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News stories from Jan 2006 to 2012..

  • 17 February 2009
    Screenings

Raindance Film Club-18 February 09-Zebra Crossings

This month Raindance brings you a free screening of Zebra Crossings. Zebra Crossings premiered in last years Raindance Film Festival and also won an award at the 2008 BIFAs. Set amongst the towering, concrete-clad estates of south London ‘Zebra Crossings’ blends a mixture of characters that all share onething in common: The incredible loneliness of living alongside 7 million other people.  ‘Hard-hitting’ would be an appropriate phr…
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07 June 2011

MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival, 26 –28 August 2011

from MGEITF The MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival is the essential annual event for anyone working in television. Featuring prominent industry voices, the Festival is packed with over 50 individual sessions covering the most pertinent issues facing the industry from poli…
10 November 2008

Calling all creative types.. E4's Skins needs you!

From Lauren @ Holler: Skins 3 is coming soon, and the Skins creators are looking for some bright young things to help them with a very special project. They’ll be creating an online mini episode of Skins that will feature some of the series 3 cast. There are four very important be…
18 July 2006

It’s Your New BBC

    Massive Top Job Shake-up Splits the Beeb Into Three A big shake-up of BBC production and commissioning is to elevate director of television Jana Bennett to take control of all audio-visual content. Four new "super commissioners"will also be created, who will re…
  • 18 April 2007
    Festivals

Cannes 60th Empowers Young Auteurs

  Unveiled this morning by Festival artistic director Thierry Frémeaux, the 22 films selected include those by young directors and do not feature titles by Kitano, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Roy Andersson, Claude Miller and Todd Haynes that had been expected in the final lineup .   Europe faces a head-to-head with the US, with ten and six films selected respectively. Only four Asian titles make it through (China's Wong Kar Wai as op…
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03 April 2006

Pick Your Movie Format – Download or DVD

   Hollywood is now making its latest movies available in the US for download the same day DVDs arrive. First movie for simultaneous DVD and download treatment will be Brokeback Mountain, available on Tuesday at Movielink (www.movielink.com). Playing on the service just launc…
08 March 2007

Patent Pending With Changes in UK Intellectual Property

The Patent Office is to undergo a name change on the 2nd April to the UK Intellectual Property Office. The change was recommended in the Gower Review of Intellectual Property and is meant to reflect the wider role of the Patent Office in future. Ron Marchant, chief executive of the Patent Offic…
20 February 2006

Brokeback Gaily Wins Four Baftas

The US gay cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain, managed to round up four awards in the BAFTAs, including Best Film, at Britain's answer to the Oscars.      The story of a secret love affair between a ranch hand and rodeo cowboy also took Best Director award for Ang Lee and Best…
  • 12 January 2009
    Awards

India gets first Globe on night of international success

One of India's best loved film composers, AR Rahman, picked up the country's first Golden Globe, on a night which saw Danny Boyle's Mumbai-set Slumdog Millionaire take home four awards, including Best film, Best screenplay and Best director. In an evening of international success, Kate Winslett collected two acting awards, with Sally Hawkins and Tom Wilkinson completing the British grab, with Colin Farrell, Heath Ledger and Gabriel Byrne also winning with only three of the…
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11 June 2006

CROSS CULTURAL FILMMAKING - Guerrilla Movies in the Philippines

A Spirit of Independence award-winning feature, shot with Panasonic DV cameras, costing less than $7,000 open this weekend in the US. The cameras were sold on eBay to finance post production. Cavite was filmed guerrilla-style in the Philippine city of that name by Asian-American co-dir…
13 January 2007

The Forest, My Film and Save Our Tigers

  Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ashvin Kumar as in the final throes of finishing his latest film, The Forest. And by all accounts it should be a top-notch thriller, but it offers much, much more than rising hairs on the back of the neck as his Ashvin Kumar's personal blog shows... Th…
27 March 2006

Reuters Reports Filmmaker Jailed In China

Reuters News Agency is now reporting that Chinese police have detained Chinese-born film maker Hao Wu,a permanent U.S. resident, a family member said on Monday, weeks before President Hu Jintao visits the United States and one week after Netribution broke the news. Hao Wu, who returned to Ch…
  • 14 December 2007
    TV

Netribution users can win a digital camera with More4

To celebrate Unveiled: Love and Sex in the Arab World on a season of critically-acclaimed films offering a fresh perspective on life in North Africa and the Middle East on More4 this Christmas, More4 is offering Netribution users a change to win a digital camera and it couldn't be easier to enter.      Simply watch the Unveiled hightlights teaser and answer the following question.  Teaser:  http://88.208.206.174/videos/mo…
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07 August 2006

