Skip to main content

News stories from Jan 2006 to 2012..

  • 05 April 2006
    Box office

Indie Being Cyrus Takes Indian Box Office by Storm

  The low budget film Being Cyrus, based on a short story by writer Kersi Khambhatta, is setting new records at the Indian box office for its clever plot fine performances and brilliant cinematography. The film's distributor PVR says that Being Cyrus has set a record with its first weekend collection – Rs two crores and counting.   Being Cyrus is one of the new wave of independent low budget films being made in India, where the market…
More
12 March 2012

Submit your brush-stroke for Co-Op BYFA's crowd-animated Richard II

GET ‘ANIMATED’ BY ADDING FINISHING TOUCHES TO NEW MOVIE BY THE CO-OPERATIVE BRITISH YOUTH FILM ACADEMY A new movie by The Co-operative British Youth Film Academy is drawing on community creativity to add the finishing touches to its first ever animated feature. “Richard II” was shot during last y…
16 August 2006

Filmmaker Fund Plans For Rapid Growth

  Aiming For £100M Asset Pot A film finance fund is expecting pace of business in the film industry to accelerate as filmmakers recover from the loss of UK tax breaks two years ago. Pacific Continental Film Opportunities Fund, launched in 2005, is to embark on a marketing campai…
28 November 2007

Control takes five BIFAs as the only true indie in competition

Anton Corbijn's Control took five awards at the British Independ Film Awards, hosted at the Roundhouse, Wednesday night. Paddy Considine's short, staring Peter Mullan, picked up best short film. Special Award were given to Ray Winstone, Daniel Craig and the Artificial Eye founders…
  • 18 February 2006
    Finance

Strewth Mate - We're Broke Downunder

The Australian Film Finance Corporation, the government film funding body, has announced it will fund no more films until after 1st July because it has run out of money, having spent its $35 million film allocation by last December. Chief executive Brian Rosen said similar situations occurred every year, but added that this financial year the organisation funded 16 films - more movies than any other year. "That means there's going to be less money," he said. "There's al…
More
25 September 2006

Bridging the Gap with seven 16k awards

Bridging the Gap, is another documentary talent initative which, like Five Films, offers training alongside production. Now in its fourth year it is commissioning seven documentaries with an £8k cash, £8k in-kind budget. Although the scheme and associated training is based in Edinb…
06 July 2006

Slingshot Aims to Produce Next Generation of Brit Indie Films

  An all-digital independent film production and distribution company, Slingshot,  has been formed to offer British film-makers an environment in which to make innovative and critically acclaimed pictures that might not otherwise make it to the big screen.   The new compa…
15 May 2009

Which video sharing sites offer the best filmmaker-friendly licenses? Not Vimeo

Apologies for the quiet around here lately - I've been completely emerged in a family health crisis. I hope to pick things up in the next few days. Meantime here's some suprising news (by way of BoingBoing) from Markus Weiland, who has compared the license agreements from the main video sharing sit…
  • 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…
More
14 January 2011

PUMA.Creative Catalyst Awards - Accepting Proposals

from BritDoc PUMA.Creative Catalyst Awards Dear Friends,  We are delighted to announce the launch of a new international documentary development fund.  The PUMA.Creative Catalyst Awards are here to support the development of your documentary film idea and give you resources to shoot and edit yo…
21 November 2006

European Commision okays new Cultural Test for film tax relief

New UK Tax Relief to replace Section 42 from January 1st 2007 A new 'Cultural Test' for British films has been given the green light by the European Commission today, and should come into force on 1 January 2007. The test determines whether films can qualify for the new system of…
19 May 2006

Sir Walter Rallies To Help Superstar Cate

  Movie star Cate Blanchett looks simply stunning as Queen Elizabeth, as she re-enacted the famous scene from history when Sir Walter Raleigh - played by Clive Owen - lays down his cloak over a puddle.   The scene was being shot this week at St John's College, one of Ca…
  • 27 March 2006
    BBC

Saunders Spoof Leads New BBC Comedy Drive

Comedian Jennifer Saunders and child psychology expert Dr Tanya Byron are teaming up  to collaborate on a new comedy series, one of a raft of pilots ordered by BBC1 controller Peter Fincham. The Vivienne Vyle Show is a spoof on the kind of parenting therapy shows fronted by Byron, who presents BBC3 series Little Angels and The House Of Tiny Tearaways. Saunders plays fictional therapist Vyle. Produced in-house by BBC producer Jo Sargent, the programme is one of s…
More
20 August 2009

