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News stories from Jan 2006 to 2012..

  • 29 March 2009
    Publishing industry

Become A Red Bull Reporter

From Red Bull's PR firm: Red Bull Reporter is a nationwide search to find the best young music & culture, and sports writers, filmmakers, photographers and presenters, giving them the chance of a lifetime: to use their skills and indulge their passions as a Red Bull Reporter. The most talented young media makers could be selected for one of our many exciting assignments - each designed to give them an amazing experience as a working member of the media - covering world-cla…
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05 June 2007

Acclaimed Yorkshire feature returns to Bagdhad for screening

Leeds-based filmmaker Mohamed Al Daradji has returned to Baghdad, where he shot his Oscar-shortlisted debut feature Ahlaam, screening it to over a 1000 locals and politicans at the national cinema. The journey has been documented by the filmmaker and is currently showing on Al Jazeera UK on Sky (…
13 April 2011

Doddle and Handheld Production Tools

The very first business plan for Netribution back in 1999 included online call sheets that automatically filled in certain details like location maps and contact details. It never happened, so it's good to see it finally reality in DoddlePro, but this time without having to print the call sheets as…
29 July 2006

Todd Wagner Warns Film Industry Times Are Changing

  "New Distribution Rules Are Being Written" Billionaire trustee of the American Film Institute, Todd Wagner, delivered a wake-up call to the movie industry  at the AFI Digital Content Festival where he delivered the keynote address. Describing Hollywod as "one of…
  • 25 October 2006
    Festivals

British Independent Film Award Nominations Announced

The 9th British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs), set to run November 29th at the Hammersmith Palais, has announced its 2006 nominations. Formed by Elliot Grove in 1998 off the back of Raindance, the awards - now under the newly appointed directorship of Johanna von Fischer and Tessa Collinson - form one of the first dates in the ever more crowded awards calendar This year’s jury, which will be chaired by Sandy Lieberson, consists of Reuben Barnes, Martin Childs…
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08 September 2006

TV on mobiles becomes reality as BBC, ITV & E4 get Lobstered

Versions of BBC 1, ITV1 and E4 will be available on the BT Movio Service running on Virgin's new Lobster phone from October 1st.  The channels will be the same as the terrestrial TV versions, but without some films, US TV programmes and sports. People paying more than £25…
06 March 2007

Baron Cohen Gains Israel Film Festival Top Honours

  Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen became the first recipient of the Israel Film Festival Award for "Outstanding Achievement."  He joined Amy Pascal, co-chair of Sony Pictures Entertainment and Israeli actress Gila Almagor to receive honours at the 22nd annual Israel Film Festival…
15 September 2007

Majority of films watched online are not through video sharing site

9 billion films were watched online in July 2007 in the US alone, according to the latest figures from comScore Networks. The figure is up from around 7 billion in March, with 134 million people each watching an average of 181 minutes of video during the month. Interestingly, just 27% of cli…
  • 28 April 2008
    BFI / UK Film Council

Development fund unveils debut slate for First Feature Awards

One of the more promising schemes to come out of the UK Film Council in recent years, the Development Fund's programme for first-time filmmakers has made its first awards to creatives and projects reflecting the fund’s stated aims to open up opportunities for budding writers and filmmakers across the UK. The first set of awardees includes three writers who are completely new to the industry. The programme aims to identify and support emerging filmmakers: screenw…
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26 July 2006

Filmmakers Offer a Piece of the Sports Action

  Sports Brands Meet the MySpace Generation Sports action films of the snowboarding, skateboarding or BMX variety are often do-it-yourself affairs. Traditionally filmed, edited and distributed by those performing in them, they may even be funded by the protagonists' credit cards i…
27 September 2007

It's official: Summer of British film is most popular since 1967

The wettest British summer since records began in 1914 appears to have helped British cinema going reach it's highest admissions in 40 years, up some 25% over an average year, and up 44% on 2000. 50.8m visits were made in June to August, according to the Film Distributors Association, w…
21 September 2007

Raindance forecast with frequent spells of cool: Iggy Pop, Jean Luc Godard & The Clash

Raindance Film Festival, now in its fifteenth year, will take place from September 25 – October 7 2007 in London. Highlights include a Jean Luc Godard retrospective, curated by the man himself, a pitching panel headed by Ewan McGregor (see below) and a jury that includes Iggy Pop, Cannes…
  • 19 November 2006
    Festivals

Golden Owl swoops for I don't Care if Tomorrow Never Comes at Leeds

Belgium film I Don't Care if Tomorrow Never Comes, from Guillaume Malandrin, has picked up the Golden Owl at the 20th Leeds International Film Festival, with a Special Mention going to Human Film's Ahlaam. The Silver Melies Award for UK talent rewarded Billy O Brien's horror Isolation while Ed Boase's Home Video picked up the short film prize. The Louis Le Prince short film award (which I helped judge) gave the £1000 prize to Parisian Bollywood musi…
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31 March 2009

