All Middle East articles – Page 195

  • News

    Kinowelt takes over Cine-International catalogue

    2007-08-10T11:38:00Z

    Kinowelt International has taken over the film catalogue of the Munich-based sales agent Cine-International which declared insolvency last month.The transaction was concluded by the Kinowelt subsidiary Futura Film Weltvertrieb im Filmverlag der Autoren with the insolvency administrator Oliver Schartl.Cine-International's library includes such films as Joseph Vilsmaier's Autumn Milk (Herbstmilch), Helma ...

  • News

    Eichinger's Baader-Meinhof Komplex begins shooting in Berlin

    2007-08-10T11:34:00Z

    Bernd Eichinger's ambitious production of Uli Edel's Der Baader Meinhof Komplex has begun principal photography in Berlin and will continue shooting later at locations in Munich and Morocco before wrapping at the end of November.This weekend, the adaptation of Stefan Aust's standard work on the Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorism ...

  • News

    Svenska Bio strikes deal to acquire Astoria Cinemas

    2007-08-09T14:17:00Z

    Swedish insolvent cinema circuit, Astoria Cinemas - once the country's second-largest theatre chain - has been sold to Svenska Bio, which is 49% controlled by Svensk Filmindustri (SF), a sister company of market leader SF Bio. After the deal, with Svenska Bio, Bonnier-owned SF and SF Bio account for almost ...

  • News

    Svenska Bio strikes deal to acquire Astoria Cinemas

    2007-08-09T14:17:00Z

    Swedish insolvent cinema circuit, Astoria Cinemas - once the country's second-largest theatre chain - has been sold to Svenska Bio, which is 49% controlled by Svensk Filmindustri (SF), a sister company of market leader SF Bio. After the deal, with Svenska Bio, Bonnier-owned SF and SF Bio account for almost ...

  • News

    New Abu Dhabi festival to offer film financing with top awards

    2007-08-09T12:49:00Z

    The Black Pearl - the grand prix of the new Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), unspooling for the first time in Abu Dhabi Oct 14-19 - will come with production grants for the winners' next films. 'The festival is determined to plant its flag right away,' said festival director ...

  • News

    Brett Morgen works with Courtney Love for new Cobain documentary

    2007-08-08T17:15:00Z

    US director Brett Morgen, whose new feature Chicago 10 screens on Locarno 's Piazza Grande on Friday, has revealed further details of his new 'official' feature documentary about Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of rock band Nirvana who died in 1994. The film, made with Courtney Love's backing, will take ...

  • News

    Open Doors awards go to projects from Syria, Israel and Egypt

    2007-08-08T15:59:00Z

    Projects from Israel, Syria and Egypt received development and production awards today at the Locarno Film Festival's Open Doors co-production forum, which was dedicated to the Near and Middle Eastern cinema. The two grants of $41,890 (CHF 50,000) for development and production, provided by Switzerland's Agency for Development and Cooperation ...

  • News

    Paramount International taps key managers in Japan and Spain

    2007-08-08T12:59:00Z

    Paramount Pictures International has hired new executives in two key territories. Ichiro Okazaki will start his post as president of Paramount Pictures Japan as of Sept 1. Pierre Auger will take on the role of general manager, Paramount Pictures Spain, from December 2007. PPI was launched in January after the ...

  • News

    Sigur Ros film to get UK theatrical release after Reykjavik premiere

    2007-08-08T12:18:00Z

    Shooting People Films is working with EMI for a planned UK theatrical release of band Sigur Ros' first film, Heima. Lilo & Stitch director Dean DeBlois led the project, using an Icelandic crew. The documentary-style project was filmed at 15 locations last summer during the band's tour of Iceland. The ...

  • News

    Kinowelt International picks up Venice Days film Head Under Water

    2007-08-07T14:57:00Z

    Kinowelt International has taken on international sales for Andreas Kleinert's thriller Head Under Water (Freischwimmer) which has been selected for its world premiere at this year's Venice Days sidebar at the end of the month. This is Kleinert's first feature film for almost ten years since his Paths In The ...

