All articles by Sandy George – Page 33
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Australia debates merits of digital cinema
Australian exhibitors weretold today that if they want to stay in business they have ten years to find away to make the transition to digital. "I do not know exactly howlong you can keep running 35mm prints of major movies but suggest that within10, 12 or 15 years they will ...
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Australians on board for mockumentaries
Australia is not known forfeature-length mockumentaries but Palace has justsigned on for Razzle Dazzle - A Journey Into Dance, while Madman next week releases Kenny, which is getting rave reviewsfrom some critics for its humour and loveable nature.Both productions are shot in fly-on-the-wall style. Razzle Dazzle is set in the ...
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Jindabyne gets off to strong start on home turf
Ray Lawrence's Jindabyne hashad the biggest opening week for any Australian film so far this year grossing$928,000 (A$1.2m) from 65 screens. The film, which was released on July 20, also had the biggest openingamong local films on less than 100 screens since Muriel's Wedding in September 1994. Distributor Roadshow has ...
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Melbourne film festival opens with Thalluri's 2:37
The mystery film that openedJames Hewison's sixth and final Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF)tonight turned out to be writer/director Murali K Thalluri's 2:37, which screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.Hewison wanted audiences tohave the rare experience of going to a film they knew nothing about, an ideathat was sparked ...
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Unfinished Sky secures FFC backing
Peter Duncan's romanticthriller Unfinished Sky, about afarmer and an Afghani illegal immigrant who fall in love, is one of threefeatures to receive production finance from Film Finance Corporation Australia this week. Australian actor WilliamMcInnes (Look Both Ways) will playthe farmer and Dutch actress Monic Hendrickx has been cast as the ...
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Moore replaces Hewison at Melbourne film festival
Richard Moore will be thenext programmer of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), replacingJames Hewison as executive director from September.Moore co-programmed 'Real Life on Film', a documentaryfestival held at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne in February as part of the cultural programme of the2006 Commonwealth ...
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New producers' alliance formed in Australia
After a couple of years oftrying, the two organisations representing Australian producers officiallyformed an alliance this week, just in time for the upcoming review intogovernment film financing.The Screen Producers'Association of Australia (SPAA) and Independent Producers' Initiative (IPI)have joined together to form the Independent Feature Film Producers ofAustralia Alliance (IFPAA).The new ...
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NZFC appoints new chairman and board members
The New Zealand FilmCommission, the country's principal investor in local films, has appointed anew chairman, David Cullwick, and four new people to the board. Cullwick, a business advisorwho was inaugural Professor of Marketing at Victoria University of Wellington, replacesBarrie Everard.Sydney lawyer Shane Simpson is one of the new faces on ...
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Four Oz features to receive FFC funding
An adaptation of the SouthAfrican novel Disgrace, to star JohnMalkovich, and Mary & Max, ananimated feature by the team who made Oscar-winning short Harvie Krumpet, have been given the thumbs up by Film FinanceCorporation Australia (FFC).Both have the backing of localdistributor Dendy Films while sales agent Fortissimo Films has also ...
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Future Films' Australian plans derailed by tax office
FutureFilms Australia today blamed the Australian Tax Office (ATO) for ditching, at least in theshort term, its plans to raise up to $182m (A$250m ) for new Australian filmsthis financial year. FutureFilms won't say how much it expected to raise by theJune 30 deadline but hinted that it was significant. ...
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Melbourne keeps opening film under wraps
James Hewison has taken anunusual approach to the opening night of his last Melbourne International FilmFestival (MIFF): in order to give the audience a "virginal cinema experience"he will not tell them what they will be seeing on July 26."Cinema seems to infiltrateour lives so much, that I often wonder whether ...
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Australia sets box-office record in first five months of 2006
Australian cinemas have recorded their biggest ever result for the firstfive months of a year, taking $275m (A$373m) in ticket sales through May 31.The result represents $35.8m (A$48.4m) or 15% more than sales during thesame period last year and about $7.7m (A$10.4m) more than in 2004, which gavethe industry its ...
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AFC low-budget scheme backs four features
The Australian Film Commission's(AFC) IndiVision initiative, which aims to encourage the production oflow-budget films, is supporting four new features by first-time directors.The eerie supernatural drama Lake Mungo will be shot in an investigative documentary styleby writer-director Joel Anderson and tracks what happens after a teenagerleading a double life drowns.David Rapsey, ...
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Production wraps on Aussie thriller The Tumbler
Shooting has just wrapped onAustralian thriller The Tumbler whichgives Stacey Testro, executive producer on the Saw horror franchise, her first credit as a producer.Testro and Marc Gracie, whoalso directed the Chris Thompson script, are producing the low-budget pictureunder the Stacey Testro International and Mondayitis banners."It harks back to the US ...
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Ledger, Weisz set to make Dirt Music with Noyce
Heath Ledger and RachelWeisz have agreed to play the star-crossed lovers in an adaptation of the TimWinton novel Dirt Music, to bedirected by Phillip Noyce on home soil from March 2007.Weisz won the Academy Award forbest actress this year for The ConstantGardener - and had her first childyesterday - while ...
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Magna Pacific snaps up Prairie Home Companion
Magna Pacific has acquiredAustralian and New Zealand rights to Oscar-winning director Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion from CapitolFilms.The company plans to releasethe film in September 2007, joining a theatrical line-up that includes Perfect Creature, August Rush, Lonely Hearts,Penelope, Renaissance, The AstronautFarmer and Because I Said So."Prairie will emulate Robert ...
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FACB founder Rob Fisher dies in Sydney
Today was a black day forthe Australian film industry with the death last night of Rob Fisher, thefounding chief executive of one of only two long-standing completion bondcompanies in the country.Fisher was known as astraight shooter and was very popular. He was a watchdog at the financial endof what is ...
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Becker picks up world rights to Workman's Bronte
Becker International haspicked up worldwide rights to Angela Workman's Bronte, which is set to star Oscar-nominated actress MichelleWilliams (Brokeback Mountain).Williams will play the titlecharacter of Charlotte Bronte, who defied class and gender to write suchclassic novels as Jane Eyre. The castalso includes Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Imelda Staunton, Brian Cox and ...
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Australian government to review film funding
The Australian governmenthas announced, at the same time as handing down the annual budget, that it willreview the effectiveness of the various ways in which it supports films in Australia.The review will encompass,among other things, the investment vehicle Film Finance Corporation Australia(FFC), development agency the Australian Film Commission (AFC), tax ...
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Collette, Castle-Hughes to star in Esther Blueburger
Oscar-nominatedAustralian-born actresses, Toni Collette and Keisha Castle-Hughes, have agreedto board teen coming-of-age drama Hey,Hey It's Esther Blueburger.The film starts shooting in Adelaide in October and is being introduced to theinternational marketplace at Cannes by sales agent Lightning Entertainment. BVI hasAustralian rights.The two seasoned actors wereof course chosen for their talent ...