All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 52
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Real TV dominates MIP-COM television market
MIP-COM organisers are putting a brave face on a television programmes market that is competing against the scariest and most compelling kind of reality TV - war. The main market had not officially opened by the time that US and British missiles had started raining down on Afghanistan on Sunday ...
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Recession watch - Part II
In the second part of Screen International's analysis on the effect on the industry of the Sept 11 attacks on the US, the threat of recession on the home entertainment and film exhibition sectors is assessed.Abstracted from Screen InternationalHome entertainmentVideo was an immediate winner from the Sept 11 fallout. Not ...
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Optimism emerges from industry gloom
A sector by sector look at the industry's financial prospects after the impact of the Sept 11 events and the threat of economic slowdown. To be published over the next few days. Part 1: broadcast TV. Abstracted from the weekly edition of Screen InternationalThree weeks on, and like the rest ...
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Inch'Allah Dimanche wins top Marakesh award
Inch'Allah Dimanche by Franco-Algerian director Yamina Benguigui was yesterday (Oct 2) named best film at the end of the first Marakesh film festival. The film is the story of a family of Algerian immigrants in 1960s France.The jury rewarded two other films: Andanggaman by Ivory Coast director Roger Gnoan M'Bala ...
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Garland leaves Universal Studios Networks
Tony Garland has left Universal Studios Networks (USN), where he was president, in order to concentrate on other interests.The long-anticipated move sees Bibiane Godfroid become the unchallenged head of channels and services within the Canal Plus Group, the film and TV arm of Vivendi Universal.In a statement, the company said ...
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Drought and political conditions halt Indian fest
The 32nd edition of the International Film Festival of India has been cancelled due to a combination of worsening local weather conditions and the international political situation.The itinerant festival had been scheduled this year to be held in Bangalore (10-20 Oct) in Karnataka province. But the region has been struck ...
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BSkyB goes all-digital as Vivendi sells 23% stake
Vivendi Universal has handed over its 23% stake in Europe's richest pay-TV group BSkyB to an unnamed investment firm, believed to be Deutsche Bank.The move came only hours before BSkyB announced that it would switch off its analogue signal at midnight (Sept 27), some 15 months ahead of its planned ...
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M6 grabs CJ's Musa, holds onto Yeoh's The Touch
Korean blockbuster Musa (aka Musa The Warrior) has been picked up for French release by M6 and heads a growing Asian slate that, despite rumours to the contrary, continues to include Michelle Yeoh's The Touch. Musa, which is the biggest-budget Korean title of all time, is set for an early ...
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Germany gains digital accord, loses Puffer
German broadcasters yesterday (Thursday 20 Sept) put aside their differences and reached agreement on new standards for digital TV. But that came too late to save Manfred Puffer, who was replaced by Peter Mihatsch, as head of Premiere World.Puffer joined Premiere World last year as its chief financial officer and ...
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Pusan Promotion Plan features Imamura pitch
Confirming the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) as one of the world's leading co-production workshops, two-time Cannes Palme d'Or winner Imamura Shohei is to submit his latest project for scrutiny and international funding at the forthcoming event (Nov 12-14).Imamura's Shinjuku Cherry Blossom Fantasy is joined by scripts from The Isle director ...
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RTL results herald European media market woe
As the largest and most international broadcast group in Europe, RTL's results and market view had been eagerly awaited by financial analysts as indicators of the outlook for the European media sector. What they got was not pretty.Unveiled on Wednesday September 19, first half results showed a 27% drop in ...
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Disney most bruised as media stocks get beaten up
Winchester Films has picked up international rights to New Best Friend, a college-age drama produced by Frank Mancuso Jr on which Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group has acquired domestic and Latin American rights. The film was formerly known as Mary Jane's Last Dance and was originally set domestically at MGM, ...
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3-way merger creates international PR powerhouse
Three of the UK's leading film public relations companies are merging to form an international publicity powerhouse with offshoots in Los Angeles and a new reach into television. Coming together under the new banner of Premier Public Relations are the well known Corbett & Keene, Falco Ink (London) and Joy ...
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...as European merger & acquisition activity dives
Merger and acquisitions (m&a) activity in Europe's media sector boomed during 2000, but is set to halve in the current year, being replaced by traditional alliances and joint-ventures. A new report from the corporate finance arm of accounting giant Andersen says that consolidation between firms and convergence of old and ...
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Latest updated Venice film festival deals
Hundstage, the debut film by Austrian director Ulrich Seidl which sharply divided critics at the Venice film festival, has proved a hot seller for producer and sales agent The Co-Production Office.The picture was sold to Mikado for Italy, Les Films Seville for Canada, Film Museum for The Netherlands, Filmladen for ...
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European Commission reveals film reform strategy
The European Commission today kicked off a year of negotiations between film-makers and law-makers when Viviane Reding unveiled a three point plan for reform. Her main objectives are the rationalisation of national film support systems, new protection for film heritage and a reworking of tax systems. Reding, commissioner for culture ...
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Monsoon, Time Out head surprising Venice winners
Puzzling critics who had expected something more meaty to win, Mira Nair's lighthearted and thoroughly entertaining Monsoon Wedding took the top prize, the Golden Lion, in Venice's traditionally auteur dominated competition section. Meanwhile Laurent Cantet's Time Out (L'Emploi Du Temps), the story of a man who invents a fictional life ...
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French films dominate early awards at Venice fest
While the results of the main Venezia 58 and Cinema Del Presente sections were awaited with a sense of bewilderment by some critics, the Venice festival began to unlock some of its secrets. Those secrets had a very French flavour. For films in the main Venezia 58 section, the FIPRESCI ...
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Abel Ferrara's R-X'mas to open Turin
Abel Ferrara's R-X'mas has been set as the opening night film of the next edition of the Turin festival (Nov 15-23). The festival boasts a competition section with a $18,395 (Lira40m) first prize for best feature, a short film competition, an Italian feature competition and the DOC Competition, worth $13,800 ...
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Scorsese to present Sokurov's Waterloo
Martin Scorsese is to lend his name to the hugely ambitious new production by Russian auteur Aleksandr Sokurov.Scorsese will "present" Sokurov's Waterloo, a film which will concentrate on Napoleon. The picture is set to be Sokurov's third film in his tetralogy about men in power, after Taurus (which focused on ...