Film Shorts International # 1
Film Shorts International today includes: France goes film large – Hollywood Courts Bollywood – German Film Fund Investigated – European Viewers Go Digital - FDA P&A Spend – Norway Screens Go Digital – Dial Up Troma Classics.
Great News for Creative People From Netribution....
French national film body CNC has announced that in 2005 as many as 240 films were approved including 187 national productions. This is an increase by 8%. Furthermore there was a higher number of films made for less than EUR1m (up to 22%) and made for over EUR7m (up to 20% of all films). Co productions rose by about 65% due to the tax credit scheme launched in 2004.
Hollywood major studios Sony, Paramount and Disney have announced their plans to expand into Bollywood's Hindi Song and Dance film industry through seeking co-productions with local production companies.
Germany: Public investigations have been open regarding film fund Chorus-Group. As in the case against the VIP fund, another German film fund, investigators suspect that money hasn’t been spent on film projects but was purely banked to secure profit estimates and hence wouldn’t qualify for tax benefits.
Digital: According to a study released by research specialist Informa Telecoms & Media European households are steadily switching to Digital Terrestrical Television. The study predicts that in 2011 16.6% of Europe’s TV households will be able to received DTT. That would be an increase by 12.1% from the current 4.5% in 2005.
PA SPEND:: The Yearbook 2005 released by the Film Distributor’s Association (FDA) states that UK distributors spent more than GBP300m on prints and advertising in 2005. The expenses for prints and trailer rose by 2%, the spend for media advertising increased by 4.6%. In total distributors’ P&A spent was over 35% of the revenue in 2005.
Digital: Arts Alliance Media has partnered with Norwegian industry group Kristiansand Digital Cinema Alliance to set up a trial for digital cinema on up to 10 screens in Norway. 3 screens have already been equipped. The initiative is also partly funded by Norwegian cinema network Film & Kino. AAM has also announced the completion of the implementation of the first phase (50 screens of 240 planned) of the UK Film Council’s Digital Screen Network ahead of schedule.
Mobile Cinema: Lloyd Kaufman, owner of the Troma Entertainment library has partnered with European channel operator Zone Vision to release the cult classics "The Toxic Avenger" and "Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD" on mobile phones. Zone Vision operates the Horror Channel in the U.K., on whose wireless portal the video clips will be available. The content is going to be adapted for the small screen by mobile rights specialist Juice Mobile.