All Middle East articles – Page 189
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News
Pan-Europe participants selected for first pitch forum
Thirteen screenwriters from all over Europe, including the UK, Poland, Hungary, Macedonia and Italy have been selected to present their screenplays to a panel of international producers at the first Central European Pitch Forum to be held during the Pecs International Film Festival on October 3.The Pitch Forum's organisershad 60 ...
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Films Distribution finds home for Ben X
French sales outfit Films Distribution has acquired the debut feature from Nic Balthazar, Ben X. The film is the story of a 17-year-old autistic boy who finds solace in online gaming while in real life being violently harassed by two school bullies. His revenge against the kids ultimately takes an ...
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Senator Entertainment gets $28m loan
Senator Entertainment's reinvigorated return to the German production and distribution scene has been given an additional boost after the group secured a $28m (Euros 20m) loan agreement with the Berlin branch of the Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank to finance future acquisitions of film rights and film production.Senator announced the deal ...
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Reviews
Chaos (Heya fawda)
Dir: Youssef Chahine France/Egypt 2007. 122 minsVeteran Egyptian director Youssef Chahine serves up a stirring, old-fashioned melodrama with a liberal conscience in his latest film, co-directed with his younger colleague Khaled Youssef. As imbued with the sounds, colours and passions of Cairo as a novel by Naguib Mahfouz, the film ...
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Stockholm Festival reveals early details of 170-film programme
The 18th Stockholm International Film Festival has revealed the first details of what will beits 170-film line-up.Jarret Schaefer's Chapter 27, centring on John Lennon's murderer Mark David Chapman, Driving with my Wife's Lover, the feature debut from Korean director Tai-sik Kim and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the award-winner ...
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Film Financing Circle announcedfor Abu Dhabi Festival
Organisers of Abu Dhabi 's inaugural Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) have announced details of the accompanying Film Financing Circle (FFC), which takes place at the Emirates Palace hotel, the festival centre, October 15-17. 'Since the conception of the festival, I have wanted to offer an arena where global ...
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Reviews
12 (Razgnevannyh Muzhchin)
Dir: Nikita Mikhalkov Russia 2007. 158 mins.Russian maestro Nikita Mikhalkov proves that Sidney Lumet's classic jury drama 12 Angry Men can work in another time and another place in this tasty adaptation, which is tough and passionate enough to survive the occasional lapse into Slavic sentimentality. It's hard to believe ...
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Venice winner opens Warsaw International Film Festival
Andrzej Jakimowski's Venice Days title Tricks, which received the Europa Cinemas label and Laterna Magica Award in Venice last weekend, will open this year's Warsaw International Film Festival on October 12. The 'touching and intimate look at everyday working class life in the Polish countryside' will be released theatrically in ...
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News
Polanksi drops out of Summit's Pompeii due to schedule conflict
Roman Polanski has left the forthcoming production of the epic drama Pompeii due to scheduling conflicts.The director pulled out after Summit International indicated it may have to postpone principal photography in Europe next summer due to concerns over a possible industry strike.Summit International is selling worldwide rights and is searching ...
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DHX corrals Chris Noonan's Zebras
Chris Noonan, director of Miss Potter and Babe, is preparing to shoot his next film, the $16m (A$20m) Australia-South Africa co-production Zebras.The original screenplay by David Williamson (The Year Of Living Dangerously, Phar Lap) is based on an Apartheid-era true story of Paul Krieje, an Afrikaaner who coached a Soweto ...
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News
Paul Morrison kicks off shoot for UK-Spain project Little Ashes
Factotum Barcelona, Aria Films, APT Films & Met Film started principal photography in Barcelona on Sunday for UK-Spain co-production Little Ashes.Paul Morrison directs the story of the lives and loves of Federico Garcia Lorca and Salvador Dali.Javier Beltran, Robert Pattinson and Matthew McNulty star.Morrison previously directed Solomon & Gaenor and ...
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News
Sanchez promoted at NBC Universal Television Distribution
Maria Sanchez has been promoted to senior vice president liaison, Latin America, Spain and Portugal at NBC Universal International Television Distribution (NBC UITD).Sanchez most recently served as vice president liaison, Spain and Portugal, and will continue to be based in NBC Universal's Madrid office, reporting to NBC UITD president Belinda ...
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News
Finnish production grinding to halt
Finnish producers' decision to stop new feature production until culture minister Stefan Wallin has increased production subsidy by $1.7m (Eu1.2m) has had immediate effect. The Finnish Film Foundation has not received a single new Finnish project applying for production support. 'Sometimes there are up to 10 applications for Finnish features ...
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News
Egypt starts record-breaking feature The Baby Doll Night
Egyptian company The Good News Group goes into production on The Baby Doll Night, a shoot set to trump their previous hit The Yacoubian Building in scale and budget. The $5m production is the most expensive Egyptian film to date. Shooting begins in Cairo on September 22, followed by a ...
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News
Strand takes on Jacques Nolot's Before I Forget
Strand Releasing has picked up all North American rights from Colifilms Diffusion to Jacques Nolot's Before I Forget (Avant Qur J'Oublie), which gets it world premiere here on Thursday.This is Strand's second acquisition of a Nolot film after Le Chat A Deux Tetes, which was released in the US as ...
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News
Lust, Caution is surprise winner of Venice's Golden Lion
Ang Lee won the Golden Lion - again - at the 64th Venice International Film Festival yesterday for Lust, Caution, a surprise win for the Taiwanese auteur over the critical favourite Le Graine Et Le Mulet directed by Abdellatif Kechiche from France.Lee won his first Golden Lion two years ago ...
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Memento strikes Venice deals for Under The Bombs
Since receiving an emotional standing ovation in Venice, Philippe Aractingi's Under The Bombs has sealed two distribution deals just as Toronto gets underway.Memento Films, which is handling world rights to the film, has sold it to the UK's Channel 4 and Italy's Fandango. Memento's Tanja Meissner says she is also ...
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IFC takes North America for Kormakur's Jar City
IFC Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Baltasar Kormakur's crime thriller Jar City, which started screening here on Thursday. Vice president of acquisitions and production Arianna Bocco and director of acquisitions and production Lizzie Nastro did the deal with ICM and Trust Films' sales executive Natja Noviani Rosner at ...
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Fridriksson and Kormakur set up new production company
Icelandic director-producers Fridrik Thor Fridriksson and Baltasar Kormakur, who has Jar City in Toronto, have joined forces to set up a new production shingle, Thordarhofdi Film Productions, currently readying two features for its first slate.'Thordarhofdi means 'the mountain between us' - we both have farms in northern Iceland,' explained Fridriksson, ...
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Telepool works on new comedy from Lives Of Others producer
Munich-based Telepool has boarded U-900, the third feature by The Lives Of Others producer Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion, as a sales agent and co-financier.The comedy about a submarine on the run in 1944 Germany is being directed by Sven Unterwaldt (7 Zwerge) and features Atze Schroeder, Oliver K. Wnuk, Yvonne ...