Raw Cuts – Teenage Ideas on Vulnerability to Air on Channel 4

  Four Unknowns Get Broadcast Writing Credit   Four films written by teenagers are now in post- production, preparing for peak-time broadcast on Channel 4 this autumn. Over 1,500 film ideas were submitted for Raw Cuts, a joint writing initiative set up between the National S…
20 April 2006

CANNES - The Official Selection

  The selection unveiled today has a distinctly European flavour with no fewer than 11 European films in competition announced so far. British director Andrea Arnold whose short film Wasp was an Academy Award Winner, is the only first time feature director to be featured in competition wit…
20 December 2007

As WGA strike continues, writers form online co-ops and some earn millions

At the touted advertising rate of $60 per 1000 web video views, this could have earned the producers up to $3m for a two minute short, with no notable initial outlay. With the Studios showing no sign of responding to the seemingly reasonable demands of the Writers Guild of America, and t…
  • 26 October 2006
    Festivals

Little Children Premiere at The London Film Festival: The Crowds Go Wild for Winslet

  Kate Winslet's latest film, Little Children, premiered at The London Film Festival last night.  She plays Sarah, a mother who starts an affair, with disastrous results.  Suchandrika Chakrabarti reports...     The lady herself graced the red carpet with her presence, sending the shrieking crowd wild... it was quite hard to hear her comments, but here's what Kate, and director Todd Field (In the Bedroom) had to say.  …
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06 March 2006

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…
11 October 2008

Cambridge International Super 8 Film Festival is now calling for entries

The Festival is now accepting submissions its next edition which will take place at the end of April 2009. The Cambridge International Super 8 Film Festival, a unique short film festival, is looking for innovative and exciting films (shot on Super 8 or Single 8) from across the globe of…
09 February 2006

FilmFour Goes Free-to-Air

Channel 4 is to relaunch FilmFour as the UK’s only major free to air film channel on digital service Freeview from July, confirming reports circulating for almost a year. It will also be available to all cable and satellite viewers without the need to pay a monthly subscription. On digital sa…
  • 04 November 2008
    Festivals

The North of England goes Film Festival crazy as Leeds and Sheffield profile the best in cinema

Two of the largest film festivals in the UK get underway this week, providing a wealth of films for those who are in the North of England. Tuesday 4th November sees the opening of the 22nd Leeds International Film Festival (www.leedsfilm.com), which runs from 4th-16th November, whilst Wednesday 5th November will see the start of the Sheffield Doc/Fest, (www.sheffdocfest.com )  which runs from  5th-9th November. Both promise special guests, previews, masterc…
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10 February 2007

2007 BAFTA Film Award winners in full - regal night for the Brits

A night of royalty as The Queen picked up best film and best actress for Helen Mirren (what a suprise) and The Last King of Scotland scored best actor for Forrest Whitaker and the Alexander Korda Best British Film Award. Paul Greengrass picked up best director, meanwhile, for United 91, with Andr…
01 November 2010

King's Speech, Monsters, Arbor, Never Let Me Go lead noms for British Independent Film Awards

THE MOËT BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS ANNOUNCE NOMINATIONS AND JURY FOR 13th EDITION The nominations and jury members for the thirteenth annual Moët British Independent Film Awards were announced today, Monday 1st November at St Martins Lane, London by Jared Harris. The Film…
24 March 2006

The Met Set Up Capital Police Film Unit

The first ever Metropolitan Police Service Film Unit (MPSFU) has been announced by Lord Puttnam, Chair of the Film London Executive Task Force, and Commander Shabir Hussain of the Metropolitan Police. This streamlined service has been set up following recommendations from the London Filming Partn…
  • 03 July 2007
    BBC

Alan Johnston Freed

After 16 weeks in solitary confinement, Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist held hostage in the Gaza Strip since March, has been released. Watching him now in the press conference, it's hard to imagine the kind of wise soul it takes to survive such an ordeal and be so articulate and honourable in the aftermath. "It's hard to believe how amazing it is to be free" From the Guardian: The 45-year-old Briton, looking pale and frail, was taken to…
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16 May 2006

African Movie Channel Launches in UK

  UK TV viewers can now watch African movies on a 24-hour basis. Lola Onigbogi, director of the newly launched African Movie Channel, says there is an "endless" market for African productions in Britain, in particular among African immigrants. Most of the films available on-deman…
15 April 2010

Leigh, Kitano and Innaritu in competition as Cannes 2010 unveiled

New films from Woody Allen, Mike Leigh, Stephen Frears, Jean-Luc Goddard and Oliver Stone will premiere at the 63rd Festival de Cannes, while Ridley Scott's Robin Hood is the opening night film. Running from May 12 to May 23, the event also sees the debut of Enda 'Hunger' Walsh's tantalising colla…
01 November 2010

