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News stories from Jan 2006 to 2012..

  • 08 August 2008
    Festivals

Hull's Glimmer fest follows Radiohead with Pay What You can submission fees

FILMMAKERS TO CHOOSE THEIR OWN ENTRY FEE FOR GLIMMER : 7th HULL INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 21st-26th April 2009 Given the number of entries they normally receive and the costs of watching and reviewing them, for the recent Hull International Short Film Festival in April, submissions fees were introduced (tho kept free for those from the region). While making sure that people were serious before sending in their film, fees could put off the poorest filmmakers and…
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14 February 2007

fmx/07 is taking form...

For the fmx team, January and February are the hottest months of the year: we now have the first confirmations from speakers and companies with exciting ideas to present at fmx/07 – the 12th International Conference on Animation, Effects, Realtime and Content. The international digital commun…
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…
28 July 2007

Low Budget Horror Feature ‘Nailed’ in Nine Days

  The low budget horror feature film ‘Nailed', from debut director Adrian O'Connell has wrapped in Northern Ireland. The script, financing and production for the film was assembled and completed in just under four weeks. NAILED is a psycho-thriller about two criminals…
  • 20 August 2009
    Documentary

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 Bees. Partnering on these last two films with the UK's ethically focussed Co-Op group - the world's largest consumer-owned business - DogWoof is now moving beyond releasing films…
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16 July 2006

India bans Blogger, Typepad and Geocities

India's Department of Telecomunications has begun to block dozens of websites, including any site from Blogger, TypePad and Geocities. Working from a '22-page list', ISPs in India have been instructed to prevent access to all listed websites. More information available from Within…
01 August 2006

Debt Trail Follows Film Firm Downunder

  Hard Drive Sinks For Troubled River Queen Firm The film company behind the troubled movie River Queen has left a trail of debts in Queenstown after the collapse of its latest venture after only six weeks. Silverscreen Films (HD) halted pre-production work on Hard Drive, a car-chase…
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…
  • 24 March 2010
    Animation

Suzie Templeton’s Oscar-winning PETER & THE WOLF now available online

from Content Republic's publicist "It’s a wolf eat duck world. But it’s a world where little boys can find extraordinary courage and catch the wolf!" Content Republic are pleased to announce that BREAKTHRU FILMS’ OSCAR® WINNER PETER & THE WOLF is now available to watch online. Peter & the Wolf, produced by BreakThru Films, is the animated film version of Prokofiev’s classic work directed by an extraordinary new animation talent, Suzie Templeton and set to a special new…
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11 July 2006

Innovative New Website iklipz.com Gives Independent Filmmakers a Showcase

    Website Features Advisory Board of Industry Insiders With three simple words: SEE, SHOW, and SHARE -- www.iklipz.com is officially open for business. This innovative new website offers its members the chance to upload their films for free using state-of-the-art str…
18 May 2006

Cannes Market - What’s New This Year

  There's a stronger showing from EU member countries with a 100% increase in the Cannes Market this year. Market Director Jerôme Paillard also reports a 25% surge from Asia and the market website is now a year-round tool for doing film business. The market is open until 27th May…
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…
  • 27 April 2008
    Awards

Recent awards: Sick in Houston, Tantric Tourists in London and I Refuse To Forget wins feature funds

A quick roundup of recent award winners  We're pleased to hear that Alexander Snelling's debut feature Tantric Tourists, covered here recently, picked up the Best UK Debut at the East London Film Festival, where it had its Gala Premiere.   Mike Rymer's 15k short Sick, dealing with mental illness, has picked up the Gold award at the 41st Houston Film Festival. Endorsed by the Samaritans, the film looks at anxiety and depression and was funded almost entirel…
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01 November 2009

Introducing a new social network for filmmakers

From ShoutFilm's Steven Waterfall: We are pleased to announce the launch of ShoutFILM, a social networking site tailored specifically for filmmakers of all ages and skill levels. Members can share their work and communicate with each other with ease. ShoutFILM is the based on social networks suc…
06 February 2006

