Small MPU – Page 443
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News
Miravista becomes official Disney production label in Latin America
Miravista has now become the official film production label of Disney in Latin America following the dissolution of its Spanish partner, Admira. The media division of Spanish telco giant Telefonica has been axed as part of the media divestment strategy spearheaded by Telefonica president Cesar Alierta. Telefonica still has media ...
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UK distributors urge common policy on BAFTA screeners
Senior industry figures have called for all UK distributors - including those operating independently of the Hollywood studios - to agree a common line on whether or not to send out screening tapes to BAFTA members this year.The call follows Tuesday's controversial announcement by the Motion Picture Assocation of ...
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Sharif to be feted at AFI FEST, Minghella to show 20 mins of Mountain
Omar Sharif will be honouredat the upcoming AFI Festís annual tribute on Nov 11 in Los Angeles.'A Tribute To Omar'will feature clips, anecdotes, an on-stage discussion and a retrospective ofhis films including J Lee Thompson's Mackenna's Gold (1969), William Wyler's Funny Girl (1968), Youssef Chahine's The Blazing Sun (1954) and ...
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Weir to receive Schlesinger BAFTA/LA award
Peter Weir will receiveBAFTA/LA's John Schlesinger Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence atthe 12th Annual Britannia Awards in Los Angeles on Nov 8.'We are delighted tobe honoring director Peter Weir, who has made some of the finest films of ourtime,' BAFTA/LA chairman Gary Dartnall said in a statement.'His films, including Witness,Dead ...
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Hollywood nine commit to MPAA screener ban
The seven major studios,their subsidiaries and DreamWorks and New Line will not send out preview"screener" tapes this awards season after committing to a MotionPicture Association of America (MPAA) anti-piracy drive.The move was announced today(Sept 30) by MPAA president Jack Valenti, who cited a "determinedcommitment to combat digital piracy and to ...
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Gordon moves to Columbia, brings in Toho-Towa
Mark Gordon, the veteranproducer whose credits include Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot, is in final negotiations to sign a first-look deal with ColumbiaPictures, a deal which would involve Japanese major Toho-Towa which had backedGordon in his former venture Mutual Film Co.Gordon, whose output dealwith Fox ended earlier this year, ...
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Evil a smash at the box office and Sweden's Oscar submission
Sweden namedMikael Haafstroem's highly anticipated Evil (Ondskan) its submission for this year's foreignlanguage Oscar yesterday, the weekend after it opened in Sweden with a dazzling108,000 admissions (SKR1.1m) on 95 prints.The gross wasdouble the take of the second film on the chart Pirates Of The Caribbean, reflecting the fact that the ...
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UK's Rabiger gets IDA Preservation & Scholarship Award
Film-maker andeducator Michael Rabiger will receive the 2003 International DocumentaryAssociation (IDA) Preservation and Scholarship Award at the body's annual awardsin Los Angeles on Dec 12.The honour isawarded to an individual or organisation that, in the words of the IDA'spresident Michael Donaldson, has made "substantial and enduring contributionsto non-fiction film-making"."Michael Rabigerhas ...
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Bolivia celebrates box office smash with Dependency
A Bolivian /USco production is making box office waves in Bolivia. Already dubbed theBolivian Titanic,Rodrigo Bellott's Sexual Dependency beat US blockbusters Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle at the local box office over the weekend. With just twoprints, the teen drama attracted 360,000 admissions in ...
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Toshiba joint venture cranks up first production
Towani Corp, a joint venture between Toshiba, Warner Bros and Nippon Television Network, has started production on its first feature film, action fantasy Sakuya, which has Tomoo Haraguchi directing.Haraguchi is one of Japan's leading make-up artists and special effects supervisors with credits including the horror hit Ring and the Gamera ...
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Berri takes over as France's Cinematheque chief
Following several months of upheaval, France's Cinematheque has elected renowned director/producer Claude Berri as its new president. The Cinematheque plays a similar role as the AFI in the US and holds France's national film archives.The Cinematheque has been on shaky ground this year thanks to administrative differences between culture minister ...
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Reviews
Take My Eyes (Te Doy Mis Ojos)
Dir: Iciar Bollain. 2003.Spain. 106mins.This realist take on domestic abuse was the local favourite at last week's Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival, where rumour had it the film would have picked up more than the deserved best actor and actress prizes if festival rules didn't preclude giving a single competition ...
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Reviews
Gettin' Square
Dir: Jonathan Teplitzky. Australia. 2003. 100minsThe well-planned heist that 'goes wrong' to a thumping rock soundtrack, the bunch of lovable desperadoes in hock to the real nasties, the reliably unexpected twist in the narrative tail-all are in place in this attractively virile Aussie gangster comedy. Arguably, Guy Ritchie's British Lock, ...
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Dutch films set for record market share
Dutch films look set to take a record share of their local market this year, according the country's cinema organisation NFC. Thanks to upcoming premieres for commercial titles such as Pietje Bell 2, Phileine Says Sorry, Polleke and Kees Jongen, the NFC expects local product to take a 14.5% of ...
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Foreign Oscar deadline closes with heavyweight submissions
Two heavyweight film nations submitted their candidates for the Academy Awards foreign language category yesterday (Oct 1) - the final deadline day for entries.Italy chose Gabriele Salvatores's acclaimed thriller I'm Not Scared, while Spain submitted David Trueba's Salamina Soldiers.Italians will be hoping that Salvatores can repeat his 1992 best foreign ...
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CP Medien fund falls victim to German fund ruling
The recent amendments to Germany's Media Ruling on the running of private media funds (ScreenDaily.com, August 2003) have claimed their first victim with the Ludwigsburg-based CP Medien fund undertaking a corporate restructuring. In a press statement, the fund, which has supported such projects as Jean-Jacques Annaud's Enemy At The Gates ...
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1000 Indian cinemas stage protest closures against tax rates
Almost 1,000 single-screen cinemas in the Indian state of Maharashtra will close from Oct 17 in protest against high entertainment taxes. Entertainment tax levels are set at 55% for Mumbai, 50% for major towns and cities and 45% for rural areas. The exhibitors want this to be brought down to ...
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Reviews
The Miracle (Il Miracolo)
Dir: Edoardo Winspeare. Italy. 2003. 89mins.Released on a limited Milan and Rome run the day after its Venice festival competition screening, Edoardo Winspeare's The Miracle racked up an impressive screen average then second only to The Hulk. This is the third film from the talented young southern Italian director, whose ...
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Greek multiplex expansion plans in jeopardy
The future expansion of multiplexes in Greece is in jeopardy following a legal dispute between country's Exhibitors Federation and the builders of a 10-screen new multiplex in the central Athens residential district of Ambelokipi. The planned opening this month of the City Plaza multiplex - leased by veteran film ...