Small MPU – Page 559
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News
Pusan market wraps with flurry of deals
Although sellers weren't expecting much action until the AFM, the marketat the Pusan filmfestival closed with several major sales on Wednesday (Oct 12).Among the biggest deals, start-up Korean sales agent iHQsold Sad Movie to Japan's Gaga for asum that was more than 80% of the film's $3.5m budget. The melodrama, ...
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Reviews
The Willow Tree (Beed-e Majnoon)
Dir: MajidMajidi. Iran. 2005. 96minsWith The Willow Tree, Iranian film-maker MajidMajidi gives in to the mawkish melodramatictendencies he was always managed to keep at arm's length in past works like Colours Of Paradiseand Baran.As in Colours Of Paradise he uses blindness asan allegory, this time for a grand diatribe against ...
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Reviews
Opa!
Dir: Udayan Prasad. UK. 2005.97mins.Make no mistake, UdayanPrasad, director of such smart racial explorations as Brothers In Trouble or My SonThe Fanatic, seems to have taken a leave of absence with Opa!, a featherweight romp set in the Greek islands that squeezesthe life out of every Mediterranean recipe in the ...
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Reviews
The Tiger And The Snow (La Tigre E La Neve)
Dir: Roberto Benigni. It. 2005. 114mins.Strictly for those with high schmaltz threshholds, Roberto Benigni's The Tiger And TheSnow will go down well at home, but outside of Italy it isunlikely to extend the fanbase of the madcap Tuscanactor-director.Certainly this £30m ($36m) romance,set against the backdrop of the war in Iraq, ...
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News
IMAX system to be installed in ZAO multiplex in Ufa, Russia
IMAX Corp. and Ufa,Russia-based exhibitor ZAO Kompaniya Perspektiva have signed an agreement toinstall an IMAX MPX theatre system in ZAO's flagship multimplex. Located in central Russia,Ufa is the fourth Russian city where IMAX cinemas are set to debut by the endof 2006. New facilities are expected to open in Kazan, ...
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News
Pathe boards Coppola's Youth Without Youth
France's Pathe has boardedFrancis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth as French co-producer and international sales agent. Pathe PicturesInternational will start selling the American Zoetrope film to buyers at AFM.The movie, a low-budgetreturn to directing for the US master, is currently shooting in Bucharest,Romania, and will continue production on and off ...
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News
Putin cuts lifeline to Russian film
Russian president Vladimir Putin has decided to axe Goskino, the government body responsible for supporting the film industry, provoking a wave of protest from local filmmakers. Protesters claim that unless the decision is reversed it will signal the death of the struggling Russian film industry which is heavily dependent ...
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News
Mandel named dean of LA's AFI Conservatory
Director and AFIConservatory alumnus Robert Mandel (pictured) has been named dean of the AFI Conservatoryin Los Angeles.Mandel graduatedfrom AFI in 1979 and his subsequent credits include FX, The Substitute,School Ties and BigShots."Having analumnus at the helm of the AFI Conservatory for the first time in its 36-yearhistory is an exciting ...
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News
German student film-maker wins Next Reel festival in NYC
Germany's HolgerErnst has won New York University's Next Reel International Film Festival firstprize for Rain Is Falling.Poland's LeivIgor Devold came second with Tomorrow, and Indian filmmaker Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni took thirdprize for Grinding Machine.Other awardshanded out at the closing night ceremony in New York on Oct 1 include the bestfiction ...
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News
Evangelist's story gets US video release through Maverick
Director-actorDamian Chapa and Sabeva Film Distribution have partnered with US videodistributor Maverick Entertainment Group (MEG) to release Man Of Faith on Maverick's Spirit label on Jan 10,2006.MEG picked upNorth American rights to the picture, based on the true story of controversialOhio evangelist Leroy Jenkins. Chapa stars along with Faye Dunaway, ...
