Small MPU – Page 835

  • News

    Roby wins Claude-Jutra Award for White Skin

    2005-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Quebecois filmmaker DanielRoby has been awarded the Claude-Jutra Award for the direction of his firstfeature film, La peau blanche (White Skin). The prize, sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada, will be presented at the 25thGenie Awards Gala to be held on March 21 in Toronto.Based on the novel ...

  • News

    Clooney rounds out Good Night cast

    2005-03-15T00:00:00Z

    RobertDowney Jr, Ray Wise, Frank Langella, Jeff Daniels and Tate Donovan have joinedDavid Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson and George Clooney in Good Night. AndGood Luck, which Clooney is directing for Section Eight, 2929 Entertainmentand Participant Productions.Thepicture, which has commenced principal photography, tells the story of renownedbroadcaster Edward R Murrow and his ...

  • Reviews

    Accused (Anklaget)

    2005-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Jacob Theusen. Den.2005. 105mins.Jacob Theusen's debutfeature Accused, which competed in Berlin, initially looks like awell-intentioned TV drama on the topical subject of child molestation. Butwhile in its early stages it tries to depart from the genre's usual formula,this event-driven drama ultimately deviates from its course after the first andsecond ...

  • Reviews

    The Hero (O Heroi)

    2005-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Zeze Gamboa.Ang-Port-Fr. 2004. 97mins.African cinema should geta healthy shot of international exposure and a boost of self-confidence fromZeze Gamboa's self-assured directorial debut The Hero. Directed by theAngolan Gamboa, produced by a Portuguese producer, Vendrell, who is dedicatedto producing films from Portugese-speaking African countries and written byPortugese writer Baptista, it ...

  • Reviews

    Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room

    2005-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Dir: AlexGibney. US. 2005. 110mins.The Enronscandal may have happened mostly behind closed doors - but that doesn't stopdocumentary film-maker Alex Gibney from finding the visual drama to tell asthrilling a tale of corporate malfeasance as any Hollywood blockbuster with Enron:The Smartest Guys In The Room. Here he creates a sense ...

  • News

    Angels leads Danish box office charge

    2005-03-16T04:00:00Z

    Danish films have made a major impression at thelocal box office in the first two months of 2005.Local filmssold over a million tickets in January and February - a figure normally reachedin May.A string of local hits have contributed to the upswing. OleChristian Madsen's Angels In Fast Motion (Nordkraft) - ...

  • News

    Chinese box office surges 50% in 2004

    2005-03-16T04:00:00Z

    China's box office increased by 50% to $180m in 2004,according to figures from the country's State Administration of Radio, Film andTelevision (SARFT). The figure far surpasses industry estimates of 30% growth.Although US imports had a good year, local productions werethe clear winners, accounting for 55% of total box office compared ...

  • News

    EU waves through ContentGuard acquisition

    2005-03-15T00:00:00Z

    The European Union (EU) today agreed to the takeoverof anti-piracy software firm ContentGuard by Microsoft, Time Warner andFrance's Thomson.The company, currently owned by Rank Xerox, producesdigital rights management (DRM) technology. That enables media companies tocontrol and monitor use of digital content in order to collect due royalties. The EU launched ...

  • News

    Toho forecasts third year of record net profit

    2000-05-02T20:41:00Z

    Toho, Japan's largest film distributor and exhibitor, has forecast after-tax net profit of Y6.7bn ($62.0m) in 2000, for a gain of 2% compared with the previous financial year. If Toho achieves this figure, it will mark the company's third straight year of record net profit. However current profit is expected ...

  • News

    Las Palmas festival hands top prize to Chinese World

    2005-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Veteran Chinese director Jia Zhangke won the Golden LadyHarimaguada prize for The World, which also won best cinematography, atlast week's Las Palmas International Film Festival of Spain (March 3-12).The Silver prize went to Lebanese-French-Belgian co-productionIn The Battlefields (Maarek Hob), which screened in Cannes Directors'Fortnight last year. The film's director Danielle ...

