Small MPU – Page 1161
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Features
United States - Niche operator
Perhaps the biggest challenge Lisa Nishimura-Seese has faced, since relocating from New York to Los Angeles last October on joining Netflix, is that there are not enough hours in the day.In her newly created role of vice-president of independent content acquisition in a new department, she is charged with acquiring ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Making film history
He has been awake since 5.30am and is now, six hours later, roaring his lines for the 11th time in the marble-columned ballroom of Kedleston Hall in rural Derbyshire. Yet the delivery of his political monologue is flawless. UK actor Simon McBurney is the kind of supporting actor that big-budget ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Next top model
It is looking like a good year ahead for the Bristol-based animation powerhouse Aardman. The company, formed back in 1976, had a notable 2007 after ending its relationship with DreamWorks and signing a first-look deal with Sony Pictures. Now the company behind Wallace and Gromit, Flushed Away and Chicken Run ...
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News
United Kingdom - The third word
Breaking into today's crowded industry calendar with a new event is a challenge. But when that event is aimed at screenwriters, it is a real achievement.The UK town of Cheltenham is preparing to host the third International Screenwriters' Festival (July 1-3), following two very strong opening years.To an extent, the ...
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News
Flashback: Golden Globes 2008
No single film dominated the 65th Golden Globes on January 13 as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (Hfpa) spread its largesse across a wide field in a drastically truncated announcement due to the ongoing writers’ strike.
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Features
Awards Countdown - People - Awards People
MICHAEL FINKThe senior visual-effects supervisor tells Jeremy Kay about the painstaking CGI work behind the creatures who populate The Golden Compass.One of the highlights of The Golden Compass is the extraordinary realism of the creatures that populate New Line's fantasy adaptation, a key focus for senior visual-effects supervisor Michael Fink."The ...
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News
Keeping Rotterdam on the festival map
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) in the Netherlands has long held a reputation as a cinephile's delight. 'Rotterdam is one my favourite festivals for movies,' says James Schamus, head of Focus Features and one of its many illustrious supporters.The buzz filmsCinemart celebratesCinemart buzz filmsCase studies'They have the freedom to ...
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Features
Rotterdam - CineMart Celebrates
Rotterdam is not the kind of festival to be big on celebrating numbers," says CineMart head Marit van den Elshout of the co-production market's 25th anniversary this week. "We'll do something but we won't be making a huge celebration."Still, this is an opportune moment to take stock, "to look back ...
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News
Pathe signs Born Romantic's Camarda to first-look
Michele Camarda's UK production outfit Kismet Film Company has struck a first-look deal with National Lottery studio franchise Pathe Pictures, Pathe announced on Wednesday.The move comes hard on the heels of Kismet producing David Kane's highly-anticipated UK comedy Born Romantic. The deal replaces New York-born, London-based Camarda's recently-expired first-look pact ...
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Features
Rotterdam - History of a Project
A look at two recent projects to have been showcased at CineMart.COUNTRY TEACHERDirector: Bohdan SlamaProducer: Pavel Strnad, Negativ Film ProductionsCountry: Czech RepublicThis was the second time a project by Czech director Slama had been selected for CineMart. His second feature, Something Like Happiness, was presented in 2003 and had a ...
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Features
Rotterdam - CineMart Buzz
22nd Of May dir: Koen Mortier (Belgium, Ger-Neth)Mortier caused a stir with his debut Ex Drummer, in Rotterdam's Tiger competition last year. The film, dubbed by some as a Flemish Trainspotting, was distributed in Benelux by A-Film and was sold internationally by Loic Magneron's Wide Management. Now, Mortier is back ...
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ReviewsKabuli Kid
Dir: Barmak Akram. France-Afghanistan. 2008. 95mins.What makes this small French-backed Afghan charmer, which premiered in Critics’ Week at Venice, more than just a heartwarming quest comedy is its grounding in the everyday chaos and strict social and religious codes of war-ravaged Kabul. Though honed by script ...
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News
Quay Brothers shoot film about Jan Potocki
Stephen and Timothy Quay have concluded a two-week shoot in Poland on film about Jan Potocki, a Polish aristocrat, soldier and scholar whose wide-ranging interests included ethnology, the occult and hot-air ballooning.Polish press reports the production cost $88,000 (200,000 PLN) and described the project as a 'modest, intimate production' of ...
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News
Three Australians give their blessing to Ana Kokkinos film
Blessed, the new film by Australian director Ana Kokkinos (Head On), has secured a trio of fine Australian actresses in Frances O'Connor (Artificial Intelligence: AI, Mansfield Park), Miranda Otto (Lord Of The Rings) and Deborra-Lee Furness (Jindabyne), as well as Russian-born Victoria Haralabidou (Brides).The multi-narrative drama is about mothers and ...
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News
LONDON & MIFED DEALS
Pathe International's The Hole has emerged as one of the briskest selling UK titles of the market, where it was taken by Spain's Sogepaq, Germany's Tobis, Scandinavia's Sandrews and Italy's Nexo (buying outside its New Line output deal for the first time). Francois Ivernel, head of Pathe's UK operation Pathe ...
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News
There Will Be Blood takes Fipresci Grand Prix
US director Paul Thomas Anderson has been awarded the Fipresci Grand Prix for his film There Will Be Blood.The award for best film of the year, which is given by the international federation of film critics, will be collected by Anderson in person at the San Sebastian Film Festival's opening ...
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Nordic Prize nominees include Andersson, Kormakur
Swedish director Roy Andersson's You the Living, which won Sweden's national film prize, the Guldbagga, for Best Film, Best Director and Best Script, is among the five nominees for the $70,000 Nordic Council Film Prize 2008, the largest film trophy in Scandinavia.Launched last year in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, ...
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News
Dunya & Desie is selected as Oscar entry from The Netherlands
Dunya & Desie, directed by Dana Nechushtan, has been selected as this year's Dutch entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.Dunya & Desie tells about Dutch motormouth Desie and her best friend from a Moroccan-Dutch family, Dunya. The two inseparable friends are forced to make some important choices during ...
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Metrodome takes UK rights to Winterbottom's Genova
Ahead of its premieres in Toronto and San Sebastian, the UK and Irish rights to Michael Winterbottom's latest film Genova have been snapped up by Metrodome Distribution.The deal was done directly with production company Revolution Films, founded by Winterbottom and his producer Andrew Eaton.The deal was negotiated between Metrodome CEO ...
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News
MercuryMedia takes on Toronto doc Sea Point Days
UK-based documentary film sales company Mercury Media has acquired world rights (excluding North America) to Sea Point Days.The film is set to premiere at the forthcoming Toronto International Film Festival.The feature-length documentary is directed by South African film-maker Francois Verster. The film is about a seaside public pool area in ...
