Small MPU – Page 468
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News
Miami Film Festival pays tribute to Ullman, Rouch
MiamiInternational Film Festival organisers unveiled two special programmes today (Jan4) that will run during the festival from Feb 4-13.Liv Ullmann will receive acareer achievement tribute and filmmaker Jean Rouch will be the subject of aretrospective and symposium showcasing work including Jaguar and Chronicle Of A Summer.For moreinformation see www.miamifilmfestival.com.
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News
Nunnari buys film rights to Coelho's 11 Minutes
Gianni Nunnari'sHollywood Gang Productions has optioned movie rights to Eleven Minutes, the bestselling novel by Paolo Coelho,who also wrote the worldwide hit The Alchemist.ElevenMinutes centres on ayoung Brazilian girl's quest for romantic satisfaction as she navigates thewaters of sexual pleasure and true love.The titlederives from the apparent fact that the ...
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News
North American box office narrowly beats 2003
Final annualNorth American box office figures released by Nielsen EDI reveal that 2004 narrowlybeat 2003 by 0.5% with $9.21bn in total ticket sales compared to $9.17bn.Despite weekend reports from other sources declaring 2004a record year, in the final reckoning Nielson EDI said this was not the case,which means 2002 remains ...
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News
Doc fever continues as What The Bleep passes $10m
Samuel Goldwyn Films &Roadside Attractions reported yesterday (4) that William Arntz, Betsy Chasseand Mark Vicente's docudrama What The #$*! Do We Know' has passed $10m at the North American box office.The picture wasself-financed by Arntz to tune of $5m and released by the filmmaker in February2004. Samuel Goldwyn Films and ...
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News
Oz talent lobbies Howard for film funding boost
A high-powered group of signatories has sent a letter to Australian Prime Minister John Howard urging him to increase film industry funding when he hands down the 2000-2001 budget in early May. The group includes producers Jan Chapman and Lynda House, directors Gillian Armstrong, Scott Hicks and Chris Noonan and ...
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News
Woolworths blames DVD piracy for poor Christmas
High street retailer Woolworths has blamed DVD piracy forcontributing to disappointing trading results over the Christmas period. Chief executive Trevor Bish-Jones told The DailyTelegraph that Woolworths was particularly hit by DVD piracy, losing £1.5m ofsales on some individual titles. The latest Harry Potter film, Prisoner of Azkaban,released in November, sold ...
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News
Moodysson misses out on Swedish Oscar nod
When Sweden's national film awards, the Guldbagges, arehanded out on Jan 24, three films will compete almost exclusively in everycategory.TomasAlfredson's black comedy drama Four Shades Of Brown and first-time filmmaker Maria Blom's comedy drama Dalecarlians will face off against lastyear's biggest local box office success, Kay Pollak's drama As It ...
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News
Hong Kong box office surges in 2004
2004 was a greatyear for Hong Kong's theatrical business with strong box office revenues postedfor both local and foreign productions. The figurescompiled by the Motion Picture Industry Association (MPIA) put total box officetaking at $118m (HK$917m) as of December 30 - almost returning to the high 2001level of $129m.HongKong-produced films ...
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News
Quebec boosts tax credit for foreign shoots
The Quebec provincial government will boostits labour-based film production tax credit from 11% to 20%, following asimilar move in Ontario before Christmas. Ontario increased its production servicescredit from 11% to 18% and its credit for local production from 20% to 30%.Production service providers in British Columbia are calling on theirprovincial ...
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News
Incredibles regains international chart lead
A dearth of wideinternational launches meant that holdovers were left to do battle over the NewYear weekend. BVI's TheIncredibles regained the chart lead over the final weekend of the 2004 boxoffice year (Dec 31-Jan 2) and is fast approaching the $300m mark.It was a goodweekend for BVI, which saw a ...
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News
Twenty one films cross $100m mark at international box office
Twentyone films crossed the $100m mark at the international box office in 2004,according to Screen International research.TwoWarner Bros titles, Ocean's Twelve and The Polar Express passedthe $100m mark in international markets over the New Year's weekend.Thefigures show that the international market is becoming an increasinglyimportant source of revenue for US ...
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News
Film banker Jorge Gallegos confirmed dead in Tsunami
It was confirmedyesterday that veteran film banker Jorge Gallegos (pictured) died on Dec 26last year, while on holiday in Khao Lak, Thailand, as a result of the tsunamicatastrophe.Gallegos is survived by hiswife Lorna and their two sons Christian and James, who themselves all threesurvived the tsunami. The family has selected ...
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News
IMAX signs with Lark for six systems in China
IMAX Corporation and China'sLark International Multimedia have signed an agreement that will see six ImaxMPX theatre systems installed in multiplexes over the next four years. Under the agreement, new andretrofitted facilities will open in major urban areas through 2008. Specificlocations are pending. It's the largest multi-theatre deal the giant-screencompany has ...
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News
PGA opts for Aviator, Sideways, Neverland
Finding Neverland,Million Dollar Baby, Sideways, The Aviator and The Incredibles havebeen nominated for the Producers Guild of America's Darryl F Zanuck Producer ofthe Year Award.The nominees were announcedin Los Angeles yesterday (5) among a host of television categories and thewinner will be unveiled at the PGA awards gala at Culver ...
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News
Revolution signs US free-TV representation deal with Debmar, Mercury
Revolution Studios has signed a deal with Mort Marcus’ DebmarStudios and Ira Bernstein’s Mercury Entertainment to act as distributionagents for the free television rights to its pictures.The deal includes syndication rights, network television rightsand certain basic cable rights, outside of Revolution Studios’ existingoutput deal with Fox Broadcasting.Marcus and Bernstein acquire ...
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Keil calls for revamp of German funding system
Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg chief Klaus Keil has called for a rethink of the German public film funding system in the light of German media companies' successful IPOs.Writing a guest column for the German daily newspaper Die Welt, Keil asked whether films that that can now be "freely financed at any time", ...
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Reviews
Holy Lola
Dir: Bertrand Tavernier.Fr. 2003. 128mins.At times Holy Lolafeels closer to fly-on-the-wall documentary than dramatic feature as it followsa handful of French couples in Cambodia on the trail of children to adopt. Thefilm's worthy subject matter and the reputation of veteran director BertrandTavernier may get it some play at smaller festivals. ...
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News
Spotless Mind shines in BAFTA shortlist
Fifteenfilms have been selected to go through to BAFTA's second round of voting forthe best film category - including four British pictures and threeforeign-language titles.It takes three rounds of voting for BAFTA members tomake their final choice of winning films. The first round, which closed onTuesday night (Jan 4), has ...
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News
Berlinale unveils Panorama line-up
TheBerlinale's Panorama section has announced the first films to make itsselection.Thearthouse strand, which plays alongside the Berlinale's official Competition,includes a string of features from high profile directors including KevinSpacey, Fruit Chan, Dominic Savage and Sally Potter as well as notable films by newcomers.The wide-ranging selection has aparticularly strong focus on ...
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News
UK home video market growth hit by piracy in 2004
The UK video retail market grew by 12% last year, according to figuresreleased by the British Video Association. Although impressive, the 12% growth in 2004 is significantly down fromthe 30% growth posted in 2003 - a slowdown blamed on a maturing market and anincrease in piracy.First reports from the BVA ...