All Middle East articles – Page 160
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News
In Berlin, Madonna says directorial debut was 'learning curve'
Madonna, in Berlin with her directorial debut Filth And Wisdom, says the 81-minute feature was her version of 'film school.' 'I wanted to do it under the radar because I had to learn how to make a film,' the star told Screen International. 'I paid for it myself and begged, ...
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Reviews
War Child
Dir: Christian Karim Chrobog. USA . 2007. 94 mins.Most hip-hop artists sell themselves on their school-of-hard-knocks credentials, but few rappers can have known the kind of hell that Sudanese artist Emmanuel Jal has endured - and lived to tell the tale. A universe apart from the ...
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Fandango Portobello heats up Gomorra sales
Fandango Portobello has followed its successful sales of Competition title Quiet Chaos (Caos Calmo) with a round of deals on Matteo Garrone's Gomorra, which is now in post-production for Fandango and Rai Cinema (Fandango's Domenico Procacci is producing).Gomorra has gone to France (Le Pacte), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Canada (Seville) and Benelux ...
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Intercinema picks up two French titles from Films Distribution
Russian sales agent and distributor Intercinema, which is screening a promo reel of Fedor Bondarchuk's two-feature $36.5 million sci-fi opus The Inhabited Island here at the EFM on Thursday, has picked up a package of two of films from French seller Films Distribution.Intercinema's Raisa Fomina confirmed that she has bought ...
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Key US sellers stir up debate over EFM
The heads of two of the biggest US sales companies have challenged the business viability of EFM and called for a return to the two-market calendar.The fact that the Berlin market follows hot on the heels of Santa Monica's AFM in November, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Sundance festival in the ...
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News
Pretty Pictures strikes German deal for Joy Division
Pretty Pictures has added German rights on Grant Gee's Toronto hit documentary Joy Division. Pretty also holds the French and Benelux rights. 'We're considering our options,' said Paris-based Pretty Pictures head James Velaise. 'We think it makes sense with a documentary of this kind to acquire several territories. For example, ...
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News
Fortissimo seals raft of deals on Marley, CSNY docs
Fortissimo Films has closed a raft of deals on its recently-announced Bob Marley documentary, which Martin Scorsese is directing for delivery in 2010. The as-yet-untitled film, produced by Shangri-La Entertainment and unveiled at the beginning of the EFM, has already been snapped up by the UK's Contender, South Africa's Nu ...
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News
Visual Factory eyes slew of deals for Hideout, Concrete Romance
UK-based sales outfit Visual Factory has closed a number of deals here at the EFM. Marco Martani's gangster story Concrete Romance has gone to CanalPlus for France; Pupi Avati's The Hideout, a US-shot thriller starring Laura Morante, Burt Young and Treat Williams, has gone to Film Depot for Russia and ...
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News
Hungaricom has sales success with Egon & Donci, CATcher
Ambitious Hungarian distribution and sales outfit HungariCom has announced a raft of deals on its EFM slate.Its cartoon features are selling especially briskly. Here in Berlin the companyhas closed deals on Egon & Dönci and CATcher - Cat City 2 to HGC Entertainment for China and Media International Pictures for ...
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News
Magnolia's world sales bloom for Timecrimes, Gonzo
Magnolia Pictures' international sales department under Laird Adamson has had a successful EFM with its Spanish time travel thriller Timecrimes as well as the quirky romance Quid Pro Quo and Alex Gibney's documentary Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Dr Hunter S Thompson. All three films, which will be handled ...
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News
Yvonne Catterfeld named to play Romy Schneider in German biopic
Yvonne Catterfeld is to play the legendary Austrian-born icon Romy Schneider in Josef Rusnak's biopic Eine Frau Wie Romy (literally A Woman Like Romy) which will begin shooting at locations in France and Germany from July 23.According to German press reports, actresses such as Jodie Foster and Eva Green had ...
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News
Cinemavault polishes thriller Artefacts
Toronto-based Cinemavault Releasing International has picked up international rights excluding Benelux to English-language thriller Artefacts.Mary Stockley and Felix Scott star in the Title Films and Bad Fourteen Pictures production as former lovers who try to survive a wave of murders by doppelgangers.Brussels-based film-makers Giles Daoust and Emmanuel Jespers directed. Grindstone ...
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News
Mischa Barton thriller Homecoming sells to Russia, Latin America
Principal photography has wrapped on the Mischa Barton thriller Homecoming, which Voltage Pictures is pre-selling here at EFM.Deals have closed in Russia and Eastern Europe (EEAP), Latin America (IDC), the Middle East (Gulf), Turkey (Grandview), Israel (Forum), Indonesia (Blitz) and the Philippines (Pioneer).Morgan J Freeman directed the tale of a ...
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News
Five European festivals form 'Doc Alliance'
Five documentary festivals have hatched their very own pan-European programming initiative. 'Doc Alliance,' as the scheme is called, involves Switzerland (Visions Du Reel), the Czech Republic (Jihlava International Doc Festival), The Poles (Doc Review Warsaw), The Germans (Dok Leipzig) and the Danes (Copenhagen Documentary Festival). The idea is for each ...
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Reviews
Night and Day (Bam gua Nat)
Dir: Hong Sangsoo, S. Korea, 2008. 147mins.Light, charming but not terribly engaging, and as French as any Korean film is ever going to get, Hong Sangsoo's full-on tribute to the New Wave follows Korean expatriates around the City Of Lights. While brevity has never been one of Hong's particular talents, ...
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Ceylan's Daydreams are happy for Pyramide
Pyramide has been enjoying a strong response at EFM to Daydreams, the latest film from Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan which, like his last two features, is expected to be in competition at Cannes.BIM bought the film for Italy, Imagine for Benelux, Rosebud for Greece, Filmcoopi for Switzerland, Maywin for ...
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Reviews
Cherry Blossoms (Kirschblüten - Hanami)
Dir: Doris Dorrie, Germany, 2008, 127minsDoris Dorrie's bittersweet film is a story of mourning and the futility of trying to recover something lost. A Bavarian husband who is nearing retirement loses his wife suddenly, and flies to Japan to visit sites that she never had a chance to see while ...
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News
IFC takes US, Lionsgate takes UK on Maximum's Waiting Room
IFC Films has taken US rights and Lionsgate has acquired the UK from Maximum Films International to Roger Goldby's drama The Waiting Room.Maximum Films Distribution is handling the Canadian release on the interwoven tale of the lives and loves of a group of young Londoners. Anne-Marie Duff and Ralf Little ...
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News
Hungary plans three new studio facilities
Despite industry jitters over the future security of Hungary's 20% tax rebate for film production, developers have announced plans for three new facilities. The Hungarian press reports that construction should begin this spring on a studio complex located on a 15,000-hectare site in Rakospalota in northeast Budapest. Luxembourg-based Orco Group ...
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News
Miromar lays out slate of films in English and German
Michel Morales's German company Miromar Entertainment, co-producer on the Heather Graham romantic comedy Buy Borrow Steal and the Viggo Mortensen drama Good, has unveiled a slate of English and German-language feature projects in development.The English language genre projects - with budgets up to Euros 7m - include the action film ...