King's Speech, Monsters, Arbor, Never Let Me Go lead noms for British Independent Film Awards

THE MOËT BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS ANNOUNCE NOMINATIONS AND JURY FOR 13th EDITION The nominations and jury members for the thirteenth annual Moët British Independent Film Awards were announced today, Monday 1st November at St Martins Lane, London by Jared Harris. The Film…
  • 07 July 2006
    Sales

US Box Office Showing Signs of Recovery

  The film industry continues to fret over competition from video games, home entertainment systems and the Internet, but the recovery provides evidence that going out to see movies on a giant, communal screen remains a central part of the American leisure experience.   But that's because Hollywood is trying harder.   The week's performance by "Superman Returns," a $210 million-budget revival of the old superhero franchi…
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05 January 2007

Halloween blows short fuse at the ICA

 London's legendary limited length film love-in goes live Saturday.  Kate and Phil are returning to the ICA, Curzon Soho and Roxy Bar once again for nine days of  sweet and sour short films.   There's the Brothers Blaine back catalog, Allison Murray'…
03 September 2009

No limits for Brazilian Cinema as the latest releases come to London

I Cine Fest Brasil London - 17th to 20th September 2009 - Riverside Studios From Rose Chamberlein NO LIMITS FOR BRAZILIAN CINEMA is how Inffinito presents their worldwide festival circuit. After wrapping up their New York edition, in Central Park and the Tribeca Cinema, they are getting the r…
06 May 2006

Stellar Cast in Kiwi Horror Movie Ferryman

  New Zealand independent feature film The Ferryman began principal photography in Auckland, on 31 March and is well on track to wrap on Saturday 13 May. This official NZ/UK co-production is produced by key producing partners Matthew Metcalfe (Nemesis Game) and Atlantic Film’s Alan H…
  • 10 May 2006
    Hi Definition

Bleak House Leads BBC HD Trials

  BBC's HD stream starts tomorrow, 11th of May, with promotional previews on the Sky Electronic Programme Guide. Full high definition broadcasting trials will be aired by the end of May, with Bleak House and Planet Earth the first programmes to be screened.   Sky has confirmed it will begin installation of HD set-top boxes from 22 May, with the first real programming from the BBC starting on 27th May. On that day five opening episodes of Planet E…
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03 March 2007

E4 Launch Annual E STINGS Competition with a £15,000 incentive.

E4 and Creative Review present E STINGS 4, the annual opportunity to use your imagination. "The E4 competition has become something of an institution" says E4 head of on-air, Neil Gorriinge. "It's fanstastic to see what people can get up to with our Logo" The big dif…
21 March 2006

Sheffield DocsFest Announces Oz Director

Sheffield International Documentary Festival has appointed Heather Croall as its new Director. Croall is formerly Director of the Australian International Documentary Conference and will start her new post early in April. Croall's career in the Australian screen industry has included worki…
28 June 2006

Over 10,000 Euros in Prizes for third International Video Journalist Award

Entries are now being invited for the third annual International  Video Journalist award, which takes places in Berlin in October this year. Prizes range from 500 to 1500 Euros for a range of awards, including Independent Video, TV Production, Reportage and a Newcommer award. Th…
  • 11 June 2008
    Copyrights

Doctorow's Creative Commons licensed book enters fifth week on NY Times Bestsellers list

Cory Doctorow's latest novel, Little Brother, is available to download for free from his website, as well as remix, share and distribute to your friends. The book has just had its fifth week on the New York Times Bestsellers list under Children's literature, and entered Publishers Weekly chart - the first Creative Commons licensed book to do so. The book is set in a near-future dystopian 'database state' where civil liberties have been destroyed. Doctorow has long ar…
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22 August 2006

First imprisoned US blogger Josh Wolf continues to update from jail

Josh Wolf, the US vlogger who was put in jail at the start of August after refusing to hand over video footage of a demonstration to US federal authorities, is continuing to blog from prison via friend's transcripts at  The Revolution Will Be Televised. A recent post quoted Malcolm X…
30 June 2006

Parker to Helm Again – Getting Icy With Charlize Theron

  Oscar winning actress  Charlize Theron has convinced legendary British director Alan Parker to helm her pet project, 'Ice At The Bottom Of The World'. The South African born actress is set to star in and produce the project for which she acquired film rights a decade ago…
03 January 2008

FilmStew gives thumbs up as handbook prepares to launch Stateside

"Each one of the book's four main sections, printed it must be noted in a highly readable font, is a veritable treasure trove of information and inspiration." As we prepares to launch the Film Finance Handbook, How To Fund Your Film in the US, we're delighted to see a big…