Propellor TV Hits the Airwaves Tonight

A new TV Channel propels Itself into the airwaves On Sky Tonight. Propellor TV takes a step into the unknown showcasing the work of independent film makers and student talent launches in Yorkshire tonight, where it can be seen on Sky 289. Chief Executive Simon Couth says after years of planning and…
20 September 2006

Warner Bros files patent for joint Blu-Ray / HD-DVD Disc

Could this be the sollution to the forthcoming DVD-war? Warner Bros has applied for a patent on a technology that will allow DVDs, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD to be burnt and played on the same disc. It should make choices for consumers a lot easier in the upcomming VHS-Betamax style battle between t…
  • 12 January 2006
    Festivals

VOLUNTARY OSCAR

One of the world's most prolific and repected directors gets an Oscar at last. {mosimage}Robert Altman, veteran director of over 80 movies and recognised as one of Hollywood's most talented, is to receive an honarary Oscar from the US Film Academy.His last movie Gosford Park, abouit a murder mystery at an English country house in the 1930's did gain an Oscar, but it was for Best Screenplay and went to Julian Fellowes.
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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…
16 October 2008

Oska Bright Film Festival Call for Submissions

Oska Bright Film Festival 2009 is now open for submission of short films made by learning disabled artists. Submitted by Lisa Wolfe. Oska Bright is the key national festival of films made by, and for, the learning disabled community. Now in its fourth year, the festival screens up to 40 sh…
26 March 2006

BT & Hollywood Talk Film Streaming

UK telephone giant BT is in advanced talks with several Hollywood studios to give its internet customers access to a comprehensive film library this autumn. It has already signed a deal with Paramount.      CUSTOMER CHOICE  Dan Marks, the chief executive of B…
  • 07 June 2006
    Environment & sustainability

Hundreds View India Dam Row Film

  Movie-goers have been packing a theatre in western India to see a film kept off screens amid protests over criticism of a dam project by its star, Aamir Khan. The cinema, in Jamnagar, Gujarat, is guarded by armed police for screenings of Fanaa. Other cinema owners have refused to show the film, fearing protests. About 50 activists staged a protest at the time of the first showing and political parties opposed Fanaa's release in Gujarat over Aamir K…
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25 June 2006

Fake DVD Operation Smashed in Edinburgh Raid

  A counterfeit DVD operation being run from an Edinburgh city centre flat has been smashed in a raid by police and trading standards officers. The flat in the Marchmont area was believed to be the centre of an illegal operation producing pirate films and computer games. Movies and games w…
10 September 2010

Illume Image Quest winner announced

From Red Bull's PR Agency (unpaid) Enlightenment arrived at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland tonight August 31, as Chris Burkard was named Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2010 winner at an emotional unveiling ceremony packed with photographers, competition judges, athletes and special guests…
19 April 2006

Woody Switches From Paris to London

  Woody Allen has switched locations, abandoning earlier plans to shoot his next film in Paris. He's decided instead to film in Britain, for the third time.   Filming in Paris was due to start in a few weeks with a cast headed by the Oscar-nominated actress Michelle Willia…
  • 11 May 2006
    Festivals

Anglo-Czech Film Success For Suicide Comedy

Winning three awards at a French cinema festival with a debut feature has put a Manchester filmmaker well on the road to international success. The film premiered in Prague on 1st December 2005, and has received great reviews. It is now on release in Czech cinemas. Meanwhile, Steen Agro’s Anglo-Czech collaboration, Shut Up and Shoot Me, scooped three of the four main awards at the Cherbourg Film Festival, winning best film from both the expert jury and the audience, a…
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28 July 2007

Low Budget Horror Feature ‘Nailed’ in Nine Days

  The low budget horror feature film ‘Nailed', from debut director Adrian O'Connell has wrapped in Northern Ireland. The script, financing and production for the film was assembled and completed in just under four weeks. NAILED is a psycho-thriller about two criminals…
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…
27 July 2007

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 featur…
  • 28 March 2007
    Cross media

Play Station 3 – Is it a Blu-ray Trojan Horse?

