All Middle East articles – Page 199
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Babelgum offers content from Giffoni Film Festival
New Internet TV service Babelgum has started festival broadcasts with Italy's Giffoni Film Festival.An entire Babelgum channel will be devoted to the Giffoni event, which is now in its 37th year. The festival concentrates on films for children.The channel is currently offering a selection of shorts from the 2006 festival ...
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Italy planning new film ratings legislation package
Italy is planning a new film ratings legislation package aimed at protecting the youngest cinemagoer. The bill will be presented to the Cabinet of Ministers tomorrow and outlines new criteria for ratings with an updated age-tiered system. The law aims to replace Italy's last board that was charged with overseeing ...
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Italian exhibitors buoyant at Harry Potter 5's first day
Italian exhibitors are buoyant with the results of Harry Potter And The Order of the Phoenix's opening day, as ANEC, Italy's exhibitor association's president Paolo Protti declares it 'a happy story of a deserved success.' Potter 5 ranked as the best Wednesday opener ever in Italy - scooping up $2.75m ...
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Shekhar Kapur's The Golden Age to open Rome's Premiere section
Shekhar Kapur's The Golden Age, starring Cate Blanchett, will inaugurate the Premiere section of the second edition of the Rome Film Festival, organisers said today. The Golden Age will see its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, as previously announced, while the Rome bow will be its European premiere.The ...
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Vito Rocco wins $2m feature funding from MySpace's MyMovieMashUp
Vito Rocco has won the MyMovieMashUp competition from MySpace, Film4 and Vertigo Films. Rocco, a 35-year-old Londoner wins $2m (£1m) to direct his debut feature Faintheart, written by David Lemon. The comedy is about hobbyists who re-enact Viking battles. A panel of experts selected the competition's 12 shortlisted directors and ...
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Pretty Pictures strikes deal for Kenyan comedy Malooned in Zanzibar
At the 10th annual event which ended July 8, the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) can report its first deal. France's Pretty Pictures acquired world rights (outside Africa) to Kenyan comedy Malooned directed by Bob Nyanja. Pretty Pictures also acquired the remake rights to the story, which is about a ...
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Sweden's Astoria Cinemas files for bankruptcy
Last curtain fell for Swedish cinema circuit, Astoria Cinemas - once the country's second-largest theatre chain - as part-owner and managing director (since June 8) Jonny Jergander filed for bankruptcy less than two months after distributor-exhibitor Triangelfilm, the main force behind the set-up, also went bust. 'We are all losers. ...
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4 Months stirs education controversy in France
Cannes Palme d'Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days has been at the heart of some controversy lately in France.The drama, which deals with clandestine abortion in Communist-era Romania, was also awarded the National Education Prize which is given to a Cannes official selection that has relevant artistic, ...
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Paramount takes UK and otherrights to How To Lose Friends
Paramount Pictures International has licensed UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa distribution rights for How To Lose Friends And Alienate People from Intandem Films. Intandem has also struck deals for Portugal, Benelux, CIS, Greece, Cyprus, Scandinavia and the Middle East. The total value of pre-sales so far is $4.8m. ...
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Halo-8 takes rights to documentary Your Mommy Kills Animals
Halo-8 Entertainment, the label distributed by Ryko Filmworks and Warner-Elektra-Atlantic, and taken worldwide theatrical and home video rights to animal rights documentary Your Mommy Kills Animals from Indie Genius Productions. Curt Johnson, who previously worked on Thoth, directs the project about young animal rights activists and their detractors. 'Curt Johnson ...
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Screenwriting group eQuinoxe expands into Middle East
eQuinoxe, the international mentoring association that runs workshops for screenwriters, has set up in the Middle East. EQuinoxe Arabiya is styling itself as an 'incubator' focused on mentoring Arab filmmakers and their projects. A not-for-profit offshoot of Haroun Multimedia, an animation and post-production house based in Dubai Media City, the ...
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Maire promises diversity and premieres at Locarno 2007
A 'diversity in the range of possibilities of filmmaking' is how Locarno Film Festival's Frederic Maire describes the line-up for his second festival as artistic director. The Swiss festival kicks off Aug 1 with a screening of the Japanese film Vexille by Fumihiko Sori on the Piazza Grande. 'The two ...
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Warner Bros promotes PaoloFerrari in Italy
Warner Bros. International has named Paolo Ferrari as president and managing director, Warner Bros Entertainment Italy.The promotion was announced today by Barry Meyer, chairman and CEO, Alan Horn, president and COO and Richard Fox, executive vice president, International, Warner Bros.Ferrari's advancement comes after a 17 year stint with Warner Bros ...
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Dutch 2007 box office up 8.3% in first half of 2007
Recovery of Dutch box office continues after the satisfying 2006 numbers. Total gross increased with 8.3% to $96.5m (Euros 70.7m) in this year's first six months, compared to $89.1m (Euros 65.3m) in 2006. Dutch admissions climbed with 6.6% to 10.4m sold tickets in the first six months. In 2006, only ...
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Belle Epoque leads prizes at first Film Festival of Serbia
At the first national Film Festival of Serbia in Novi Sad (July 3-8), Nikola Stojanovic's Belle Epoque picked up the Grand Prix for the best film, as well as awards for best actress, music, make-up and art direction. The film about the period from 1910-1914 in Sarajevo had been shot ...
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Czechs prepare to submit new film law calling for 20% rebate
Czech filmmakers and politicians are again preparing a new proposal for a comprehensive film law which would help lure runaway productions to Prague and provide sustainable support for local filmmakers. Among the proposal's reported features is a 20% tax rebate for film productions, foreign or domestic, shooting in the Czech ...
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France sees 9m fewer tickets sold in first half of 2007
After a record first half in 2006, the first six months of 2007 have seen a 12% drop in film attendance in France. However, the 90.5m admissions racked up are an increase over 2005. That figure comes from France's Film Federation (FNCF), which represents the nation's exhibitors, while the National ...
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German Films Previews offers 17 projects to international buyers
The European representatives of such US distributors as The Weinstein Company, Paramount Vantage, and Miramax are among over 50 international film buyers attending the German Films Previews showcase which are being held for the first time in Cologne from July 12 until the weekend. Other companies confirmed as coming to ...
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Muriel Sauzay joins Pathe to head international sales
Muriel Sauzay has been named deputy managing director of Pathe Distribution (France) in charge of international sales. She will be based in Paris, while head of international sales Mike Runagall will continue to be based in London. The two offices will work together under Sauzay's supervision. She had been director ...
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Witi Ihimaera to work on Matriarch adaptation with Binger Lab
The Netherlands-based Binger Filmlab will welcome Maori novelist Witi Ihimaera as a writer in residence for six months, and Ihimaera will also follow Binger's Script Development Programme. The author, who previously wrote The Whale Rider, will be working on the screen adaptation of his 1986 novel The Matriarch, about the ...