  • News

    France gears up for Printemps cinema promotion

    2005-03-15T00:00:00Z

    France's annual springpromotional effort, the 'Printemps Du Cinema" is expected to beat lastyear's record attendance figures.Thethree day event, running from Sunday 20 to Tuesday 22 March, sees the country'sentire 5,300 cinemas slash their prices to a flat-rate Euros3.50 per ticket.Last year it lifted spectator numbers to 2.5 million, approximately double ...

  • News

    Wanda takes on sales for Rotterdam winner Sky Turns

    2005-03-16T04:00:00Z

    Spain's Wanda Vision will handle international sales onMercedes Alvarez's award-winning documentary The Sky Turns (El Cielo Gira).Thefilm, which has already sold to France's ARTE, was a surprise Tiger Awardwinner in Rotterdam and took home the top prize last weekend at Paris's Cinemadu Reel festival.Wanda plans to release the title in ...

  • News

    Euro, South African producers fan Smoke biopic

    2005-03-16T04:00:00Z

    Dutchproducer Riba Film, Germany's Pandora Film and South Africa's Do Productionshave partnered to finance the Euros 4.6m Smokeand Ochre, an English language biopic about the South African poet IngridJonker. Thefilm was presented at this year's project market Cinemart in Rotterdam. It willbe the first English language feature of successful Dutch ...

  • News

    SHOWEST SEMINAR: rising admissions in int'l markets

    2005-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Titled "Strategies onIncreasing Admissions in Today's Marketplace," the kickoff seminar at theShoWest exhibition convention provided plenty of data to chew on but a paucityof answers to fears that the current international audience might decline as otherforms of entertainment assert themselves in the developing digital universe.Presenters included Nick King, president Neilsen ...

  • News

    International markets reach $14.9bn high in 2004

    2005-03-15T00:00:00Z

    The combined box officegrosses from all pictures released in international markets in 2004 faroutstripped the domestic revenue from MPAA-affiliated releases according tofigures released at ShoWest earlier today [15], as the global box office passed$25bn for the first time.MPAA president Dan Glickman, who has been addressing delegates in Las Vegasthis week ...

  • News

    Tax hope for UK Budget

    2005-03-16T04:00:00Z

    TheUK film industry is hoping the government will make an announcement today onthe future of tax incentives for productions.Chancellorof the Exchequer Gordon Brown has been pushed hard to address the future of theSection 48 concessions in this afternoon's Budget.Butindustry sources suggest that the most likely outcome is a short-term fix ...

  • News

    Echo Bridge picks up US rights to Bailey's Billion$

    2005-03-15T04:00:00Z

    Los Angeles-baseddistributor Echo Bridge has bought all US rights from Devine Entertainment toDavid Devine's family comedy Bailey's Billion$ starring Tim Curry, Jennifer Tilly, Dean Cain andLaurie Holden.The picture centres on a talking dog voiced by Jon Lovitz that inherits abillion dollar fortune and sparks extreme envy among his ...

  • News

    Landmark-Sony Electronics deal ushers in digital age

    2005-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Landmark Theatres has signeda deal with Sony Electronics whereby every theatre in the chain will be equipped withSony's new digital SXRD projectors, the first commercially available 4Kprojectors on the market.The arthouse chain will begin its digital cinema roll-out this summer with sixSXRD projectors, and plans to fully enable all its ...

  • News

    Singapore moves ahead on digital delivery plans

    2005-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Delegates from theSingaporean government's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) are negotiatingwith Hollywood studios for the first cross-continent digital transmission (CCTx)of a full-length feature.IDA officers and a host of partners including projection pioneer Christie,Dell, Texas Instruments, University of Southern California's EntertainmentTechnology Centre, Thomson Technicolor, and 1-Net recently transmitted digitaltrailers for Elektra, The ...

  • News

    McLean tipped to direct Haysom's Golden Delicious

    2000-05-02T20:46:00Z

    Sydney director Alison McLean, whose most recent film was Jesus' Son, is tipped to helm Golden Delicious, a black comedy about four women who kidnap a male prostitute. Written by Christine Rogers and Anne Kennedy, Golden Delicious is being produced by Trevor Haysom who was associate producer on McLean's Crush. ...