Small MPU – Page 1247
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Reviews
Bubble Boy
Dir Blair Hayes. US 2001. 84 minsWhile deliberately tasteless comedies are fairly common - think The Producers, Blazing Saddles or the recent spate of gross-out teen comedies - it is difficult to recall a film as unintentionally in bad taste as Bubble Boy. Ostensibly a coming-of-age story about a young ...
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News
Edinburgh 2001: a tale of too much TV
The lacklustre state of British cinema was widely bemoaned at this year's Edinburgh international Film Festival where undemanding mainstream crowd-pleasers like Lucky Break and Crush unfurled alongside a range of productions judged eminently worthy of television transmission but unlikely to justify theatrical exposure. Early disappointment with the muddled coming of ...
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News
New Country tops Nordic awards at Haugesund
Swedish dramatic comedy The New Country bagged two major awards -- best film and best screenplay -- at the closing ceremony of the New Nordic Films, the prelude event to the Norwegian International Film Festival. The 29th edition rolls today until Sept. 1 in Haugesund.Swedish-Norwegian newcomer Geir Hansteen Joergensen originally ...
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News
Bellaiche joins I/S Danske Filmproducenter
Festival veteran Lissy Bellaiche has been appointed head of sales for I/S Danske Filmproducenter, a company handling Nordic TV-rights for an extensive catalogue comprising many hundreds of Danish films from production outfits like Nordisk Film, Sandrew Metronome, Scanbox, Crone Film, Palladium and Dagmar Film. Bellaiche headed the Danish Film Institute's ...
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News
Tanovic's No Man's Land takes top Sarajevo awards
Local director Danis Tanovic triumphed at this year's Sarajevo Film Festival, winning both Best First Feature and Audience Award for his feature debt No Man's Land. The jury of UK actress Lena Headey, Croatian writer Miljenko Jergovic, and French fashion designer Agnes B declared that Tanovic's film showed "excellent acting, ...
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News
Germany's PAG buys stake in Swiss C-FILMS
The German production grouping Producers' AG (PAG) has taken its first step on the path of its planned international expansion outside of Germany by taking a stake in the Swiss film and TV production house C-FILMS."C-FILMS is among the most successful production companies on the Swiss market and also has ...
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Reviews
Summer Catch
Dir: Mike Tollin. US. 2001. 104mins. Summer Catch tries to cover a lot of bases: part baseball drama, part bawdy jock romp and part star-crossed romance, it ends up feeling like an Identikit summer movie. An attractive cast led by Freddie Prinze Jr might incite enough audience interest for a ...
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News
REP's Sheffield to join Hoyts' Oz distribution arm
Richard Sheffield, of Australia's REP Film Distribution, is believed to be joining the newly-formed Hoyts Distribution, with responsibility for international acquisitions, although neither party would confirm the move. Sheffield, one of the original founders of REP Films in 1987, left the company eight years later to establish the Australian subsidiary ...
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News
Korea may withdraw national film festival support
Korea's Ministry of Culture and Tourism is reconsidering the financial support it awards to the nation's international film festivals. Faced with a substantial increase in the number of festivals applying for support, the ministry has announced that its current policy will apply only until the end of 2002, after ...
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News
Australia's April reveals strong slate
Australia's April Films has announced a slate of seven films, two and a half years after it launched on the back of a first look deal with Universal Pictures. The most developed project is The Campaign, a contemporary screwball comedy written by Tony McNamara and with Praise director John Curran ...
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News
Dragon and Andell merge to launch Mission
Graham Broadbent and Damian Jones, the UK producers behind Very Annie Mary and Welcome To Sarajevo production outfit Dragon Pictures, have teamed with Andrew Hauptman and Ellen Bronfman's well-heeled film operation, Andell Entertainment, to launch Mission Pictures. Mission aims to fuel an ambitious drive into internationally-oriented, bigger-budget projects with an ...
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News
Objects and Bunuel open and close San Sebastian
Rose Troche's The Safety Of Objects and Carlos Saura's Bunuel And King Salomon's Table (Bunuel Y La Mesa Del Rey Salomon) will open and close, respectively, the official section of the 49th edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Sept 20-29).Troche's drama, an adaptation of several short stories by ...
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News
UK Box office
Studio revenues in India are predicted to double over the next five years as the territory begins a period of rapid growth, both in terms of cinema infrastructure and production investment.According to a new report, Bollywood: India's Film Industry, from UK-based industry analysts Dodona Research, production investment will rise 70% ...
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News
Dutch industry decries foreign use of tax breaks
Just one week after the European Commission approved Holland's new tax break system (valid until 2003), the Federation of Film Interests - a union made up of screenwriters, directors, producers, actors and other professionals - has called for a regulation of the system. The federation is talking to policymakers and ...
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News
Russia to double film industry grant next year
The Russian Ministry of Culture has announced that it will double the amount of government funding for the film industry next year. The Ministry of Culture budget for 2002 will include $60m for film, 70% of which will support film production with the remaining 30% allocated for the funding of ...
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News
Oldenburg reveals festival line-up
Ralf Huettner's romantic comedy Mondscheintarif will open this year's Oldenburg International Film Festival (September 5-9) which will also feature the world premieres of Salome Breziner's Fast Sofa, Richard Stanley's The Secret Glory, and Sheree Folkson's Gypsy Woman . Oldenburg will also feature new films by German filmmakers Claus Strobel (Das ...
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News
Lions Gate gets US rights for The Grey Zone
Lions Gate Films has acquired all North American rights to Millenium Films' The Grey Zone, which is set for its world premiere next month at the Toronto International Film Festival.Directed by Tim Blake Nelson and based on his own award-winning Off Broadway play, The Grey Zone is a drama, set ...
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News
Hungary's Mafilm faces coproduction starvation
Mafilm, Hungary's largest film production company, responsible for many local and international successes such as last year's award-winning Hungarian movie, Jadwiga's Pillow, is fighting the erosion of its dominant hold on the country's filmmaking business."A new Hungarian opera-based film, Bank Ban which has a budget of $2.9m (800m Forint) hasn't ...
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News
KirchGroup will not acquire EM.TV shares
Germany's KirchGroup has announced that it will now not acquire a 16.74% stake and minority voting rights of 25.1% in the debt-ridden EM.TV & Merchandising and has withdrawn its application to the German cartel authority "in agreement with EM.TV". Earlier this year, the anti-trust authority had launched a three-month investigation ...
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News
Sandrew wins case against A.I. certification
Nordic distribution major Sandrew Metronome has won a court appeal against the decision of the Swedish State Board of Censors, which would have prevented children under the age of15 from seeing Steven Spielberg's AI: Artificial Intelligence. As a result of the court ruling, the film now has an 11-rating which ...