  • News

    Cronenberg's Eastern Promises to open San Sebastian

    2007-08-07T14:01:00Z

    David Cronenberg's new film, Eastern Promises, is to open the 55th San Sebastian Film Festival, which runs Sept 20-29. The Spanish festival will close with Michael Radford's Flawless, a heist film starring Demi Moore and Michael Caine, playing out of competition. Paul Auster - who is to chair the official ...

  • News

    Empties and King Of England lead Czech box-office recovery

    2007-08-07T12:12:00Z

    First-half box-office admissions in the Czech Republic grew 13% year-on-year, with local cinemas earning total revenues of nearly $31.3m (CZK 637m). If the trend continues in the second half, 2007 will outpace last year's 11.5m admissions, continuing a recovery from 2005's 9.5m admissions. The Czech Republic, which has a population ...

  • News

    OTX expands film tracking service in Russia and China

    2007-08-06T16:55:00Z

    The OTX (Online Testing Exchange) International Film Tracking service is expanding to Russia and China, the first such tracking service in each country. Clients of the consumer research and consulting company will be able to use the service to evaluate marketing campaigns up to five weeks before release. OTX's weekly ...

  • News

    Waintrop named new head of Fribourg festival

    2007-08-06T16:32:00Z

    Switzerland 's Fribourg International Film Festival (FIFF) has found a programmer for the 2008 edition, while Austria's Diagonale - Festival of Austrian Cinema will be looking for a new director from 2009. The appointment of French film critic Edouard Waintrop as programmer for the next edition of FIFF (March 1-8, ...

  • News

    SVT pulls out most expensive Nordic feature, $30m Arn

    2007-08-06T16:22:00Z

    Swedish public broadcaster SVT has pulled out of Svensk Filmindustri's Arn-The Knight Templar, the two-film adaptation of Swedish writer Jan Guillou's bestselling trilogy of Arn Magnusson, which - with a $30.3m (Euros 22.8m) budget - will become the most expensive feature production in the Nordic countries. 'Unfortunately Svensk Filmindustri cannot ...

  • News

    Ahead of Locarno premiere, Sejong takes on Nothing But Ghosts

    2007-08-05T20:03:00Z

    South Korea's Sejong has picked up German director Martin Gypken's second feature Nothing But Ghosts (Nichts Als Gespenster) ahead of its world premiere screening on Locarno's Piazza Grande on Monday evening.Beta Cinema's head of sales Andreas Rothbauer confirmed to ScreenDaily.com in Locarno at the weekend that Sejong had acquired theatrical, ...

  • News

    Anthony Hopkins says bigger festivals are like 'circuses'

    2007-08-05T19:59:00Z

    Speaking at the Locarno Film Festival this weekend, Anthony Hopkins revealed that he bypassed several other European festivals, including Rome and Venice, to bring his directorial debut Slipstream to Locarno.'We lost the Rome Festival but we thought it would be better to come here,' Hopkins said. 'It is much more ...

  • News

    Locarno gets 10% funding increase from Swiss government

    2007-08-03T16:59:00Z

    Switzerland's Federal Office of Culture (BAK) will increase its annual support for the Locarno Film Festival by more than 10% from the current $1m (CHF 1.2m) to $1.13m (CHF 1.35m) for the next three years (2008-2010). Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily.com after the BAK announcement, Locarno's artistic director Frederic Maire commented ...

  • News

    HanWay and Celluloid Dreams brands revived as Dreamachine concentrates on library

    2007-08-03T14:55:00Z

    Just three months after the splashy merger of HanWay Films and Celluloid Dreams, their joint venture company Dreamachine has now announced that the Celluloid and HanWay brands will be run as separate first-run sales and acquisition businesses in London and Paris, as they traditionally had been. The companies had sold ...

  • News

    Carlos Saura among Spanish directors invited to San Sebastian

    2007-08-03T12:20:00Z

    Iciar Bollain, Gracia Querejeta and Carlos Saura are among the Spanish directors invited to screen films this year at the upcoming 55th annual edition of Spain's Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival (Sept 20-29).Bollain will screen her new feature Mataharis in the official competition four years after her domestic abuse drama ...