All Middle East articles – Page 220

  • News

    Oscar nominee Cobeaga ready for first feature

    2007-03-09T06:45:00Z

    Spain's recently Oscar-nominated short film director Borja Cobeaga will shoot his first feature for producers Telespan 2000 and Estudios Picasso in October.The film, titled Flash, El Amigo De Las Chicas (literally, Flash, Friend Of The Girls), is based on the novel Flash by Massimo Bruni.The boy-meets-girl comedy is set against ...

  • News

    Spanish short Oscar nominee sets feature debut Flash

    2007-03-08T23:31:00Z

    Spain's recently Oscar-nominated short film director Borja Cobeaga will shoot his first feature for producers Telespan 2000 and Estudios Picasso in October.The film, titled Flash, El Amigo De Las Chicas (literally, Flash, Friend Of The Girls), is based on the novel Flash by Massimo Bruni.The boy-meets-girl comedy is set against ...

  • News

    Swedish partners launch fund for five low-budget features per year

    2007-03-08T17:08:00Z

    In collaboration with Swedish public broadcaster SVT, Swedish regional film centres Film i Vast and Filmpool Nord, the Swedish Film Institute has launched the Rookie film fund, which will finance five low-budget, (primarily) first features annually. Nordisk Film will handle both domestic release and international sales of the titles. Headquartered ...

  • News

    Woody Allen may work with Johansson again on Spanish project

    2007-03-07T16:20:00Z

    Woody Allen has unveiled new details about the film he will shoot in Spain this summer, including his desire to include recent muse Scarlett Johansson in the cast alongside Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Allen described the story as 'romantic but serious' in quotes published by Spanish press this week ...

  • News

    Fribourg artistic director to step down, Arab Focus in Augsburg

    2007-03-07T09:55:00Z

    Less than two weeks before this year's Fribourg International Film Festival (FIFF) (March 18-25), the artistic director Martial Knaebel has announced that he will step down in June from the post he has held for the past 15 years. Unveiling the festival programme this week, Knaebel said he had made ...

  • News

    Sogepaq closes US deals on Sanchez-Arevalo, Lazaro features

    2007-03-06T17:54:00Z

    Spain's Sogepaq has closed all-rights deals for distribution in the United States on Daniel Sanchez-Arevalo's DarkBlueAlmostBlack to Strand Releasing and on Emilio Martinez Lazaro's The 2 Sides Of The Bed to Here! Films. Mongrel Media took Canadian rights to both films in deals that were all closed at the European ...

  • News

    Film-making looks less risky in 2007,with 37 countries safer

    2007-03-06T16:49:00Z

    Film-making became slightly less risky across the globe, according to the 2007 Risks in Global Filmmaking Map from risk broker and insurance company Aon/Albert G Ruben. Of the 207 countries measured, overall risk for film-makers in 37 countries decreased slightly from 2006 to 2007. The annual map measures the threats ...

  • News

    Pathe restructures under joint team of Ivernel and Lacan

    2007-03-06T14:18:00Z

    Pathe has restructured its UK and French divisions so that its arms of Pathe Renn Production, Pathe Distribution and Pathe's UK units will be led by a management team comprised of Francois Ivernel and Marc Lacan. Pathe's production and distribution operations will be jointly managed by Ivernel, who will head ...

  • News

    New projects backed by Austrian Film Institute for $3.15m

    2007-03-06T10:38:00Z

    New feature films by Michael Glawogger, Benjamin Heisenberg, Simon Aeby and Goetz Spielmann are among a raft of projects backed with over $3.15m (Euros 2.4m) by the Austrian Film Institute (OFI).However, due to the funding body's current budgetary situation there was only around $1.3m (Euros 1m) available at this session ...

  • News

    Italian publisher Feltrinelli starts producing first feature film

    2007-03-06T04:00:00Z

    Leading Italian book publisher Feltrinelli has started production on its first feature film, We Believed (Noi Credevamo), the story of political violence sparked by Italy's battle for unification in the 19th century. The film will be released in 2008. Popular writer Giancarlo De Cataldo (Crime Novel) and director Mario Martone ...

