All articles by Sandy George – Page 35
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Australian producers conference to include major awards
The biggest annual gathering of producers, the SPAA (ScreenProducers Association of Australia) conference, will this year move back to itstraditional November time slot but stay on the Queensland Gold Coast for thenext three years.Queensland Premier Paul Beattie also announced that the 8thLexus Inside Film Awards will be staged on Friday ...
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Rolf de Heer set to shoot his next project, Dr Plonk
Prolific film-makerRolf de Heer (BadBoy Bubby, Dance Me To My Song) today got a green light from Film FinanceCorporation Australia (FFC) to shoot his next project Dr Plonk. Characteristic of his wildly diverseoeuvre, the new film is a black and white silent comedy set in 1907 about ascientist inventor who ...
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Sam Riley cast as lead singer in Anton Corbijn's Control
Sam Riley has been cast as leadsinger Ian Curtis and Alexandra Maria Lara as his lover Annikon music video director Anton Corbijn's Control, his fact-based debut feature onUK post-punk band Joy Division.It is a first big role for newcomerRiley - the troubled Curtis was in his early 20s when he ...
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NZ distributor Arkles steps up Australian presence
NewZealand distributor Arkles Entertainment is increasing its activity in theAustralian market where it is planning sizeable releases for both Junebug and Danish film Brothers in the next few months.TheAuckland-based company acquired theatrical rights for Junebugjust days before Amy Adams got her best supportingactress Oscar nomination. Both this film and Brotherscame ...
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Shooting yet to start on Luhrmann's Australian epic
Actor Russell Crowe is talking about it on red carpets, manyare hoping that principal photography will start in July or August, but thereis still no green light from 20th Century Fox for a fourth feature by Baz Luhrmann.Crowe and Nicole Kidman are billed as the leads and insiderssay that Catherine ...
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Tony Grierson joins Sydney Film Festival as CEO
Tony Grierson is to leave his roleas head of distribution and finance at the NSW Film & Television Office andjoin the Sydney Film Festival (SFF) as chiefexecutive from February 16.He was executive officer of Queer Screen for the four yearsup to 1999, has worked at Beyond Distribution, and has held ...
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ContentFilm racks up sales on Book Of Revelation
ContentFilm Internationalhas sold The Book Of Revelation,directed by Ana Kokkinos (Head On), to22 territories, one of the most robust sales performances by an unseenindependent Australian film in recent years.Distributors including TheWorks (UK), A Film (Netherlands and Belgium), Scanbox (Scandinavia) and Palace(Australia and New Zealand) signed on prior to the film ...
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Rialto picks up Science Of Sleep
Rialto Distribution hasacquired writer/director Michel Gondry's TheScience Of Sleep for Australia and New Zealand, hot on the heels of its sale to Warner IndependentPictures for North America and the UK at Sundance. The inventive film starsGael Garcia Bernal (The MotorcycleDiaries) and Charlotte Gainsbourg as young neighbours in a playful andtouching ...
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Adelaide festival offers cash prize for new competition
The biennial Adelaide Film Festival has introduced a feature film competition which will see the director of the winning film go home $19,400 (A$25,000) richer.Festival director Katrina Segwick says the move means Adelaide is now one of a small number of festivals throughout the world that offers substantial cash awards. ...
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Noyce to be honoured by Australian Screen Directors
Director Phillip Noyce is toreceive an outstanding achievement award on April 6, the top annual honourbestowed by the Australian Screen Directors Association (ASDA).Noyce was in the first classof students at the Australian Film, Television & Radio School and his first feature was Newsfrontin 1978, which won best film in the ...
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AFI manager quits despite successful awards show
The general manager of theAustralian Film Institute (AFI), Geoffrey Williams, has resigned two monthsafter successfully overseeing a revitalised awards ceremony compered by actorRussell Crowe.Williams has citeddifferences of opinion with a board that has three new members and a new chairbut the exact nature of the disagreement has not yet emerged. ...
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Dalton leaves Australian Film Commission for ABC
The Australian governmentagency with responsibility for developing features has to go in search of a newchief executive now that Kim Dalton has been made director of television atpublic broadcaster the ABC. The Australian FilmCommission (AFC) has only just appointed Chris Fitchett to head filmdevelopment, a division that spends about $12.8m ...
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Australia's box office takings down by 10%
Preliminary figures indicate that Australia'sgross box office for 2005 was 10% less than the previous year.A spokesperson for the Motion Picture DistributorsAssociation of Australia (MPDAA) says official results will not be announceduntil mid to late January but a source told Screendaily.comthat the 2005 result will be around $610.6m (A$815m). This ...
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Mullis, Oz producers win licence to launch FLIC
An eclectic team of peopledriven by executive producer Barrie M. Osborne (The Lord Of The Rings), producer Richard Keddie and Bangkok-basedfinancier Robert Mullis have won a licence to raise money in Australia for film production. Others named as part of theMullis Capital Film Licensed Investment Company (FLIC) are actors Hugo ...
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Fitchett appointed to leading Australian film role
The AustralianFilm Commission (AFC) has appointed Chris Fitchett as director of filmdevelopment.Fitchett- a former chief executive of the AFC's Commercial Television ProductionFund - has been acting director since October. Therole has the potential to be the most influential in Australia in terms of whatprojects get developed.
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Becker Films sells Control to four territories
Becker Films International(BFI) has signed off on four deals for Control,the upcoming biopic about Joy Division front man Ian Curtis. Paradiso has thefilm in Benelux, La Fabrique de Film in France, Momentum Pictures in the UK and sister companyDendy in Australia and New Zealand."It seems to have struck achord with ...
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Preserving Australia's film heritage
Fifty classicAustralian films made from 1955 through to 1992 have benefited from a preservationproject begun five years ago. Theproject combines the expertise and resources of film stock supplier Kodak (Australasia), laboratory AtlabAustralia and the National Film and Sound Archive(NFSA). The films selected included: Jedda, Breaker Morant, The CarsThat Ate Paris, ...
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Future Films Australia opens for business
A productruling from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) was made public yesterday,signalling that the new financing outfit Future Films Australia is officiallyopen for business in a market not previously renowned for attracting privateinvestment into film.The rulinggives more momentum to Future Films' search for both high net worth individualswho are potential ...
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FFC backs production on two Australian films
Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) today agreed to fund the thriller Storm Warning and the coming-of-age teencomedy Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger.Estherwill be the debut for Cathy Randall but StormWarning is from Jamie Blanks, who jumped from a graduation film to Hollywood horror films UrbanLegends (1998) and Valentine (2001).The Storm ...
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Worried Australian exhibitors form national association
Concern about falling attendances, piracy, release windows and new classification rules have led to the formation of the firstnational organisation of Australian exhibitors."Forthe first time in what is a notoriously aggressive industry, the issues thatdraw us together are greater than the issues that force us apart," head ofDendy Cinemas Mark ...