Category: International

MUMBAI: Winner of the Lola at the last week-concluded German Film Awards, Christian Ditter‘s The Crocodiles continued its winning streak in the international festival circuit by picking up the audience award for best feature at the Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival. 

The comedy about a boy in a wheelchair who tries to fit in with a cool gang called the Suburban Crocodiles has already picked up awards at festivals in Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Moscow and Antwerp.

Sprockets, that wrapped up last Friday also gave the audience award for best short film to The Auction by Canadian director Gloria U.Y. Kim.
 

MUMBAI: Producer Rebecca Long‘s debut film Forget Me Not bagged a grand prize at the London Independent Film Festival in the form of a $77,000 post-production deal with LIFF backer Prime Focus.

Arthouse director Rika Ohara‘s The Heart of No Place secured LIFF‘s award for best international feature while British director Nicholas Winter lapped up the festival‘s award for best director for Breathe. 

Cosima Shaw took home the award for best actor/actress for her starring role in Ana Begins a story of a young widow‘s passage from grief to rebirth.

Organised by film producer Erich Schultz, the LIFF aims to provide a platform for budget and no-budget films in the UK.
 

MUMBAI: A lawyer appearing for Roman Polanski has accused US courts of wanting to see the filmmaker “in shackles” after they rejected his bid to be sentenced in absentia for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

“One gets the feeling that there‘s the desire to see him arrive in shackles, when there‘s no reason why Roman Polanski should be extradited, none at all,” lawyer Herve Temime said.

The Court also rejected a petition filed by Polanski‘s victim, Samantha Geimer, to have the case dismissed altogether.

Polanski, who directed films like Chinatown and Rosemary‘s Baby was charged with raping Geimer in Hollywood after plying her with champagne and drugs in 1977. He later pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor.

Polanski skipped bail and fled the US for France in 1978 and is now fighting extradition from Switzerland. Affirming the decision of a Los Angeles judge in January, a state appeals court ruled Thursday that the 76-year-old filmmaker must return to California before he can be sentenced.
 

MUMBAI: Mickey Rourke, one of the villains in Jon Favreau‘s upcoming Iron Man 2 is set to play Genghis Khan in a new film, which is to be written and directed by John Milius.

Director and screenwriter John Milius who earlier wrote the scripts of 1980s classics Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn, will present a different view of Genghis Khan by looking at the great military leader from the perspective of his son and grandson. Throughout the movie, there will be many flashbacks to his mid-40s.

The film that will be cinematographed in India and China involves many equestrian scenes for which Rourke has to practice his riding skills.

Genghis Khan was the founder, ruler and emperor of the Mongol Empire. By the end of his life, the Mongol Empire occupied a substantial portion of Central Asia and China, representing the largest continuous empire in Chinese history.
 

MUMBAI: After a California Court‘s order for the return of Roman Polanski to the United States to serve a sentence, more than three decades after he fled a statutory rape charge, Swiss legal experts observe that his extradition could be done in the coming months.

However, they predicted months of further legal wrangling before extradition.

Caught up in the complexity of the case, Switzerland has yet to issue a decision on delivering the fugitive Oscar-winning filmmaker to Los Angeles prosecutors nearly seven months after his arrest.

Swiss authorities have cited the voluminous paperwork and said they would wait out a California court‘s examination of whether Polanski could be sentenced in absentia for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.

But the US Court rejected Polanski‘s sentencing request last Thursday without an opinion. While his attorneys could still appeal to the California Supreme Court, legal experts see little basis for Swiss authorities to reject handing over Polanski.

If the Swiss government ultimately approves extradition, Polanski could still lodge court appeals in Switzerland that would delay his return to the United States for months.

MUMBAI: Comedian, actor and producer Mel Brooks famous for his films like Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and The Producers got a star Friday on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Brooks received the 2,406th star during a ceremony held at the Egyptian Theatre where his son, Max, and friend Carl Reiner were also present.

83 year-Brooks has won several Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.

