All articles by Sandy George – Page 74
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Village beefs up London office in exec reshuffle
Following Village Cinemas International's revelation that it is launching a chain of own brand cinemas in the UK, the company has announced several management changes, including the relocation of two Australian executives to its London office.George Livery has been promoted from managing director of Village Cinemas Australia to general manager ...
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AFC revamp takes shape with Warner
French production and distribution giant Le Studio Canal Plus has picked up international sales rights to The Princess And The Warrior (Der Krieger Und Die Kaiserin), the latest proejct from Run Lola Run director Tom Tykwer. Princess, produced by Stefan Arndt's X-Filme Creative Pool, is completed and due for ...
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Oz studio plans fail to attract cash
The ambitious plan to build a third major film studio in Australia - with the backing of US giant Viacom - is floundering because of a complete lack of interest from institutional investors.The public float has now been abandoned and the retail precinct shaved off the development to bring the ...
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Mason and Coote join Macquarie board
Producers Andrew Mason and Greg Coote have been appointed to the board of the Macquarie Film Corporation as the company gears up to release its second prospectus in March. Macquarie is one of two Australian companies awarded licences to raise A$20m ($12.6m) in concessional capital to help grow the film ...
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Granada ties TV production knot with Seven Network
The UK's Granada Media Group has become one of the top five shareholders in Australia's Seven Network, as part of a deal which sees the two entities form an as-yet-unnamed Australian-based production company.Granada will combine its Australian production company Artist Services, which has several feature credits, with Seven's in-house production.The ...
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Beyond to sing with Other Voices
Beyond Films has acquired worldwide rights, excluding North America, to Dan McCormack's debut feature Other Voices, which featured in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Beyond quietly signed for the film after getting a sneak preview prior to Sundance. Other Voices stars Campbell Scott, Peter Gallagher and Stockard Channing and ...
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FFC grants producers better terms of trade
The Australian Film Finance Corporation (FFC) has unveiled plans to guarantee producers overhead payments and give them greater access to the revenue streams generated by their projects. A group of 24 producers calling itself the Independent Producers' Initiative (IDI) emerged in November to force some action on terms of trade ...
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Australia embraces DVD
DVD appears to have gained a foothold in the Australian market according to recent statistics that show that 63% of video stores were carrying DVDs at the end of 1999 compared to only 35% at the end of the previous year.In addition, a total of 529 titles were released ...
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Noosa Film Festival unlikely to return
Despite the success of last year's Noosa Film Festival in terms of profile and programming, director Luke Davis has admitted that unpaid debts and lack of sponsorship means there is unlikely to be a sequel. Davis confirmed the event has about A$300,000 in outstanding bills due to a sponsor withdrawing ...
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Oz bank Content Capital boards Monkey's Mask
Content Capital has announced it is to become a financial partner in the Australian and New Zealand release of Samantha Lang's A$4.5m lesbian detective thriller The Monkey's Mask. The move fits the company's strategy of establishing itself as a bank for the use of film-makers. The Monkey's Mask, which stars ...
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Australia lifts ban on Romance
Australia's Film Board of Review has overturned the recent decision by the Office of Film and Literature Classification not to classify Catherine Breillat's French film Romance, a judgement that meant the film could not be released in Australia. The decision will be a great relief to local film critics and ...
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Australia gains financier for genre pics
Australia has gained a new breed of financier - Kirkham Management Limited - which aims to coax private investors to plough funds into genre pictures.Set up by chartered accountant Stephen Kirkham - after spending the last six years planning the move - the outfit aims to fund four pictures annually ...
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Sharmill, Champion continue French-language vein
Australia's Sharmill Films and Champion Pictures have bought Australian rights to writer-director Radu Mihaileanu's World War II story Train Of Life from Menemsha Entertainment. The film was included in the programme of last year's French Film Festival and is set to get a mid-year release. Sharmill has a long history ...
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Mendel's sixth sense makes him partner Noonan
Barry Mendel, one of the producers on The Sixth Sense, is working with writer/director Chris Noonan on an adaptation of the novel Rule Of The Bone by Russell Banks, who also wrote the book on which The Sweet Hereafter was based. Sydney-based Noonan's most recent credit as a director was ...
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Romance not welcome in Australia
Australian distributor Potential Films has lodged an appealagainst a decision by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC)to ban French film Romance. Inaddition the film's director Catherine Breillat has written to the to theOFLC's Review Board to protest the decision.The film was banned because of the explicitness of its ...
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Australia confirms a dozen years of ticket growth
As expected, Australian exhibitors broke through the A$700m barrier in 1999 giving the territory an extraordinary twelfth consecutive year of box office growth. An estimated 88 million tickets were sold at an average ticket price of A$7.93 -- Australia's 19 million people have access to 1,740 screens. The final gross ...