Small MPU – Page 536
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Soda picks up UK rights to Song of Songs
Soda Pictures has taken UK and Ireland rights to Josh Appignanesi'sdebut feature Song of Songs.Natalie Press, who previously starred in My Summer of Love, stars alongsidenewcomer Joel Chalfen in the story of a brother andsister in London's Orthodox Jewish community. Song of Songs premiered in August at the 2005Edinburgh International ...
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Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) selects 25 film projects
TheHong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) has unveiled 25 Asian filmprojects for its 2006 edition. The selection consists of 10 projects from Hong Kong, 3 each from China and Taiwan, two each from Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand, and one from Iran.'These25 projects are representative of the ...
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Sighvatsson swoops on Scanbox
LosAngeles-based film producer Sigurjon "Joni"Sighvatsson has taken over Scandinavian filmdistribution company Scanbox Entertainment A/S,acquiring 75 percent of its shares.Theremaining 25 percent of the company will be held by Scanbox'scurrent management team, with former majority owner VernerBack Pedersen retaining an undisclosed equity position and continuing to serveon the company's board of ...
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Liberty's Starz launches movie download service
Liberty Media's StarzEntertainment Group is launching Vongo, a new US video download subscriptionservice that delivers movies from studios including Disney and Sony for viewingon Windows-based devices such as PCs, laptops and portable players. Vongo subscribers will pay$9.99 a month for unlimited broadband Internet access to around 1,000 new andlibrary movies ...
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North American box office down 4% for 2005
TotalNorth American box office was down 4% to $8.83bn in 2005, according tofigures released on Tuesday by Nielsen EDI - not quite the disastrousslump feared earlier in the year, but still the lowest overall domestic tallysince 2001.Amongdistributors, Warner Bros, last year's number two domestically, earned braggingrights with a $1.38bn total ...
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Technicolor enters battle for digital dominance
TechnicolorDigital Cinema has signed a deal with US chain Century Theatres to installdigital projection systems for up to 120 screens.The betatest is the start of a plan to convert 5,000 screens in the next three to fiveyears. Technicolorsays it wants its digital equipment in 15,000 screens in the next 10 ...
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NTV wraps Japan's first 3D CGI feature
Japanese television network Nippon Televison (NTV) has completed production on Japan's first all 3D, all computer generated feature film, The Aurora. Based on an original script by Michiru Shimada and made over a period of nearly three years under director Yoshinori Kanno, The Aurora is an undersea adventure featuring a ...
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Box office attendance in Argentina drops by 15% for 2005
Cinema attendancefigures in Argentina dropped by an estimated 15% in 2005. The period saw 36million admissions as opposed to 42m in 2004, the biggest year for the localmarket in almost two decades. However, audiences were still up from 2003 bythree million admissions and from 2002 by four and half million. ...
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Korea's MK Pictures plans Chinese multiplex expansion
Finalising a recent memorandum of understanding on film businessdevelopment, Korean producer/distributor MK Pictures has signed with China'sEastern Dragon Film and Beijing Bona Culture Media International to partner ina multiplex development enterprise. The deal was signed on December 27 in Beijing.The equity investments from the three partners totals $2.5m - MK ...
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ID Distribution and Scalpel Films form alliance
France's IDDistribution and Scalpel Films have announced a strategic alliance for 2006, movingtowards co-production alongside French distribution activities andinternational sales.Led by Isabelle Dubar and former Celluloid head of sales Pierre Menahem respectively, ID and Scalpel have picked up Israelidirector Eytan Fox's upcoming The Bubble as their first joint title. ID ...
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Icelandic film opens 29th Gothenburg Film Festival
Icelandic director Sturla Gunnarsson's vikingdrama Beowulf & Grendel will openthe 2006 Gothenburg Film Festival (27 January - 6 February). The film, starringGerard Butler, Stellan Skarsgård, Sarah Polley and Ingvar Sigurdsson, had itsworld premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and will get its US premiere at thePalm Springs Film Festival on ...
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Wong Kar-wai to head Competition jury for Cannes
HongKong auteur Wong Kar-wai will head up the Competitionjury for the Cannes Film Festival this year (May 17-28), it was announced today(Jan 4).Thedirector, whose earlyfilm As TearsGo By was screened at Un Certain Regard in 1989 (and marked the first HongKong film ever at the festival), has been a Cannes ...
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Baker Street launches Take 9 fund for UK films
London-basedfilm financing company Baker Street Media Management has launched its latestequity fund, Take 9, to invest in British film productions. Baker Street saidTake 9 would seek to raise up to $22m (£12.5m) in cash from private investors, tosupport films with combined budgets of up to $87.9m (£50m). Take 9 ...
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IMAX signs cinema deal in China
IMAX Corp and Chinese property developer Sailun Real EstateDevelopment Co have signed an agreement that will see the installation of a newIMAX MPX theatre system in a retail and leisure centre in Kunming, YunnanProvince, China. The facility will be the entertainment anchor of Sailun'smassive $310m Kunming Shuncheng Mall project.In a ...
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US writers and producers announce nominations
Brokeback Mountain, Capote,Crash and Good Night, and GoodLuck have all been nominated forawards by both the US producers' and writers' guilds. The 40 Year-Old Virgin, meanwhile, got a surprise nomination from thewriters' organization.The big four Hollywood guildsall announce their award nominees this week, with the Producers Guild ofAmerica (PGA) and ...
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Oliveira to head Twentieth Century Fox Australia
MarcosOliveira, long-standing managing director of Twentieth Century Fox Brazil, hasbeen appointed managing director for Fox - Australia and will relocate toSydney later this month. Patricia Kamitsuji, currently sales director in theBrazil office, will replace Oliveira as Fox - Brazil's managing director.Announcingthe appointments, Fox International co-head Paul Hanneman said that in ...
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Wim Wenders to receive tribute at Miami Festival
Wim Wenders will receive the2006 Miami International Film Festival's (MIFF) Career Achievement Tribute,joining a distinguished roster of previous winners that includes Liv Ulman and Hector Babenco. "Weare proud to pay tribute to this legendary director, writer, and producer whosecontribution to the spirit of independent cinema continues to inspirefilmmakers around the ...
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Japan registers 60% increase in Internet users
The number of Internet users in Japan rose 59.7% to 27.6 million in 1999 according to a report by Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT). The report also found that Internet penetration in Japan now stands at 21.4%, which ranks it 13th worldwide, and that subscribers to i-Mode and ...
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IFC acquires distribution rights to Twelve and Holding
Michael Cuesta'schildhood drama Twelve AndHolding, which sold to a raft of international markets on the back of its Torontopremiere last autumn, has found a USdistributor. IFC hasacquired Serenade Films' revenge tale of youngsters who come to terms with thedeath of their friend, and plans to release it this summer. Zoe ...
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The Tin Mine wins top awards at Thai Suphannahongsa
Jira Maligool's The Tin Mine swept the Suphannahongsaawards last night (Jan 4), scooping six awards including best film, bestdirector and best supporting actor. The coming-of-age dramais Thailand's entry for the Oscar.Executive producers VisutePoolvoralaks from GMM Tai Hub and MingmongkolSonakul from Dedicate were on hand to receive the best filmaward, as ...