -- specifically in Latvia and Sardinia.In Latvia, the aim is that a new $68m (Euros 43m), six-year support scheme will help audiences across rural Latvia access ...

  • News

    European Commission OKs revised Hungarian film scheme

    2008-07-17T17:06:00Z

    The European Commission has approved changes to the Hungarian support scheme for film, which now requires projects pass a broad test for European cultureFrom 2008, every production must achieve at least 16 points on a 32-point cultural test in order to qualify for the 20% tax rebate. The majority of ...

  • News

    Locarno adds Paskaljevic, Brakni to international jury

    2008-07-17T16:26:00Z

    The members for Locarno's International Competition jury are now complete with the addition of French actress Rachida Brakni (The Over-Eater) and Serbian filmmaker Goran Paskaljevic to the previously announced line-up of directors Masahiro Kobayashi (Japan), Dani Levy (Switzerland), and Paolo Sorrentino (Italy), and Mexican producer Bertha Navarro.Meanwhile, Argentina's Albertina Carri ...