Small MPU – Page 268
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News
San Sebastian reveals competition line up
The San Sebastian International Film Festival has announced 16 of the films which will compete in the official section of this year's 49th edition, which runs from September 20 to 29. The line-up, which will likely receive at least a couple of last minute additions, has a distinct European flavour. ...
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Audiences rise in the West, decline in the East
The Western European cinemagoing trend is riding a steadily upward curve, while Eastern European admissions continue to decline. In fact, the year-on-year decline in ticket sales between 1999 and 2000 that was experienced in Eastern European markets substantially outstrips the gains enjoyed in the western territories as a whole. While ...
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News
Gas Attack takes Edinburgh by storm
Topical, highly controversial Scottish production Gas Attack was named Best New British Feature at the Edinburgh International Film Festival closing ceremony on Sunday night. A first feature from former actor and theatre director Kenny Glenaan, it uses a documentary style to tell of a right-wing terrorist attack on the community ...
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News
Vif International launches German film fund
Potsdam-based Vif International Films has launched its fourth tranche to raise Euro 50m from private individuals each investing a minimum of Euro 25,000 for the financing of internationally marketable feature film and television projects Among the projects set to benefit from this latest Vif fund are Broken Silence director Wolfgang ...
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News
People's Choice - Euro film award nominations
Forty eight European directors and actors from Jean-Jacques Annaud to Ray Winstone have been nominated for this year's People's Choice Awards which will be presented during the European Film Awards in Berlin on December 1. Cinemagoers throughout Europe will have the chance to vote in three categories "Best European Director", ...
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News
Ricci joins Granada's Gathering
Christina Ricci has signed to star in The Gathering, a $17m UK supernatural thriller, scheduled to start shooting on Sept 3 for Granada Film and Samuelson Productions. Directed by Brian Gilbert, the film will also star Kerry Fox, and rising UK actors Ioan Gruffudd, Stephen Dillane and Simon Russell Beale. ...
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News
Garci announces The Story Of A Kiss
Popular Spanish director and four-time Academy Award nominee Jose Luis Garci has announced his next feature, The Story Of A Kiss (Historia De Un Beso), set to shoot in northern Spain in October or November.The romantic drama will star Ana Fernandez (Alone), Alfredo Landa, Carlos Hipolito and youngster Manuel Lozano, ...
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News
Dutch box office on the increase
Cinema admissions in The Netherlands were up year-on-year for the first six months of 2001. Rising 5.7% from 10.6m in the first half of 2000 to 11.2m for the same period this year, ticket sales in the territory continue to show positive growth aided by strong performances from Bridget Jones's ...
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News
American Pie 2 makes it three in a row
North American youths continued to gobble American Pie 2, keeping the gross-out comedy at the top spot for its third weekend and easily vaulting it over the $100m mark. Its take of $12.9m gives it an estimated 17-day gross of $109.6m. The other sequel of the moment, Rush Hour 2, ...
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News
Distribution revs Alliance Atlantis revenues
Alliance Atlantis Communications announced a record 91% increase in first quarter revenue at its Motion Picture Group. The big numbers -- $45.6m compared to $23.9m in the first quarter 2000 -- were driven by strong performances at the box office and in home video. In a statement, company CEO Michael ...
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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 ...