All articles by Sandy George – Page 26
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News
Richard Becker leaps back into Australian distribution
After selling off his family name last year, Richard Becker has re-emerged as an Australian distributor using the same name and with Female Agents as his first film.The new Becker Film Group acquired Jean-Paul Salome's drama -- about a five-woman commando unit that parachutes into occupied France in 1944 -- ...
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Screenrights urges rights holders to claim Oz royalties
More than $1m has been earned in retransmission royalties from movies shown by Australian broadcasters up to the end of last month, but not all of the money has been paid to rights holders because they have not registered their titles. Simon Lake, chief executive of copyright collection society Screenrights, ...
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Films chosen for Melbourne fest's first market screenings
Paul Cox's latest film, Salvation, is one of 10 finished films that will be shown to buyers later this month as part of 37South, the market attached to the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF).The films were chosen from a field of 20 and only one has a sales company attached ...
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Oz producers Culley, Macgowan team on slate of local pics
Australian producer Marian Macgowan (Death Defying Acts) has taken on a new producing partner in Miranda Culley, who has been director Phillip Noyce's Sydney partner for the past seven years. The move enables Macgowan to both produce and develop features simultaneously, which is difficult as a lone producer.'The business model ...
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New Zealand adjusts its 40% grant for local films
The New Zealand Government has dropped the expenditure threshold by $760,000 (NZ$1m) to $3m (NZ$4m) for New Zealand films and New Zealand co-productions wanting to claim back 40% of this expenditure under the new Screen Production Incentive Fund (SPIF). The initiative was announced in May and, since then, the government ...
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Screen Australia announces seven board appointments
Chief executive of IBM Australia and New Zealand, Glen Boreham, is the first chair of the new super agency Screen Australia,while entertainment lawyer Ian Robertson is his deputy. Arts Minister Peter Garrett set the Australian film industry abuzz today by announcing the first board; the make-up should please everyone given ...
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Melbourne film festival to open with Not Quite Hollywood
The 57th Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) will open on July 25 with the world premiere of Not Quite Hollywood, writer-director Mark Hartley's long-awaited tribute to the Australian films of the 1970s and 80s that were high on horror, nudity and car chases. This year's festival is a historic one ...
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Hunger wins Sydney Film Festival's inaugural competition
Hunger, UK artist-turned-filmmaker Steve McQueen's portrait of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in his dying days, has won the inaugural A$60,000 Sydney Film Prize. The film won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and wowed audiences when it screened twice as part of the Sydney Film Festival just ...
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Screen Australia appoints Fitchett, Brady to interim roles
Chris Fitchett has been put in charge of production support and investment on an interim basis at the new super agency Screen Australia, while Tait Brady is temporarily in charge of marketing. Fitchett, whose responsibilities also include development, is the existing chief executive of the Australian Film Commission (AFC). This ...
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New Zealand introduces 40 per cent grant for its own films
Feature films with significant New Zealand content got a big boost in the country's 2008 budget today with the government pledging to give back 40 per cent of what is spent in NZ on production from July 1 this year. Expenditure must exceed $3.93m (NZ$5m) to qualify for the new ...
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South Australian Film Corporation upgrades to new home
South Australian Premier Mike Rann formally announced today in Los Angeles that the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) will move to a site in Adelaide, best known for housing psychiatric patients. The site is in the south-east Adelaide suburb of Glenside and is being redeveloped for a range of ...
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Odin's Eye appoints Victoria Treole as head of acquisitions
Victoria Treole, one-time Miramax representative in Australia, has been appointed head of acquisitions for Michael Favelle's start-up sales outfit Odin's Eye Entertainment, based in Sydney. Odin's Eye is at Cannes for the first time with a mix of clever genre films, and low-budget dramas. The company has already shown a ...
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Dorman, Barclayjoin cast of Caesar's Prime Mover
Australian writer/director David Caesar (Dirty Deeds) has started production on Prime Mover, starring Michael Dorman and New Zealand's Emily Barclay. Prime mover is a term used in Australia for the huge semi-trailer trucks that thunder along outback roads. The film is billed as a diesel-charged love story about a young ...
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Clubland producers form Goalpost Pictures Australia
The Australian producers behind Clubland and the upcoming Elise, starring songstress Natalie Imbruglia, have formed a production company Goalpost Pictures Australia.The outfit has UK sales agency and executive producers Goalpost Film as a minority shareholder.Long-term partners Rosemary Blight, Ben Grant, Kylie du Fresne and Cass O'Connor are the principals in ...
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Asia Pacific Screen Awards establishes an academy
Encouraging dialogue, collaboration and business relationships between filmmakers is the underlying aim of the establishment of The Academy of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSAs). The next step in the development of the awards was announced in Brisbane today by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.'The APSAs bring the best filmmakers from ...
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Odin's Eye sets up sales office in New York
Dave Pederson, a producer on the Oscar-nominated documentary Super Size Me, is to represent Australian sales agent Odin's Eye Entertainment (OEE) in New York. His title will be vice president of international sales, but as head of the new office he will also be sourcing product for the fledgling Sydney-based ...
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Features
New Zealand - Facilities - Delivering post
"Everybody thinks we went to New Zealand for its exotic locales," says Jon Landau, producer of James Cameron's 3D sci-fi epic Avatar. "We never left the studio. We did rent a warehouse off-site because we needed more space, but all our filming was studio-based."Landau wanted New Zealand's talent rather than ...
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Features
New Zealand - A-list Shines with Kiwi polish
It may be small but New Zealand is one of the world's most popular filming locations. James Cameron has finished shooting the action sci-fi Avatar for Twentieth Century Fox in the territory, while Guillermo Del Toro is set to spend the next four years in New Zealand shooting two Hobbit ...
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Sydney Film Festival to open with Happy-Go-Lucky
Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky is one of 12 films chosen by the Sydney Film Festival (SFF) to be in its inaugural official competition and will also be the opening night film on June 4. The competition also features three world premieres including Vincent Ward's New Zealand documentary Rain Of The Children, ...
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Fox picks up Australian rights for Children Of Huang Shi
Australia producer Jonathan Shteinman has extricated The Children Of Huang Shi from Icon's take-over of Dendy Films and done a deal that will see 20th Century Fox Film Distributors release the film in Australia.The film premiered in China in early April and Fox will release the film in Australia in ...