  • News

    Rusnak's It's Alive remake starts shooting in Bulgaria

    2007-03-06T00:21:00Z

    Filming has begun in Sofia, Bulgaria, on the remake of Larry Cohen's 1974 horror classic It's Alive.Robert A Katz and Avi Lerner are producing with Moshe Diamant serving as executive producer. Mark Damon's Foresight Unlimited is handling international sales.Josef Rusnak is directing Bijou Phillips, James Murray and Raphael Coleman in ...

  • News

    Berlin mayor to host LA presentation of German Federal Film Fund

    2007-03-05T20:12:00Z

    Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit and members of regional film funding body Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg are flying in to LA to explain the new German Federal Film Fund (DFFF).The delegation will meet with LA-based film-makers to present the incentive, which offers a 20% rebate on every Euro spent, and will also discuss ...

  • News

    Oscar winners among those backed by Bavarian fund

    2007-03-05T14:20:00Z

    New feature films by Oscar-winning filmmakers Florian Gallenberger and Caroline Link are among 29 projects awarded a total of $11 million (Euros 8.4m) by the Munich-based regional public fund FFF Bayern in its first sitting of 2007. The largest amount - $2.5m (Euros 1.9m, including Euros 500,000 from the Bavarian ...

  • News

    Ghost Rider stays top in international markets with $16.3m take

    2007-03-04T22:21:00Z

    Ghost Rider continued to blaze a trail across the international arena as it dominated the market for the third consecutive weekend.The comic book adventure grossed an estimated $16.3m through Sony Pictures Releasing International (SPRI) from approximately 4,000 prints in 56 territories and now stands at $60.7m with $100m well within ...

  • News

    Belgrade festival attracts record attendance

    2007-03-04T21:50:00Z

    The beleagured Serbian film industry was boosted by a strong 35th Belgrade International Film Festival.Local cinema-going has suffered recently with attendance dropping 42% year-on-year in 2006, with just 40 theatres remaining.The Belgrade event, closed by Nanni Moretti's The Caiman, by contrast attracted a record 100,000 admissions to see about 80 ...

  • News

    Del Toro adds Portuguese prize to list of honours

    2007-03-04T20:15:00Z

    Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth walked away the top winner of the 27th annual edition of Portugal's Oporto Film Festival, better known as Fantasporto.Oscar-winning Labyrinth (El Laberinto Del Fauno) picked up theFantasporto official selection's Grand Prix for best fantasy film - anhonour the Mexican director previously took home in 1994 ...

  • News

    Nigerian drama Ezra takes Fespaco best film prize

    2007-03-04T18:43:00Z

    Newton Aduaka's Ezra won the best picture Golden Stallion of Yenneng at this year's Fespaco film fesitival in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.The Nigerian director's film tells the story of a child soldier trying to find a life after the civil war in Sierra LeoneCameroon's Jean Pierre Bekolo Les ...

  • News

    Change of direction for UK French Film Festival

    2007-03-04T12:51:00Z

    The 2007 edition of the UK's annual French Film Festival is to focus exclusively on titles that have not secured a British distribution deal. The move is seen as a response to the revitalised Rendez-vous with French Cinema (29 March -April 1) in London which boasts a succession of star-studded ...

  • News

    Screen Index up 8% with continued boom in Italy

    2007-03-02T17:53:00Z

    Local films helped push collective global box office takings of nine territories up 8% last weekend compared to the same weekend last year, according to Screen International's Screen Index. Italy continues to surge and was up 51.8% year-on-year thanks to the success of Fausto Brizzi's sequel Notte Prima Degli Esami ...

  • News

    Finnish producer MR Matila Rohr on board for Georg

    2007-03-02T12:15:00Z

    Finnish production outfit, MR Matila Rohr Productions, will co-produce Georg, a $2.76m (Euros 2.1m) biopic of Estonian singer Georg Ots, who in the 1960s was as popular as The Beatles behind the Iron Curtain - 'and in Finland, too,' added Finnish producer Ilkka Matila. Starring Marko Matvere and Anastasia Makejeva, ...