Small MPU – Page 1390

  • News

    Home-grown films find growing success in Argentina

    2002-10-15T04:05:00Z

    In the past month, local films accounted for 20% of total admissions in Argentina - a phenomenon few countries can boast against the assault of Hollywood titles. Argentineans have always displayed a healthy interest in their national output. However, the release of various strong local titles emerging at around the ...

  • News

    Buckingham takes charge of UK arthouse 'virtual circuit'

    2002-10-15T04:05:00Z

    Former FilmFour deputy chief executive Peter Buckingham has been appointed as head of the Film Council's new distribution and exhibition fund.Designed to boost the exhibition of arthouse films in the UK, the fund will have a budget of $22m (£14m) over the next four years to create a virtual circuit ...

  • News

    Blue Star Movie, Spice Factory sign co-production deal

    2002-10-15T04:05:00Z

    Italy's Blue Star Movie has signed a joint venture agreement with the UK's Spice Factory to co-produce three to five pictures a year that will be shot in Italy in English with budgets ranging from $3m - $20m.The first project to be made under the agreement which was signed by ...

  • News

    Darkness descends on Spain

    2002-10-15T04:05:00Z

    Darkness, second-time director Jaume Balaguero's English-language chiller, burst onto Spanish screens this weekend, taking in an impressive three-day box office gross of Euros 1.16m. The Miramax-backed $12m horror film from Barcelona-based Filmax's genre label Fantastic Factory opened Friday on 276 copies. Darkness made its world premiere October 3 as the ...

  • News

    Lilo passes $80m, Signs $120m for BVI

    2002-10-15T04:05:00Z

    Buena Vista International's Lilo & Stitch took $4.1m over the weekend to elevate its cumulative international total so far to $80.1m. In its second week in the UK the animated feature grossed $2.9m for a cumulative score of $5.8m. In Australia it took $702,000 in its fourth week for a ...

  • News

    Netherlands gets new sales outfit

    2000-01-20T00:52:00Z

    TheRotterdam Film Festival will be the stage for the launch of The Netherlandsnewest sales company, SND Films.The companywas originally founded in 1994 with the name Sydney Neter Distribution as aseller of shorts, classical music programming and documentaries, but is nowmaking a move into theatrical features. Aware of the tough conditions ...

  • News

    Albert Page hired as development director at Hoberman's Mandeville

    2002-10-15T04:05:00Z

    Albert Page has been hired as director of development for Mandeville Films, David Hoberman's Disney-based production outfit which has been rekindled after Hoberman exited Hyde Park Entertainment earlier this year.Page comes to Mandeville from DreamWorks-based Jinks-Cohen Company where he spent two and a half years developing project such as Family ...

  • News

    Made In Germany lineup unveiled for AFI FEST

    2002-10-15T04:05:00Z

    AFI FEST, the Los Angeles International Film Festival which is organised by the American Film Institute (AFI), has announced the line-up of Made In Germany, a featured section of contemporary German film which has been put together for the first time in partnership with the Export-Union Of German Cinema. Made ...

  • News

    Minority Report has $13m weekend in Europe for Fox

    2002-10-15T04:05:00Z

    Fox's sci-fi thriller Minority Report continued its storming run over the weekend with a $13m haul from 19 European markets to give it a $145m international cumulative score. The picture opened number one in Greece with a $380,000 gross from 51 screens - yet another all time best territory opening ...

  • Reviews

    White Oleander

    2002-10-15T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Peter Kosminsky. US. 2002. 109 minsThe term 'chick-flick' has been rightfully criticised for denigrating women-orientated pictures since it implies an off-putting touchy-feeliness and some sugar-coated sentiment. But in the case of White Oleander, a florid melodrama about a teenage girl's journey of painful self-discovery as she is bounced from ...

  • News

    France submits 8 Femmes for foreign-language Oscar

    2002-10-15T00:00:00Z

    Francois Ozon's 8 Femmes has been selected as France's submission for the best foreign-language film award at the Oscars.The nomination seems well-deserved as the critically-acclaimed film has not only performed strongly in France, where it sold 3.8 million tickets, but has also proved a hot-seller on the international market.Ozon has ...

  • News

    John Maybury to take on Super-Cannes

    2002-10-16T04:05:00Z

    John Maybury, who previously directed experimental Francis Bacon biopic Love Is The Devil, is set to direct an adaptation of JG Ballard's futuristic thriller Super-Cannes. The project marks the revival of a relationship between veteran British producer Jeremy Thomas' Recorded Pictures Company (RPC) and the controversial Ballard. Ballard, who wrote ...

  • News

    All-star cast lines up for Olesen's Crimes

    2002-10-16T04:05:00Z

    An impressive cast of Danish talent is lining up to star in award-winning local filmmaker Annette K. Olesen's Crimes, the 10th Dogme-style production to come out of the territory.The story is set in a women's prison, where a minister, played by Ann Eleonora Jorgensen (Italian For Beginners), finds her faith ...

  • News

    Golden Harvest returns to production after nine-month gap

    2002-10-16T04:05:00Z

    Hong Kong's Golden Harvest Entertainment plans to return to production next month following a nine-month hiatus with a romantic comedy, My Lucky Year, to star Tony Leung Chiu Wai and hot up-and-coming actress Miriam Yeung.Vincent Kok is attached to direct the film which is scheduled to start shooting at the ...

  • News

    Germany's Premiere provides proof that there is life after Kirch

    2002-10-16T04:05:00Z

    Germany's pay TV platform Premiere has shown that it is very much still in business by sealing a long-term output deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and acquiring a film package from Warner Bros. International Television Distribution.In addition to providing Premiere with German TV premieres of such MGM titles as Legally Blonde, Barbershop ...

  • News

    Box office gets red hot as Dragon flies to the top

    2002-10-15T00:00:00Z

    Proving that UK audiences have not lost their appetites for Hannibal Lecter, UIP's Red Dragon stormed to the top of the chart at the weekend with a mighty $4.96m (£3.2m) haul from 428 sites, including $1.05m (£674,621) of previews from 385 sites.The film, a prequel to 1991's Oscar-winning The Silence ...

  • News

    Granada restructures production

    2000-01-19T21:28:00Z

    The UK's Granada Media, which encompasses feature production arm Granada Film under Granada Media Productions, has restructured its senior production management.Andrea Wonfor, previously joint managing director of Granada Media Productions, becomes executive chair of Granada Media Productions and Granada Media International and Media Products, which will be managed as separate ...

  • News

    Sweden's Bonnier sees record earnings from entertainment arm

    2002-10-16T04:05:00Z

    Swedish media giant Bonnier has reported record earnings from film, video and DVD distribution in Scandinavia over the last eight months. While earnings for the media group in total fell by $49.25m (SEK457m) due to a steep decline in the advertising market, Bonnier Entertainment posted an increase of $18.2m (SEK169m) ...

  • News

    Vancouver festival audience bowled over by Columbine

    2002-10-16T04:05:00Z

    Michael Moore's anti-gun documentary Bowling For Columbine has won the audience award at the 21st annual Vancouver International Film Festival. Another documentary, Nettie Wild's Fix: The Story Of An Addicted City, shared the festival's prize for most popular Canadian feature; the film, a searing expose of Vancouver's drug culture, was ...

  • News

    Heather Rose dies, aged 36

    2002-10-16T04:05:00Z

    Heather Rose, who got a standing ovation at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival for her performance as Julia in director Rolf de Heer's competition title Dance Me To My Song, died suddenly last week in South Australia a day after her 36th birthday.She was born with severe cerebral palsy, confined ...