Plan Bee from the Co-Op pairs film release with environmental strategy

Vanishing of the Bees released in October, backed with Co-Op commitments for change The rise of socially focused documentaries since the success of Gore and Moore has been partly supported by UK doc distributor DogWoof - who released the Age of Stupid, Black Gold, Burma VJ and now Vanishing of the…
14 July 2006

Grade Defends BBC's Independence

  "The BBC, if it is not independent, is not worth tuppence of your licence money." BBC chairman Michael Grade has defended the corporation's independence at the Governors' Annual General Meeting. Questioned as to whether party politics affected the broadcaster Grade said…
21 April 2009

Hull lights up from tonight with shorts

The biggest British short film festival north of London, and Netribution partner, Glimmer (the 7th International Hull Film Festival), opens tonight with a packed program. I will be at the festival over the weekend for an interesting event on Saturday: Pay to Play? 25th April, 3.30pm-5pm This year…
  • 23 September 2006
    Festivals

Raindance Film Festival Kicks off this Week

Wednesday sees the opening of the 14th Raindance Film Festival, with the Tony Grisoni-penned conjoined twin punk film Brothers of the Head. Other festival highlights include a Stanley Kubrick retrospective, a music documentary filmed a few days before Johnny Ramone's death, discussion panels and the infamous Live!Ammunition! pitching event.      From the festival press release The festival opens on Wednesday 27 September with the Lo…
More
01 April 2010

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 receiv…
16 March 2006

Mutant Eats UK Competition in Horror Shock

The remake of a 1977 Wes Craven slasher frightened off the competition in the UK box office this opening weekend. The Hills Have Eyes, directed by Frenchman Alexandre Aja, raked in £1.1m. The film tells the story of a family who become stranded in the Mexican desert, only to come under atta…
19 June 2006

UK Censor Wants Policing Powers Over On-line Video

  The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has warned of an uncensored content loophole and wants to extend its reach to police new media content on the internet. The independent organisation, charged with regulating British films, DVDs and video games, has claimed that the internet…
  • 27 July 2007
    Sales

Edinburgh Film-maker Launches New Horror Film

  An Edinburgh film-maker is launching his new horror film, SACRIFICED, at a free preview screening at the city's Cameo cinema. Keith Bradley has written, produced and directed the feature film which he funded from the sale of his house.   Sacrificed is his first feature film. "Basically the whole thing has been a cinematic challenge that I set myself. Could I self-finance a low budget horror film using camcorders that could find its place i…
More
09 May 2007

UK Film Council unveils latest strategy with £1.5m festival fund

"The fact that the UKFC is supporting off-line events, specifically film festivals, is good news for  cinema lovers on this dull, damp island." Eliot Grove, Raindance The UK Film Council have unveiled new additional funding plans from now until 2010, including a £1.5m ann…
11 June 2006

Asian Festival of First Films is Open For Submissions

  Asian First Film Festival is an annual film and documentary festival, now in its second year, to celebrate excellence for first-time Producers, Directors, Cinematographers, Writers, Actors and Documentary makers from the Asian Diaspora.   The Festival Directorate invites…
24 April 2007

First Bolly, then Nolly, and now Hillywood

I'm just emerging from the cocoon of work on a new book, so I'm a few weeks late on this story from the BBC- but fascinating nevertheless: Nyagatare is a rural and dusty town in the east of Rwanda. But this month it played host to the bright lights of Rwandan film talent. As…
  • 06 March 2006
    Scripts and Development

German Producer To Film Yorkshire Village Novel

A teenage novel by Harrogate writer Julia Clarke is to go into production with Bavaria Films, one of Germany's biggest film producers. Summertime Blues, is set in villages around Harrogate. Bavaria Films acquired rights to the novel following its hardback publication in Germany and will make it as a co-production with Munich Film School. Shooting will begin in locations around Munich in September.Director will be Marie Reich, a Munich Film School MA student.Her last film Mus…
More
09 April 2007

WITHOUTABOX AND CANNES SHORT FILM CORNER PARTNER UP

  Leading Filmmaker Online Media Network  to Oversee Short Film Corner Withoutabox, the leading worldwide online media company dedicated to advancing independent film, and the Short Film Corner, a division of the Cannes Film Festival, the world's foremost film festival and m…
09 September 2008

London Film Festival to open with Frost/Nixon

The London Film Festival's programme was announced by the BFI's Artistic Director, Sandra Hebron, at the press launch today. Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, with Michael Sheen and Frank Langella (pictured) in the starring roles, will be premiering in the opening night slot on 15th October. Danny Boyle…
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…
  • 17 April 2009
    Copyrights

Does Pirate Bay verdict threaten Google - and who has been funding them?

