All articles by Sandy George – Page 33
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Meek to replace Ikin at Film Finance Corp
Producer Scott Meek, whorelocated from the UK to Australia in 2004 to join ABC TV, is to replace Bridget Ikinat Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC). Ikin and Tait Brady were thefirst people employed to choose which films seeking FFC finance through theevaluation door should get the go-ahead. Both of them ...
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Revolver takes UK rights to Wright's contemporary Macbeth
Revolver Entertainment has taken UK rights toGeoffrey Wright's new adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, set in contemporary Melbourne.The deal was signed with sales company Arclight after Macbeth's recent world premiere in theVanguard section at the Toronto International Film Festival. It comes on theeve of its 30-screen release in Australian cinemas tomorrow ...
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Australia mulls 40% tax rebate for producers
The Australian government ismulling a 40% tax rebate for producers, as a means to boost local production, aproposal which has secured the backing of the Film Finance CorporationAustralia (FFC).The government is currentlyreviewing its direct and indirect support of the film industry and the FFC madeits submission public this week thereby ...
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King Of The Mountain to go ahead despite Brock's death
The filmmakers behind King Of The Mountain, which was set tobe the acting debut of Australia's best-known racing car driver Peter Brock, who diedin an accident on the track last Friday, have said that the project willcontinue.Executive producer Tom Kennedysaid the $2.3m (A$3m) action drama will be financed by sponsors ...
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Australian Film Commission's script lab chooses eight projects
Director Fred Schepisi will be one of the mentors at SP*RK, theAustralian Film Commission's script lab, and eight projects have been chosen toparticipate.They include An Imaginary Life, an adaptation ofDavid Malouf's novel of the same name being producedby Penny Chapman, a former head of drama at national broadcaster the ABC, ...
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Melbourne audiences praise Thank You For Smoking
Thank You For Smoking, which releasesin Australia this week, wasthe most popular film among Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF)audiences.Director Jason Reitman and his long-time producing partner Daniel Dubieckiwere guests of the event with Dubiecki, whose father is Australian, exploringAustralian opportunities while in the country. The top five MIFF films according ...
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Potter holds off Pirates to win Australian award
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has been presented with the Gold Award for the biggest revenue earner of the last 12 months at the Australian International Movie Convention. But if it had been a week or two later it would have been usurped by Pirates of the Caribbean: ...
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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, ...