All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 11
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News
Venice to close with bang
New Venice heads Marco Mueller (artistic director) andDavide Croff (Biennale president) said that this year's Venice festival willclose with a bang. The closing ceremony will take place on the main Veniceisland at the newly restored la Fenice opera house. This will have the doubleadvantage of a spectacular close to the ...
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Lakeshore, Screen Gems dig into Romanian Cave
Romania again confirmed its attraction for footlooseinternational productions, with the start this week of principal photography onCave, the supernatural underground thriller from Lakeshore Entertainmentand Screen Gems.Cave, reportedly budgeted at some $20m, is the featuredebut of acclaimed commercials director Bruce Hunt, who was also second unitdirector on The Matrix.The action follows ...
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Media Asia dials up Feng's Phone, Thieves
Premier Hong Kong studio Media Asia has picked upinternational sales rights to Cell Phone, the most recent film by one ofChina's most accomplished directors' Feng Xiaogang. The smash hit complementsthe group's burgeoning star-driven production slate which is unveiled atCannes.Cell Phone, a light-hearted drama about thea TV chat show host (Cannes ...
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AFM increases stakes in autumn market battle
The fight to be thepredominant autumn market stepped up a gear with the AFM's announcement that ithas over 200 companies committed to exhibit at the Loews in Santa Monica thisautumn (Nov 3-10)."We've had a tremendousresponse from AFM exhibitors. Our new alliance with AFI Fest will make theupcoming AFM bigger and ...
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Fortissimo's new Taiwan Formula
Fortissimo Films has picked up world sales rights toTaiwanese hit Formula 17The gay comedy-drama about a man who moves to Taipei insearch of his first love was a rare hit in Taiwan for a local film. It notchedNT6m, ranking it in the top five Taiwanese films since 1998.The feature debut ...
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Europe given warning on internet piracy
Internet piracy was firmly identified as the bogeymanthreatening the future of the creative process and the livelihood of the filmindustry, at a high-powered conference organised by the Cannes film festival onTuesday.Numerous speakers railed against the growing electronictrade that bypasses traditional distributors and funds organised crime."The expansion of broadband is synonymous ...
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News
Europe given warning on internet piracy
Internet piracy was firmly identified as the bogeymanthreatening the future of the creative process and the livelihood of the filmindustry, at a high-powered conference organised by the Cannes film festival onTuesday.Numerous speakers railed against the growing electronictrade that bypasses traditional distributors and funds organised crime."The expansion of broadband is synonymous ...
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News
Cannes set for Surreal premiere
Having operated in abelow-the-radar fashion until now, new French distributor Surreal Films isusing Cannes as its public premiere.Headed by Dario Bergesio andPaul Blain, Surreal has already bought two films. First was the distinctly odd ReturnOf The Cagliostro, by Italian experimentalists Daniele Cipri and FrancoMaresco, which was snapped up from Cinico ...
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News
Cannes set for Surreal premiere
Having operated in abelow-the-radar fashion until now, new French distributor Surreal Films isusing Cannes as its public premiere.Headed by Dario Bergesio andPaul Blain, Surreal has already bought two films. First was the distinctly odd ReturnOf The Cagliostro, by Italian experimentalists Daniele Cipri and FrancoMaresco, which was snapped up from Cinico ...
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News
Cannes market bustles with attendees
The Cannes Market, which opened its doors yesterday (Wed12 May), looks set to be busier than ever. According to its preliminary figuresregistered attendee numbers are up 11% at 7,225 from 63 countries.Films screening increased this year from 1,214 to 1,340including 55 trailers.According to the market's analysis of the films on ...
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News
Cannes market bustles with attendees
The Cannes Market, which opened its doors yesterday (Wed12 May), looks set to be busier than ever. According to its preliminary figuresregistered attendee numbers are up 11% at 7,225 from 63 countries.Films screening increased this year from 1,214 to 1,340including 55 trailers.According to the market's analysis of the films on ...
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News
Fortissimo returns to roots with Hong Kong trio
Leading art-house seller Fortissimo is returning to itsroots with the pick-up of three pictures from Hong Kong.Top of the list is Jiang Hu, a gangland epic which isalready benefiting from renewed interest in the genre following InfernalAffairs and has gone on to become one of the big hits of 2004. ...
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Politics colours Cannes
Even if everything passes off peacefully this year's festival, as a result of a rapprochement with striking arts workers, Cannes will still be shaped by the invasive effects of politics - global politics, politics of the workplace and political films.Indeed, industry politics was already charged at a high-powered colloquium on ...
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News
Politics colours Cannes
Even if everything passes off peacefully this year's festival, as a result of a rapprochement with striking arts workers, Cannes will still be shaped by the invasive effects of politics - global politics, politics of the workplace and political films.Indeed, industry politics was already charged at a high-powered colloquium on ...
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News
Hussein body double in Cannes to tout lifestory
Latif Yuhia, the man who wasforced to be the body double of Saddam Hussein's son Uday will arrive in Cannesthis weekend in a bulletproof Mercedes that he recently bought from the UK'sQueen Elizabeth.UK-based Yuhia will be intown to promote a film adaptation of his life which is to be produced ...
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European film export body names directors
Film sellers' trade body, the European Film ExportAssociation (EFEA) has elected a new board of directors that gives theorganisation a much more international outlook.New board members include Angus Finney of the UK'sRenaissance Films, Annakarin Strom of Denmark's Trust, Thorsten Schaumann ofGermany's Bavaria, Pascal Diot of France's Onoma International and KevinWilliams ...
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South Africa's DV8 takes a Flyer
Pre-production has begun on TheFlyer, which has now been set as the third film to emerge from SouthAfrica's DV8 low-cost film-making initiative.To be directed by Revel Foxin July, The Flyer is the story of a coloured boy who tries to escapethe dangers of street life through a career in acrobatics. ...
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Metropolitan takes Stratus Hostage
Metropolitan Filmexport has bought French distributionrights to Hostage, the BruceWillis-starring action thriller financed by Stratus Film Company.The film is directed by French national Florent Emilio Siri,who previously directed local-language action title The Nest (Nid De Guepes). Headed by Sami and Victor Hadida, Metropolitan is the largestindependent in France regularly handling ...
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French box office storms ahead in first quarter
Admissions for the first four months of the year in Franceovertook those in the same period of 2003 by a thumping 16%.According to new data from the Centre Nationale de laCinematographie (CNC) admissions between January and April totalled 68 million,boosted by a heavyweight April, 43% better than the same month ...
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French video market suffers surprise drop
The French video distributors' association(SEV) yesterday sounded the alarm, reporting that the home entertainment marketin France has dropped dramatically.The combined DVD and VHS retail marketretreated by 16% in cash terms, according to the SEV when the first quarter of2004 was compared with the same period of last year. The rental ...