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News
Myriad picks up art robbery documentary Stolen
LosAngeles-based production and sales house Myriad Pictures has picked upinternational rights in all media to Rebecca Dreyfus' documentary Stolen.Produced inassociation with the US's Court TV, Stolen follows the art detective Harold Smith as he investigates a$500m robbery from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner museum that includedVermeer's prized work "The Concert".Blythe Danner ...
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News
Fox restructures Asia/Pacific, moves HQ to Sydney
FoxInternational has rung in the changes at its Asia/Pacific regional operation,cutting jobs at the Tokyo-based headquarters and relocating the regional baseto Sydney, Australia.Fox Australiamanaging director Sunder Kimatrai is promoted to vice president of Asia/Pacificbased in Sydney, supported by Asia/Pacific marketing director Janice Tay, salesmanager Brendan Gutsell, and print services director ...
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Reviews
Domino
Dir: Tony Scott. US. 2005.127mins.There's something to be said for cinema that avoidsthe comfort margins of the mainstream, and Tony Scott's effusive, edge-skating Domino - a loosely plotted biopic of thedaughter of actor Laurence Harvey, who spurned privilege and became a bountyhunter - is certainly one such offering.Far more pluckythan ...
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Reviews
The Tin Mine (Mahalai Meung Rae)
Dir: Jira Maligool. Thai. 2005. 110mins.A picture that presents life working underground asan uplifting, character-building experience is nothing if not an oddity. Andwhile this attitude should bestow on TheTin Mine - Thailand's best foreign language Oscar submission - adistinctiveness all of its own, it is hard to guess how much ...
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Reviews
Pavee Lackeen
Dir: Perry Ogden. Ire. 2005.87mins.Perry Ogden's debut feature Pavee Lackeen, which charts the lives of Irishtravellers on the outskirts of Dublin, joins a long list of desolate portraits- including Hector Babenco's Pixote and the Dardennes' brothers' Rosetta- as a harsh and grim indictment of Western society's uncompromising treatmenttowards children.Shot on ...
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News
Celsius signs on for Flying Scotsman sales
UK based sales outfit Celsius has signed to handle world sales on DouglasMackinnon's The Flying Scotsman.The Flying Scotsman is the true story of Graeme Obree, a Scottishamateur cyclist who in 1994 went on to break the world Hour Record on a bike hebuilt at home, using parts from an old ...
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News
Private disqualified as Italian Oscar candidate
Italy's Oscar candidate, SaverioCostanzo's Private,has been ruled ineligible by the Academy Of MotionPicture Arts & Sciences for the foreign-language film Oscar category thisyear, since the picture was not shot in Italian. Private is adrama about the Middle East conflict, which focuses on an Israeli patrolwho takes over the home of ...
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Reviews
Kippur
Dir: Amos Gitai. Israel. 2000. 123 minsProd Co: MP Productions (Fr), Agav Hafakot, Studio Canal Plus, Arte France Cinema, R & C Produzioni (It). Int'l Sales: President Films, (+33 1 4562 8222). Prod: Michael Propper, Amos Gitai. Scr: Amos Gitai, Marie-Jose Sanselme. DoP: Renato Berta. Prod des: Miguel Markin. ...
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News
German-US investors take over Senator Entertainment
A German-US group of investors, headed byCologne-based media lawyer Helge Sasseand German-born, Los Angeles-based independent producer Marco Weber (Igby Goes Down, The 13th Floor), has acquired amajority 50.1% interest in insolvent distributor-producer Senator Entertainment.Sasse and Weber struck the deal with Deutsche Bank and a consortium offinancial investors, who are to ...
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News
Hof Film Days unveils festival programme
German documentariesare particularly strong at this year's International HofFilm Days (October 26-30) including world premieres of new films about musicianJohn Cale, a 'behind the scenes' look atthe casting couch in Hollywood, and thelegendary 1940s screenwriter 'Buzz' Bezzerides.Joerg Bundschuh's documentaryabout John Cale, ToTulsa And Back, is the first portrait ever made ...