All Middle East articles – Page 237

  • News

    Nordisk establishes own distribution channels post split

    15 January 2007

    Danish major Nordisk Film announces company structure after 17-year relationship with Columbia Tristar-Sony Pictures Releasing International ends.As of Jan 1, Danish major Nordisk Film established its own outlets to handle productions and acquisitions in Sweden, Norway and Finland. This comes in the wake of its split from Columbia Tristar-Sony Pictures ...

  • News

    French films take $390m at world's box offices in 2006

    14 January 2007

    French export body Unifrance announced its global figures Friday at the annual Rendez Vous event held in Paris. For 2006, French films sold 55.8 million tickets at the world box-office. Those sales brought in just over $390m (Euros 300m.)The score represents a drop of 23% off of 2005 which saw ...

  • News

    Berlin announces International Forum films

    13 January 2007

    New features by Serbian filmmaker Srdan Golubovic, Malaysia's Amir Muhammad and Germany's Ann-Kristin Reyels will have their world premieres at this year's International Forum of Young Cinema in Berlin. Golubovic's thriller The Trap, his second feature after the outstanding 2001 debut Absolute Hundred, was produced by Belgrade-based Bas Celik with ...

  • News

    Berlinale's Generation Kplus to open with The Last Mimzy

    12 January 2007

    Generation, the Berlinale's programme for children and young people's films, has set its line-up of 25 feature films, including three world premieres and 10 international premieres, from 22 countries. The competition for Generation Kplus (previously Kinderfilmfest) will open in the Zoo Palast cinema on Feb 9 with the international premiere ...

  • News

    Italian admissions hold steady in 2006 despite weak December

    12 January 2007

    Italian admissions for 2006 demonstrated little difference in respect to 2005. Italy's national ticket compiler Cinetel cites a slight 1.65% increase in attendance last year for a total of 92.2m tickets sold. Cinetel's data covers 85% of the Italian market. Analysts here cite the first half of the year as ...

  • News

    Liv Ullmann shelves plans for A Doll's House

    12 January 2007

    Norwegian actress-director Liv Ullmann has decided to shelve her $10.7m (Euros 8.3m) star-studded adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's classic play A Doll's House due to lack of support from the Norwegian Film Fund. 'My life will now go on without A Doll's House,' Ullmann said in a faxed statement (the France-based ...

  • News

    Gaumont unveils Warnier's Seeds Of Death at Rendez-Vous

    12 January 2007

    Gaumont will premiere Regis Warnier's latest film, Seeds Of Death, on Friday night at Paris' Unifrance Rendez-Vous of French film. The thriller stars Jose Garcia, Marie Gillain, Michel Serrault and Olivier Gourmet and is a sure to be a hot item amongst buyers at the weekend market. Also on Gaumont's ...

  • News

    Pathfinder, Smokin' Aces hit international markets ahead of US

    12 January 2007

    Fox International launches action adventure Pathfinder in four international territories this weekend in advance of its domestic opening on April 27; meanwhile Universal/UPI opens crime caper Smokin' Aces in the UK ahead of its US opening on Jan 26.The overseas-first opening policy is becoming more prevalent and was used last ...

  • News

    Keene shifts at Premier

    12 January 2007

    Sara Keene has stepped down as one of the chief executives of Premier Public Relations to take on a role as non-executive director. Keene, who founded Corbett and Keene in 1987, will act as a consultant to the board and will continue to run Premier's personal publicity for individual celebrities ...

  • News

    Universal pictures sets up post-UIP Irish team

    12 January 2007

    Universal Pictures International (UPI) UK and Eire has appointed an Irish team responsible for the sales, marketing and publicity of the company's products in Ireland, following the closure of UIP in the territory. Eclipse Pictures veteran David Burke is leading the team as general manager. Maryse Fitzpatrick will serve as ...

  • News

    Stephen Frears to lead Cannes jury in 60th year

    11 January 2007

    The Festival de Cannes has tapped director Stephen Frears as its jury president for the 60th edition, which runs May 16-27. Fears has directed films including The Queen, My Beautiful Laundrette, The Grifters, High Fidelity, Dirty Pretty Things and 1987 Cannes competitor Prick Up Your Ears. 'Of course, it's an ...

  • News

    Momentum MD Marchand suspended and replaced by Napper

    11 January 2007

    UK distributor Momentum Pictures has suspended managing director Xavier Marchand.Former Sony executive Richard Napper has been appointed in his place on an interim basis with immediate effect while the company searches for a permanent replacement. No specific reasons were given for Marchand's suspension, but a spokesperson from Momentum's parent company ...

  • News

    Serbian 2006 box office takings down by 36%, admissions drop 43%

    11 January 2007

    The first estimates of Serbian-Montenegrin box-office in 2006 show the biggest decline since the economic embargo imposed by the UN Security Council from 1992 to 1995. From January to November, Serbian theaters sold 1.52m admissions, falling 43% from 2005's 2.65m 2 and earning a total gross of about $4.5m (SD306m), ...

  • News

    Swedish films' local market share slips 9% in 2006

    11 January 2007

    In spite of the release of 36 new Swedish features in 2006, local productions sold only 3m cinema tickets - down 300,000 (9%) from 2005 - to control 20% of the theatrical market, against 22.6% the previous year, according to preliminary statistics from the Swedish Film Institute. International blockbusters, led ...

  • News

    Memento partners with ID and acquires Angosto

    11 January 2007

    France 's Memento Films has joined with ID Distribution to create a partnership which will see the two companies work together on acquisitions, international sales, production and French distribution. Memento principals Emilie Georges and Alexandre Mallet-Guy and ID Distribution's Isabelle Dubar have combined their teams and are planning to 'take ...

  • News

    Paul Schrader to serve as jury president for Berlinale Competition

    11 January 2007

    US writer-director Paul Schrader (American Gigolo, Mishima) will head up the seven-person International Jury deciding on the Golden Bear and Silver Bears at next month's Berlinale (Feb 8-18). The other members of the jury are: Palestinian actress-writer-director Hiam Abbass, whose recent acting credits include The Syrian Bride, Paradise Now and ...

  • News

    Fortissimo on board for Annie Leibovitz documentary

    11 January 2007

    Fortissimo Films has taken all rights outside North America for Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens, directed by the photographer's sister Barbara Leibovitz. The documentary feature follows Annie Leibovitz's career for more than 30 years. Interviews in the film include Mikhail Baryshnikov, Tina Brown, Graydon Carter, Rosanne Cash, Hillary Rodham ...

  • News

    First Berlinale Panorama titles unveiled

    11 January 2007

    New films by Hal Hartley (Fay Grim), Eytan Fox (The Bubble), Korea's Hong Sangsoo (Woman On The Beach), actress Julie Delpy (Two Days in Paris) and actor Antonio Banderas (Summer Rain) are among the titles so far confirmed for more than half of the programme for this year's Panorama at ...

  • News

    Italian producer Carlo Ponti dies aged 94

    10 January 2007

    Prolific Italian producer Carlo Ponti, whose career influenced the rise of major European film movements such as neorealism and the French new wave died on Wednesday in Geneva of pulmonary complications. He was 94 years old. Born near Milan in 1912, Ponti studied law before becoming a film producer in ...

  • News

    Goya's Ghosts to get gala in Goteborg

    10 January 2007

    The Goya's Ghosts team - the Oscar-winning duo of director Milos Forman and producer Saul Zaentz, scriptwriter Jean-Claude Carriere and lead actor Stellan Skarsgard - will be on hand for the gala performance of the film, one of 450 titles on show at the 30th Goteborg (Gothenburg) International Film Festival, ...