  Sony's Film Sale Back Door Platform It certainly looks that way to us - writes Charles Arthur of The Guardian Technical - particularly after talking to Matt Brown, executive vice president of Sony Pictures Europe, whose job it is to persuade us all to buy Blu-ray media. Formerly with Dreamworks, and steeped in films, Brown declares that "the future is high-definition TV" and that the PS3 - which at £425 in the UK is steeply priced for a ga…
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12 October 2007

AURORA 2007 illuminates Norwich

AURORA is the new name for Norwich International Animation Festival.  A uniquely art-focused, progressive event, it fuses artist retrospectives and thematic film programmes with incisive debate, live performance and installations, alongside the very best new work from across the world in wid…
14 December 2007

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 e…
23 April 2006

Bollywood Star Kumar Makes Good UK Opening Weekend

  Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar is fast emerging as the contender to Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan for the Bollywood overseas heartthrob tag. UK opening weekend for his latest film made it no 10 in UK box office, on a par with many Hollywood movies.   After the strong showing i…
  • 13 May 2006
    Screen Agency

Screen Yorkshire Launches £10m Investment Programme

  Regional screen agency Screen Yorkshire has launched a four-year production programme, backed by £10 million of funding from Yorkshire Forward – the largest ever award from a regional development agency to a regional screen agency. The investment could make England's biggest county a leading centre of low budget film production, drawing more investment into the region by pulling in in more film and TV production.   Screen Yorkshire wil…
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20 January 2006

Sony's Z1E 'Unbelievable' at Minus Thirty

“The last thing you want is to sort the camera out when you are that cold, but because the HVR-Z1E was so straightforward to use, I was enthusiastic to get it out and use it... at an average temperature of minus thirty I didn’t expect it to work, but I picked it up and used it.” U…
17 September 2006

New $5m fund for experiments in community journalism

The Knight Foundation have launched the 'Knight Brothers 21st Century News Challenge', investing up to $5 million in its first year in web 2.0-style community news projects that best use the digital world to connect people to the real world. The News Challenge is looking to fund n…
10 August 2006

UK Film Fans Get Ready For the D-Cinema Revolution

  200 UK Cinemas go Digital - One of the Biggest Film Advances in Cinematic History   UK film fans from St Ives to Inverness are about to experience unprecedented film choice at the cinema thanks to the roll-out of the world's most advanced Digital Screen Network, the…
  • 07 July 2006
    Sales

Wippit Moves Into Movie Downloads

  The UK's movie download scene is to brighten with the Wippit online music store signing a deal with Universal to offer download-to-own features. The link-up will bring a welcome range of new releases, including King Kong and Jarhead, as well as some back-catalogue films available for UK downloaders when it launches later this month.   New releases will cost up to £20, although you do get the DVD of the film as well. Older films will cost &p…
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05 April 2006

Locate in Brum! - Now Extra Film Friendly

  It may not have all the iconic landmarks of, say, New York, London or Paris, but Birmingham is now set to become a real scene stealer in the world of film and television, with some unique locations on offer and a brand new film charter to back them up.   A new Film Birmin…
04 June 2006

UK Government Inquiry into DRM calls for full disclosure

"once someone has purchased a great deal of protected music for an iPod then if their next player is not manufactured by Apple this music could become inaccessible to them."   The All Party Internet Group's public inquiry into Digital Rights Management (the software…
05 June 2010

Nozstock Festival's Cinetent Final Call for Entries closes soon

from Nozstock festival team NOZSTOCK FESTIVAL'S CINETENT IS CALLING FOR SUBMISSIONS... Deadline: 11 June 2010 Nozstock’s resident cinetent showcases a collection of eclectic short films varying  through documentaries, live-action narrative tales, music videos, animations and experimental works…