Small MPU – Page 864
-
Reviews
Waltz In Starlight (Hoshikageno Waltz)
Dir: Shingo Wakagi. Japan. 2007. 97mins.Japanese photographer turned director Shingo Wakagi makes a tender homage to his grandfather in an affecting DV miniature that mixes fictionalized reminiscence with documentary touches. Borderline-experimental, the very personal Waltz In Starlight is essentially gentle portraiture with just a hint of narrative content, the film's ...
-
News
Times BFI London Film Festival sets 2008 dates Oct 15-30
The Times BFI London Film Festival has set its 2008 dates for Oct 15-30. The festival's 2007 edition ran Oct 17-Nov 1. The dates overlap directly with the third Rome Film Fest, which has been rescheduled for Oct 22-31.Sandra Hebron, who continues as the LFF's artistic director, expects to programme ...
-
News
Fortissimo and Circe Films team up for art titles
Dutch based film company Fortissimo and Amsterdam-based production outfit Circe Films are teaming up to producea series of European arthouse titles. They announced their new partnership in Rotterdam.The first co-produced feature will be Face, the next project of Tsai Ming-Liang, initiatied by French JBA Productions.Fortissimo has taken salesrights to previous ...
-
News
Profile: Benjamin Waisbren
Benjamin Waisbren doesn't mince words when he weighs up the film business from a financier's point of view (and using financiers' parlance).'Film is a wonderful, iconic art form; it's not a great asset class,' says the president and CEO of new film financing operation Continental Entertainment Group (CEG).'Because it's not ...
-
News
mdc presents two market premieres at EFM
Berlin-based sales outfit mdc international will have two market premieres at the forthcoming European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin.mdc will be presenting Slovenian film-maker Damjan Kozole's latest feature Forever (Za Vedno), produced by Vertigo/Emotion Film, which is having its world premiere in the Sturm und Drang sidebar at Rotterdam.The film's ...
-
Reviews
Hamlet 2
Dir: Andrew Fleming. US. 2008. 92mins.Britain's Steve Coogan finally finds a US vehicle which effectively showcases his comedic talents in Hamlet 2, a more-hit-than-miss gagfest in which he plays a talentless high school drama teacher called Dana Marszh. Often wildly funny, this puerile romp was a welcome oasis of frivolity ...
-
News
Sweeney Todd slays competition to lead international box office
DreamWorks' blood soaked musical adaptation Sweeney Todd grossed knocked I Am Legend off its perch and grossed approximately $18.7m through Warner Bros Pictures International (WBPI) from 1,760 screens in 11 markets for an early $30m running total.Weekend business was boosted by a suitably red-blooded number one UK launch that generated ...
-
News
Meet The Spartans, Rambo lead North American box office
Fox's comedy spoof Meet The Spartans starring Sean Maguire and Carmen Electra narrowly squeezed out Lionsgate/The Weinstein Company's (TWC) action saga Rambo to open top on an estimated $18.7m at the weekend.Rambo took $18.2m and sees Sylvester Stallone reprise his role as the die-hard former Green Beret who assembles a ...
-
News
Sales Co chief Alison Thompson to join Pathe
Alison Thompson, chief executive of UK-based international sales operation The Sales Co, is to join Pathe's London arm in the newly-created post of head of sales - Pathe International.Thompson, who has headed the Sales Co for four years, will be responsible for selling all Pathe's English-language films. On arrival, she ...
-
News
Coen Brothers take top honours at DGA Awards
Joel and Ethan Coen boosted their chances of Academy Awards glory next month after they won the Directors Guild Of America (DGA) award for outstanding directorial achievement in feature film 2007 for No Country For Old Men.The DGA honour is a very strong indicator of Oscar success - all but ...
-
News
RKO is latest producer to sign interim agreement with WGA
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has singed another interim agreement following deals late last week with Lionsgate and Marvel, this time with RKO Pictures subsidiary RKO Productions.RKO Productions' filming schedule, to be announced next week, includes several original screen projects, as well as the financing, production, and distribution of ...
-
News
Brian Burkin joins SPE's international production division
Brian Burkin has joined Sony Pictures Entertainment's International Motion Picture Production division as senior vice president business affairs and operations.Burkin, who started his career in private practice and served nine years as senior vice president of business affairs at Miramax Films, will assume responsibility for negotiating deals and managing relationships ...
-
News
Robert Elswit wins ASC Oustanding Achievement Award for Blood
Robert Elswit won top honours in the 22nd Annual American Society Of Cinematographers' (ASC) Outstanding Achievement Awards for feature film for There Will Be Blood on Saturday [Jan 26].Elswit beat out Roger Deakins for The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and No Country For Old Men, ...
-
News
Manda Bala film-makers win Microsoft HDi Grant during Sundance
Director Jason Kohn and producer Jared Goldman received the Microsoft HDi Grant during the Sundance Film Festival last week from the Sundance Institute and Microsoft Corp for their 2007 festival entry Manda Bala (Send A Bullet).The prize is worth an estimated $100,000 and provides the film-makers with the resources to ...
-
News
River, Water take top prizes at Sundance Film Festival 08
Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's Hurricane Katrina tale Trouble The Water won the 2007 Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize: Documentary award and Courtney Hunt's tale of immigrant smuggling in Frozen River took the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic prize at the awards night ceremony in Park City on Saturday [Jan ...
-
News
LA's Film Independent wins $150,000 grant James Irvine Foundation
Film Independent has received a three-year $150,000 grant from the James Irvine Foundation to further its Talent Development Programmes and diversity initiatives.The grant will specifically support Film Independent's signature diversity programme, Project: Involve, and three editions of Film Independent's annual talent guide, which spotlights graduates of Film Independent's Talent Development ...
-
News
Magnolia to distribute ten Oscar-nominated shorts in US theatres
Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International have announced they will partner for the third year running to bring the 10 Oscar-nominated live-action and animated short films to US theatres on Feb 15 prior to the awards ceremony on Feb 24.The Oscar Shorts programme will at first open in approximately 50 cities ...
-
News
Second AFI Dallas festival to open with The Last Lullaby
The World Premiere of Jeffrey Goodman's noir thriller The Last Lullaby starring Tom Sizemore and US premieres of the music documentaries Glass: A Portrait Of Philip In Twelve Parts and Sonic Youth: Sleeping Nights Awake are among 15 titles named in this year's AFI Dallas 2008 International Film Festival line-up.Additional ...
-
News
New Year Parade, Song Sung Blue take Slamdance top prizes
Tom Quinn's The New Year Parade won the 14th Annual Slamdance Film Festival's Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature and Greg Kohs' Song Sung Blue took corresponding documentary honours at the weekend.The Grand Jury Award For Best Animated Short went to Andrew McPhillips's Blood Will Tell, the Grand Jury ...
-
News
Kinowelt confirms submission for $200m loan
Germany's Kinowelt has confirmed that it has submitted plans for a $200m loan to the Frankfurt stock exchange.Kinowelt's head of finances Eduard Unzeitig said the loan would be used to reduce current commitments to banks and in the long run would help optimise company financing. A report in German newspaper ...