According to Engadget: "The Stockholm district court in Sweden found the defendants guilty not of hosting materially illegally, but of "providing a website with sophisticated search functions, simple download and storage capabilities, and a tracker linked to the website [that helped users commit copyright violations]." Sounds like that could include anything from YouTube to Gmail to Google Search itself (type your favourite film title into Google search box with the word 't…
More
17 May 2006

OpenHD Black and Gold For Compatibility

  While the hi-def DVD companies go to battle with visions of holy grail profits, other companies like Adobe, Dell, HP, Intel and Microsoft are now banding together to make HDV and HD products that play well together while also "delivering optimal performance at a price point that is…
27 June 2006

UK Film Company Sets Up To Ride Growing Digital Wave

  A new British film company, Slingshot, opens for business this week with an ambitious pledge to produce 10 feature films over the next three years - a goal it hopes to achieve with a business model unique to this country: producing and distributing digital feature films. Few deny that th…
21 March 2007

E Stings Idents Competition

 The E STINGS competition 2007 Yes, we're doing it again. The annual opportunity to weird us out with your crazed imaginations is here once more as E4 and Creative Review proudly present E STINGS 4. "The E STINGS competition has become something of an E4 institution," say…
  • 25 February 2006
    Sales

EXCLUSIVE: Shark Monster in Bed With Toxic Avenger

The Evolved, a feature film about a rogue shark monster terrorizing London and produced for only £1000 has been signed for distribution to the Legendary American film company, Troma Entertainment. Troma has helped bring to the world some of the best and brightest talents in entertainment. The duo of Andy Senior and John Turner who conceived and made the film are delighted and itching to start their next project, but first they are waiting to see how their feature does…
More
23 June 2006

Battle Zone Hollywood: The Writers Fight Back

    The French started it. Once they came up with their 'auteur' theory, directors seized power in the film industry. But now a new book says it's time to recognise that writers are the true authors of movies. The legendary movie mogul Irving G Thalberg put it most su…
18 November 2008

2009 Satyajit Ray Foundation £1,000 Short Film Competition

This 2009 Satyajit Ray Foundation Competition is open to all film-makers, of any age, either resident or studying in the UK. The closing date is 1st March 2009. From the Ray Foundation: The film, of not more than 30 minutes running time, should express and inform aspects of the experiences o…
28 January 2010

Glimmer submission deadline and new title sponsor

The University of Hull is to become the title sponsor of GLIMMER: The Hull International Short Film Festival in a partnership between the two organisations announced today. The renowned short film festival, which will run from 19th-25th April 2010, will bring a selection of screenings and special e…
  • 28 June 2008
    Festivals

Edinburgh Winners: Eurostar's Somers Town, Man on a Wire, Herzog's Encounters at End of the World

Sorry for the shortage of updates recently, I've watched too many inpsiring films in the past few weeks, with not enough time to do them justice with a good enough review. And after seeing Wall-E on Thursday - towards the end of an enlightening Edinburgh - business as usual doesn't seem possible either. In the meantime here's the award winners from Sunday's ceremony. EuroStar's Somers Town won the £20,000 Michael Powell Best British Film Award, a film directe…
More
09 February 2006

Toronto Names New Documentary Programmer

 The well-regarded documentary director, lecturer and journalist Thom Powers has been hired by the Toronto International Film Festival to head its international documentaries programme. New York-based Powers is likely to exercise a lot of influence in helping documentary films receive wide pub…
24 April 2006

Free Induction Courses For London Freelancers

  London-based freelancers new to the business can now get their hands on a Skillset Audio Visual Industries Induction course and it will cost them absolutely nothing. The Video College is offering freelancers the chance to go on a free City and Guilds course that has the potential to help…
21 June 2006

Missing Doctor Who Episodes Animated Back To Life

  Dusting off their old episodes of the original Doctor Who series for DVD release, the BBC discovered that more than 100 episodes had somehow vanished from the archives. Cosgrove Hall, the Manchester-based animation house was then called in to recreate two lost instalments using animation…