All articles by Mike Goodridge – Page 56
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News
Heartland Film Festival ups prize money to $200,000
The Heartland Film Festival,which takes place in Indianapolis, Indiana, in Oct has announced that it willincrease its prize money for films to $200,000 for its 15th editionthis year.The festival, which is setfor Oct 19 to 27, will double its grand prize for dramatic feature to $100,000,making it one of the ...
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Rabbit, Italian among titles in Russian Nights LA festival
Tigran Keosayan's Rabbit Over The Void about the mysterious disappearance ofLeonid Brezhnev for three days in 1971, will open the film section of thefourth annual Russian Nights festival in Los Angeles on April 2.The festival, presented by Moscow's Stas Namin Center, is composedof film, dance, music, theatre and contemporary art ...
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News
Accused, Life In Colour take top prizes at Miami
The Miami International Film Festival concluded on Saturday nightwith the announcement of three juried awards offering cash sums of $25,000each. Presentations were made at a closing ceremony introduced by festivaldirector Nicole Guillemet and hosted by actors Alice Braga and Jose Antonio.Life In Colour from Spain's Santiago Tabernero won the top ...
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News
Focus to back Euro projects from McDonagh and Barra
Focus Features has boardedtwo new European productions - Belgium-set hitman drama In Bruges directed by this year's live action short Oscarwinner Martin McDonagh, and an adaptation of the bestselling World War II novelNaples '44: A World War II Diary Of Occupied Italy by Norman Lewis.In Bruges is being produced by ...
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News
Walden to co-finance Wonder Emporium with Mandate
Chronicles OfNarnia backer WaldenMedia has teamed up with Mandate Pictures to co-finance Mr Magorium's WonderEmporium, thedirectorial debut of screenwriter Zach Helm which will star Natalie Portman,Dustin Hoffman and Jason Bateman.Richard Gladstein of FilmColony and Jim Garavente areproducing the film which is scheduled to start shooting in Toronto at the endof ...
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Panther laughs its way into France, Germany, Australia
20th Century Fox International takes MGM's US hit ThePink Panther out in aslew of major territories this weekend including France, where the film is set,Germany, Australia, Norway and South Africa.The Steve Martin-starrer whichwas a surprise family success in North America goes out on 510 prints inFrance, 550 in Germany and ...
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Odd Lot reteams with Lexi Alexander on A House Divided
DeborahDel Prete and Gigi Pritzker's Odd Lot Entertainment has acquired A HouseDivided, a script by Lexi Alexanderfor whom they produced Green Street Hooligans.Alexanderwill produce the film under her Irons Productions along with her partner StefanHeller. Del Prete and Pritzker will serve as executive producers, while LindaMcDonough will co-produce.AHouse Divided is ...
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Weinsteins acquire Crane-Iron Pentalogy for films, stage
The Weinstein Company (TWC)has acquired worldwide film rights to Wang Du Lu's Crane-Iron Pentalogy, the series of novels upon which Ang Lee's classic CrouchingTiger, Hidden Dragon was based. TWChas also acquired the worldwide rights to develop and produce stage adaptationsof the pentalogy including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which will be ...
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News
Papandrea moves to LA to head London's Groundswell Productions
Bruna Papandrea has joinedMichael London's new financing company Groundswell Productions as president.Papandrea (pictured) moves to LosAngeles from New York City where she was previously at GreeneStreet Films; shepreviously worked in London as a creative executive for Anthony Minghella andSydney Pollack in their Mirage Enterprises.The Australian-born Papandreawill oversee creative operations for ...
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News
Weisbein's Green Room strikes sales deal on Orchestra Seats
Pierre Weisbeinand his LA-based company Green Room has struck a deal with producer ChristineGozlan and financier StudioCanal to handle all English- and Italian-speakingrights of Daniele Thompson's French hit Orchestra Seats (Fauteuils d'Orchestre) which has scored over one millionadmissions in France in its first two weeks of release.The film,released in France ...