World's Largest Film Competition Returns to Edinburgh

From The 48 Hour Film Project: The world's largest competition of its kind returns to Edinburgh's Cameo Cinema this May 22-24!  Filmmakers from across the UK (and beyond) will meet up to spend a wild and crazy bank holiday weekend making a film, getting it screened and judged for prizes. Registr…
07 September 2011

55th BFI London Film Festival programme revealed

From the British Film Institute: We're excited to announce the line-up for this year's BFI London Film Festival, which will showcase 204 feature films and 110 shorts over 16 days. In addition to our previously announced opening and closing night films, Fernando Meirelles' 360 and Terence Davies'…
09 August 2006

Idi Amin Movie Opens LFF

  Kevin Macdonald's Last King of Scotland   The feature debut of Oscar-winning documentary director Kevin Macdonald, The Last King of Scotland, starring Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin, will open the London Film Festival on October 18th. The film, billed as a European p…
  • 23 November 2006
    Festivals

BAFTA Launches 60 Seconds of Fame Short Film Competition

The British Academy of Film & Television Arts launched a new short film competition today - 60 Seconds of Fame, run in association with Orange. The winner will have their film featured as part of the BBC broadcast of The Orange British Academy Film Awards in 2007. They are running a series of free workshops across the UK to promote the scheme. This new BAFTA competition has the support of BBC Nations and Regions and the Regional Screen Agency network and is…
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25 February 2007

Ban on Street Photography Proposed by UK Government

 On-Line Direct-to-PM Petition Signing Against Permit System UK Citizens Only! The UK Government is about to propose restrictions on photography  in public places which could make street photography and documentary photography against the law. These proposed…
26 March 2006

YouTube Craze Makes Industry Cry Foul

The latest entertainment craze to sweep the internet has got the film and television industries worried. Thousands of amateur video clips, rare footage of music concerts and home-made film spoofs are now being uploaded every day to the video-sharing website YouTube for the enjoyment of millions of…
03 June 2006

Cannes Winner Loach To Put Gangmasters In The Frame

Just days after winning one of cinema's top prizes, controversial director Ken Loach is turning his attention to gangmasters for his next film, which will shoot in Scotland this autumn. Loach won the Palme d'Or last weekend at the Cannes Film Festival for The Wind that Shakes the Barley…
  • 07 February 2010
    Environment & sustainability

Food Inc

One of DogWoof's two Oscar nominated documentaries (the other - Burma VJ) goes on release this week following a Stella McCartney-hosted cleb-packed premiere tonight..   Elizabeth Hurley, Arun Nayer, Leona Lewis, Vivienne Westwood, Neil Tennant, Jasmine Guinness, Richard. E. Grant, Donna Air, Franny Armstrong, Noelle Reno, Rosemary Ferguson, Saffron Aldridge, Patsy Kensit, Jeremy Healey, Tom Atkins, and more. UK film distributor Dogwoof a…
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12 July 2006

First Film Festival Opens in the Ultra-Conservative Saudi Arabia

  The first Saudi Arabian film festival opened in the Red Sea city of Jeddah this week, in an ultra-conservative country where the silver screen is so controversial that the word "cinema" does not even get a mention in the title. "The Jeddah Visual Show Festival" starte…
25 June 2006

Extraordinary Rendition Interrogation Chamber Found in Dalston Basement

  An interrogation chamber has been discovered below ground in Dalston, where people suspected of involvement in terrorism are to be held and questioned prior to rendition abroad in secret flights. Not a real scenario as far as we know, but real enough for the makers of a micro-budget feat…
28 March 2006

Charley the Cat is UK's No. 1 Public Info Film

  A scruffy ginger cat that warned millions of children about the dangers of strangers and matches has been voted the nation's favourite public information film. Dozens of memorable films created by the Government's Central Office of Information (COI) are being dusted off as part o…
  • 17 February 2006
    Film industry

British Films To Go Upwards with Woodward?

Britain's film industry is facing a better future according to UK Film Council chief executive John Woodward: “It's true the film production sector has gone through a very bumpy patch over the last 18 months, but we are now poised to reap the rewards - with nothing to fear except the British disease of talking ourselves down.” The UK ranks high in world status, Woodward says, “Even in a turbulent time like 2005, Britain stood up as the most important film…
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06 November 2006

Leeds Film Festival adds extra screenings to meet demand

Giving in to popular demand, Leeds Film Festival is giving some of the favourites of the festival a second screening on the 12 November. Films including Japanese animation Paprikia, and Czech comedy favourite Wrong Side Up  will screen at the Leeds City Art Gallery or Vue at the Light Sc…
01 November 2006

