Category: International

MUMBAI: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has named Christina Kounelias as chief marketing officer. She will assume her new role on 1 August.

“As the Academy expands and fosters the achievements of the film community and its legacy, we are proud to have an executive of Christina‘s caliber join us in this vital role,” said Academy CEO Dawn Hudson. 

In the new position, Kounelias will oversee all planning, strategy and marketing execution of Academy initiatives including its signature Oscar telecast, the Governors Awards and year-round educational outreach and screening programs. The marketing, communications and online staff will report to her.

She joins the Academy from WB-based New Line Cinema, where she served as executive vice president, marketing. She worked at the studio for 17 years and held senior posts in marketing and PR during her tenure there.

Kounelias has been a member of the Academy for nine years.
 

MUMBAI : Roman Polanski‘s latest film Carnage will open the 49th New York Film Festival on 30 September. 

Based on Yasmina Reza‘s ‘God of Carnage‘, Carnage follows the events of an evening when two Brooklyn couples are brought together after their children are involved in a playground fight.

“In Carnage, aided by four remarkable performances, Polanksi has reached a new pinnacle in his already extraordinary career,” said The Film Society of Lincoln Center (FSLC) selection committee chairman and programme director, Richard Pena in a statement.

The 17-day New York Film Festival will spotlight some of the most anticipated world cinema of the year. 

The selection committee, chaired by Pena also includes Melissa Anderson, Freelance Critic; Scott Foundas, Associate Program Director, The Film Society of Lincoln Center; Dennis Lim, Editor, Moving Image Source & Freelance Critic; and Todd McCarthy, Chief Film Critic, The Hollywood Reporter.

The 49th NYFF takes place from 30 September 30 to 16 October.

General Public tickets will be available September 12th. There will be an advance ticketing opportunity for Film Society of Lincoln Center Patrons and Members prior to that date.
 
 

 MUMBAI: Indomina Group, the fast-growing US and Dominican Republic based producer and distributor of film, TV and transmedia content, has acquired the North American distribution rights of A Fantastic Fear of Everything that stars Simon Pegg. The film has been produced by Keel Films.

 The film will be released in the US through Indomina‘s North American distribution division, Indomina Releasing while in the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America, the film will be released by Universal Pictures.

In the film, Jack (Simon Pegg) is a children‘s author turned crime novelist whose detailed research into the lives of Victorian serial killers has turned him into a paranoid wreck, persecuted by the irrational fear of being murdered. The rest forms the crux of the film.
 
A Fantastic Fear of Everything happens to be the first film to receive backing from Pinewood Films – a new finance initiative for small budget independent British films by the Pinewood Studios Group.
 
 

MUMBAI: Sony has said that it will release director Kathryn Bigelow‘s film Navy Seal Team 6 on 12 October next year. The pickup marks another timely and elevated project for Amy Pascal and Columbia‘s slate.

The film, about the hunt of Osama Bin Laden and death thereafter, will follow the same release pattern that the distribution house followed for David Fincher‘s The Social Network.

Bigelow and writer Mark Boal, the pair behind the Oscar-winning Iraqi war film The Hurt Lockerhad been working on the project for some time when Bin Laden was killed. This changed the story‘s direction.

Boal and Bigelow will produce the project along with Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures which will finance the project.

After the success of The Social Network, Sony has proven themselves unafraid to try on dramas if the right creative people are involved.
 
 

MUMBAI: In a major digital cinema delivery deal, Technicolor has acquired the assets of Cinedigm Digital Cinema the services of which is specific to physical and electronic distribution of content to film theatres in North America. The deal is expected to close in September though no financial details have been disclosed.

With the deal in place, Technicolor will become Cinedigm‘s preferred content servicing partner for post-production through distribution services.

Technicolor, that controls an estimated 58 per cent of the North American market for mastering and digital cinema delivery, will acquire Cinedigm‘s physical and electronic distribution assets, including replication equipment and hard-drive inventory as well as a minimum of 300 satellite roof rights in the U.S. and Canada, resulting in an increase of about 40 per cent in Technicolor‘s North American satellite footprint that will now include around 1,100 locations.

MUMBAI: Nicolas Cage has been signed to star in Frozen Ground that details the police investigation of serial killer Robert Hansen.
 
Hansen, known by his nickname as ‘the Butcher Baker‘ was convicted in 1984 after confessing to killing 17 women and raping another 30 in a 12-year span. He received a 461 year sentence and is incarcerated at a state prison in Seward.

Hansen‘s victims initially included any woman who caught his eye but then he quickly learnt that prostitutes and strippers were harder to track but less likely to be missed.

Cage will play an Alaska State Trooper who investigated the murders.