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Gloomy MPAA data shows US 2005 admissions fell 8.7%
The Motion PictureAssociation Of America (MPAA) has announced its annual data on the year 2005.US box office, as widely reported,fell 6% and admissions were down 8.7% to 1.4 billion tickets generating $8.99billion in revenue.Worldwide box office,however, was down 7.9% to just under $23 billion, reflecting the slump ininternational theatrical performance.Meanwhile ...
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News
Palm picks up US rights to Babluani's 13 (Tzameti)
Palm Pictures has acquiredall US and Caribbean rights to 13 (Tzameti), the critically acclaimed French thriller directedby Georgian first-time film-maker Gela Babluani.The black-and-white film hadits world premiere in the Venice Film Festival last September where it won theDe Laurentiis Award for best first film, recently won the World Cinema grandjury ...
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News
Brokeback takes feature, director prizes at Spirit Awards
BrokebackMountain continued its virtual sweepof best picture awards at the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards which took placein a tent on the beach at Santa Monica this afternoon (Saturday). The event, which isstaged by Film Independent (formerly IFP/West), acted as a mirror to tomorrow'sAcademy Awards which this year is dominated by ...
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News
Scheffer steps into consultancy role at HBO
One of HBO's mostsenior executives Steve Scheffer is seguing into a consultancy role from hiscurrent position as president, Film Programming, Video and Enterprises.Scheffer, who hasbeen at the US cable giant since 1980 when he joined as vice president, filmprogramming, was instrumental in developing the company's film acquisition anddistribution structures. He ...
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Supernatural thriller Shut In finishes shooting in LA
Independentfeature Shut In hascompleted shooting in and around Los Angeles, marking the feature debut ofPablo Proenza, whose 33-minute short VIDI played at festivals around the world.A supernaturalthriller about a woman photographer whose camera makes people disappear, ShutIn stars Lisa Vidal,David Chisum and Lupe Ontiveros (Real Women Have Curves, DesperateHousewives).A Cut ...
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Women In Film International launches first short film showcase
Women In Film AndTelevision International (WIFTI), the global network of 35 Women In Film AndTelevision chapters, is launching its first annual Short Film Showcase next Wed(March 8) on 18 screens in five countries. For one nightonly, WIFTI chapters in the five countries will present collections of shortfilms by female film-makers ...
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LA French Film Festival to open with La Doublure
City Of Lights,City Of Angels (COLCOA) French Film Festival in Los Angeles unveiled its lineupyesterday for its tenth annual event which takes place April 3-9.Funded by theFranco-American Cultural Fund - a collaboration of the Directors Guild OfAmerica (DGA), SACEM, Writers Guild Of America, west (WGA), and the MotionPicture Association (MPA), ...
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Reviews
Princesas
Dir/scr: Fernando Leon de Aranoa. Sp. 2005. 113mins.Princesas, FernandoLeon De Aranoa's latest slice of social realism, isalmost a total gender switch from the ultra-masculine unemployed dockyard saga Mondays In The Sun, which vaulted himonto the international stage in 2002.A beautifully acted storyabout the friendship between two prostitutes in Madrid, Princesas ...
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Fortissimo picks up worldwide rights to Taxidermia
Fortissimo Films has picked up worldwide rights to Gyorgy Palfi's Taxidermia, which won the main prize at HungarianFilm Week last week. Palfi's second feature after thecritically acclaimed Hukklein 2002, it was met with wide critical praise in Budapestwhere it shared the foreign critics prize and won a further three awards.Spanning ...
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Hungary's Eurofilm lines up English-language films
Fresh from its success with Hungarian Film Week winner Taxidermia, Eurofilm Studio, the Hungarian production outfit run byPeter Miskolczi and Gabor Varadi, has attached Oscar nominee Paul Giamattiand Clemence Poesy to head the cast of Ildiko Enyedi's next film Tender Interface.The English language sci-fi film, scheduled toshoot in the first ...