Small MPU – Page 971
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News
Hurd to receive first career award at new LA Women's Showcase
Producer Gale Anne Hurd will receive the first career achievement award from the Women's International Film & Television Showcase (The WIFTS) which is holding its first event in Los Angeles from Dec 4-7.The award will be presented on the final night of the four-day showcase which will present ten films ...
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Focus announces five film-makers selected for Africa First
Focus Features announced the first five film-makers to benefit from the company's Africa First initiative announced earlier this year.The five film-makers of African nationality and residence arrived in New York last weekend to take part in workshops with the likes of Focus CEO James Schamus and production chief John Lyons.The ...
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Fortissimo picks up world-wide sales rights to Miao Miao
Fortissimo Films picked up world-wide sales rights outside China, Taiwan and Hong Kong for Miao Miao, a Jet Tone Films Ltd and J.A. Movies (H.K.) production.Miao Miao is the feature debut from director Cheng Hsiao Tse. Warner Bros will release the film in November in Taiwan, while Golden Scene will ...
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Reviews
Secrets of State (Secret Defense)
Dir: Philippe Haim. France. 2008. 100 mins.If French political thriller Secrets of State were any more topical, it would be about what you ate for breakfast. This fast-paced and meticulously-researched tale shows the recruitment and training of a young female Secret Service operative alongside a parallel story about how an ...
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Desperado leads race for Israeli film awards
Benny Torati's Desperado Square has garnered the most nominations for this year's Israeli Film and TV Academy Awards, with 13 nods, one in each category. The winner of Best Film is automatically selected as Israel's candidate for best foreign-language Oscar.Desperado Square, which marks the debut of both director Torati and ...
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Oliver Stone to attend 49th Thessaloniki film festival
Oliver Stone has confirmed his presence at the 49th Thessaloniki film festival. The confirmation came as the festival unveiled its line up, which features more than 230 films from 55 countries. This year's festival will also be accompanied by a major push in f ilm m arket and co-production activities.Stone ...
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Reviews
Repo! The Genetic Opera
Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman . US. 2008. 97 mins.Kinky, sexy, gory and campy, Repo! The Genetic Opera may be an unwieldy mess, but it's a fun unwieldy mess. Based on a Los Angeles theatrical piece, this futuristic rock opera will annoy those unwilling to meet it halfway, as its shamelessly ...
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Red Cliff opens at peak of Japanese box office
John Woo's Red Cliff Part 1 opened at the top of the Japanese box office the weekend of November 1st-3rd, dethroning Suspect X's four-week run in the number one position.Red Cliff opened November 1 on 549 screens, earning $9.64m (Y961.79m) on 825,000 admissions. The screen count represents the highest ever ...
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China Film cuts Chung's scenes from Mei Lanfang biopic
State-owned China Film Group Corporation has confirmed that it has removed all scenes featuring Hong Kong actress Gillian Chung from Chen Kaige's upcoming Mei Lanfang biopic, whose English title has recently been finalised as Forever Enthralled.The film, about legendary Beijing opera singer Mei Lanfang's private and public lives,is a co-production ...
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Rutger Hauer, Michael York join The Hill And The Cross
Rutger Hauer and Michael York have joined the cast of The Hill And The Cross, currently in production in Katowice, Poland.Director and visual artist Lech Majewski is approaching the film by creating a tableau vivant which recreates Peter Bruegel's painting of Jesus' crucifixion, The Way To Calvary.Hauer plays Bruegel in ...
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Norwegian local admissions look set to be highest for 30 years.
Admissions for local films in Norway look set to reach record levels in 2008.Norwegian theatres have already seen two million admissions for domestic titles, and at least one potential blockbuster, Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg's World War II epic, Max Manus, is still to launch.Putting the figures in context, Birgitte ...
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Estoril announces line-up, Catherine Deneuve to chair jury
Portugal 's Estoril Film Festival has revealed its full line-up of films for 2008.Run by renowned Portuguese producer Paulo Branco, the festival will showcase 14 titles in competition from across Europe. Films screening include Claire Denis' 35 Rhums, Albert Serra's Birdsong and lesser known titles from Eastern Europe, such as ...
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News
Warner strikes innovative digital VOD plan in China
Warner Bros announced that it will become the first Hollywood studio to release films digitally in China in a pioneering transactional VOD initiative that also marks the latest strike in the war on piracy.Studio titles such as I Am Legend, Fool's Gold and Speed Racer will be made available to ...
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News
Voltage enters The Bubble Factory's Tomb
Nicolas Chartier's Voltage Pictures has boarded international rights to The Bubble Factory and Ringleader Studios' supernatural action title The Devil's Tomb starring Cuba Gooding Jr.Jason Connery directed the story of a team of mercenaries hired by a mysterious CIA operative to rescue a scientist from an archaeological site in the ...
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News
Sony Classics takes North and Latin America on Soul Power
Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has picked up North American and Latin American rights from Submarine Entertainment to Jeffrey Levy-Hinte's documentary Soul Power following its world premiere at Toronto.Soul Power chronicles the 12-hour Zaire '74 R&B concert in Kinshasa, Zaire, in 1974 that played concurrently with the infamous Rumble In The ...
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Senator extends deal with FilmFour
Germany's Senator Entertainment has extended its co-production and distribution pact with the UK's FilmFour.The restructured arrangement covers an additional seven titles. Senator originally came on board for 14 FilmFour projects including Lucky Break, which marks director Peter Cattaneo's follow-up to The Full Monty, and Charlotte Gray, starring Cate Blanchett.A statement ...
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HanWay sees Afterlife with Gurinder Chadha
HanWay Films is starting worldwide sales here at the AFM on Gurinder Chadha's next film, It's A Wonderful Afterlife. The family comedy will start shooting in February 2009.Chadha bills the project as My Big Fat Greek Wedding meets Shaun Of The Dead. The film is set in multi-cultural London, where ...
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6 Sales enters Narrows, surfs Wave
On the eve of the AFM, 6 Sales has taken international rights to The Narrows, directed by François A Velle and starring Kevin Zegers (Transamerica), VincentD'Onofrio, Sophia Bush and Eddie Cahill. Deals already closed after the film's Toronto world premiere include to Movie Bank in Benelux and Koba Films in ...
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AFM Briefs Nov 5
Diffusion Pictures has acquired all UK rights from Ryan Kampe and Sylvain Tron's Visit Films to the drama Momma's Man following its London Film Festival screenings.The film premiered at Sundance and tells of a man who visits his parents' loft apartment in Manhattan on a business trip and decides not ...
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Wolfe Video picks up North America on two before AFM
Wolfe Video has announced it has acquired North American rights ahead of AFM to the gay titles Whirlwind and Mulligans.Whirlwind explores non-monogamy, commitment and friendship in New York.Richard Le May directed and Bryan West, Alexis Suarez, Desmond Dutcher, Brad Anderson and Mark Ford star. The film won the audience award ...