People-powered film financing raises $267,000 from 4 emails in 9 days

Adam P Davies and I have recently begun work on a new film funding book - an update to the One With The Pig on the Front. One of the things I'm most interested in this time round, following on from the Cluetrain stuff, is community-driven financing, and in particular how filmmakers who commun…
17 August 2006

Put Your Money on Filmmaker's Debut

  People who buy a word in Michelle Eastwood's film script will get a mention in the closing titles The budding movie-maker is banking on the fact that film fans will want to have the last word on her debut project. In fact Michelle Eastwood, 23, hopes 369 other fans will also wa…
  • 06 February 2006
    Film industry

Moira Shearer - Red Shoe Ballerina Dies

Moira Shearer, the ballerina and actress whose debut film, The Red Shoes, created an international sensation in 1948, has died. The wife of fellow Scot, author and campaigner Ludovik Kennedy, she was 80. Shearer died at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, said Mr Kennedy. He said that she had become weak since her birthday last month, but he did not disclose the cause of death.Shearer, born in Dunfermline, Scotland, became principal dancer at London's famous Sadler's Wells in…
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09 August 2006

Phone Watchdog To Probe Big Brother Furore

  Channel 4 Viewers Could Get £3m Refund Premium rate phone watchdog Ictis has announced it is launching an official investigation into the Big Brother controversy. Icstis said it had received 2,700 complaints about the stunt, which gives evicted contestants the chance to wi…
12 March 2006

Jim Poole Seeking Scotland's Short Film Talent

Scotland's premiere short film award is open again, for its seventh year, to showcase the very best of Scotland's short film talent. The Jim Poole Scottish Short Film Award was launched in 1999 by the Cameo Cinema to jointly celebrate its fiftieth birthday and to demonstrate a commitmen…
03 March 2007

Roundup: Black Friday, the Development Fund, FESPACO, Adobe and Apple

I'm in the final throws of pulling together a new book so haven't time to post properly, but here's a round up of some of the latest stories.. The big story in the UK is the sudden closure of the GAAP tax schemes, which Martin Churchill of Tax Efficient Review claims could cost…
  • 01 April 2010
    Finance

UKFC launch new £15m fund, appoints Wharton, Collins & Franke, confirms Innovation Fund

Incorporating UKFC Press Release Biggest shake-up since UKFC's creation £15m film fund open for applications today £5m Innovation Fund confirmed for Autumn 2010 New online application system for funds  An ambitious sounding 'web-based.. national filmmaking community'  Producers to receive equity in UKFC recoupment WT2's Natascha Wharton joins BBC Film's Chris Collins and Em Media / EIFF's Lizzie Francke on team The UK Film Council today published its three yea…
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08 June 2006

Armando Iannucci Takes On Hollywood For Laughs

  Comedy producer Armando Iannucci plans to take on Hollywood in the comedy film business and has joined forces with BBC Films to do it. Iannucci, tha man behind TV projects like The Thick Of It and Alan Partridge, will head a special comedy lab to develop low-budget comedy ideas for featu…
30 March 2006

US Movie Theatre Execs Oppose Shrinking DVD Window

  Top US movie theatre chain execs have dismissed calls to shorten the period between a film's release on the big screen and on DVD, saying it would be harmful to studios, theatres and consumers.   Some studio executives, including Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Ig…
15 April 2008

Glimmer : 6th Hull Short Film Festival shines a light

Over the years I've been lucky enough to visit most of the main film festivals in the UK. By far my favourite experience was the Hull Short Film Festival, back in 2003, where I saw some truely mind-expanding films from Oscar-winning master Virgil Widrich, participated in some lively debates and p…
  • 28 May 2006
    Documentary

Academy Rules Creating Documentary Dissonance

  By tightening the rules of eligibility for Best Documentary, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has managed to rile many of those who make them. Film Stew gives us the full picture on why documentary filmakers are angry about Academy rules.   When the French film Murder on a Sunday Morning (a.k.a. Un Coupable Idéal) won the 2001 Oscar for Best Documentary, all hell broke loose at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scien…
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13 July 2007

First Ever Scottish Gaelic Feature Premieres at EIFF

    Simon Miller's shoestring budget feature made in Gaelic language Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle is to premier at Edinburgh IFF and will be in contention for the Michael Powell Award. Seachd (pronounced "shack")was picked up by Soda for UK and Ireland di…
22 October 2012

Co-op Youth Film Academy Searches for Scripts from Budding Young Film Writers

Are you made of the ‘write’ stuff? a youth film academy has started its search for screenplays to be made into full length feature films next year. The Co-operative British Youth Film Academy gives 14-25 year-olds unique experiences of the movie industry and is seeking new scripts or, screenplays…
24 May 2007

15th Raindance Film Festival Submissions Are Closing

Your Last Chance to Submit to the UK's Largest Indie Film Festival   Raindance, the UK’s largest independent film festival, is accepting final submissions for its fifteenth anniversary edition. We are accepting shorts and features of all genres from anywhere in the w…