MUMBAI: At a presentation, Disney Film chief Rich Ross has declared that Pixar‘s Brave would releaseon 12 June, 2012. He also disclosed plans of having another sequel to Monsters, Inc. that is scheduled to release on 16 November, 2012.

After unveiling trailers for a number of upcoming titles — including Jerry Bruckheimer‘s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, The Sorcerer‘s Apprentice and Secretariat -Ross unveiled the first three movies he‘s given a go-ahead to Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and The Muppets in 2011 and Prom in 2012. 

The first is the company‘s most successful global franchise and hence a no-brainer, the second will introduce a new Muppet named Walter, and the third will be “smart and authentic” a la what John Hughes used to do.

Brave, once known as The Bear and the Bow, is written and directed by Brenda Chapman features the voices of Reese Witherspoon and Billy Connolly in a tale of archery and royalty while Monsters, Inc. directed by Pete Docter grossed $525 million worldwide after its release in November 2001.

Ross emphasized the diversity of the banners under the studio umbrella — from Disney‘s bemused and decidedly modern take on the Rapunzel fairy tale in Tangled to Pixar, Marvel and DreamWorks‘ distinctive brands and approaches. But, he added, none has a “silo mentality.”
 

MUMBAI: Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski lost his latest bid to be sentenced while outside the United States for having unlawful sex with a minor more than three decades ago.

Affirming the decision of a Los Angeles judge in January, a state appeals court ruled that the filmmaker must return to California before he can be sentenced and bring his 33-year-long legal saga to a close.

The director fled the United States for his native France in 1978 and is now fighting extradition from Switzerland.

The appellate panel found that Polanski “failed to demonstrate” that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza lacked the discretion to refuse his request to remain abroad while the case against him was concluded.

Denial of his appeal to be sentenced in absentia came shortly after the same court rejected a separate petition filed by the woman who was his victim at age 13 to have the case dismissed altogether.

Polanski pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor but fled the country before sentencing, fearing the judge would renege on a plea agreement limiting his punishment to 42 days he already had spent behind bars for psychiatric evaluation.

He has since lived as a fugitive in Europe, facing the prospect of arrest the moment he set foot back on U.S. soil while continuing his film career. In 2003, he won an Oscar for best director for the acclaimed Holocaust film The Pianist.

His latest film, The Ghost Writer won him the best director prize at the Berlin film festival in February.

MUMBAI: Despite objections from the Motion Picture Association of America and lawmakers from California and elsewhere, the Commodity Trading Futures Commission (CTFC) has approved a proposal by Media Derivatives Inc., of Scottsdale, Ariz. to open a futures exchange dedicated to trade movie futures. The CFTC had pushed its decision back several times because of the formidable opposition.

Media Derivatives Inc. is backed by Veriana Networks LLC, an investor in media-related businesses, also based in Scottsdale with an office in Chicago. The company intends to offer futures contracts on domestic box-office receipt later in the year. The company is dedicated to meeting the needs of the entertainment industry while allowing institutional investors to hedge investments in motion pictures. 

Another company applying to offer movie futures, Cantor Futures Exchange LP, also known as Cantor Exchange, is a new subsidiary of New York brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald. The exchange hopes to receive CFTC approval on Tuesday as a futures market and for its movie box-office futures contract that would begin trading at the end of the month.

Earlier this month, the Motion Picture Association of America, along with several large movie associations, wrote a forceful letter to the commission urging a rejection of the proposed online movie-futures wagering for Media Derivatives and Cantor Futures Exchange.

The letter asserted that the proposals of movie futures “are based on faulty understanding of the film industry and create a risk of rampant speculation and financial irresponsibility at a time when the nation is still seeking to recover from an economic meltdown of the financial markets.”

The opposition arguments are plentiful. Some critics assert there is no real commodity involved, while others claim that there isn‘t a standardized commodity. Traditionalists also claim that movie futures contracts would corrupt the market.
 

MUMBAI: The Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) has a new name Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF).

Festival authorities have launched Sanad, a film fund to support outstanding productions from the Arab region through grants totaling $500,000 every year.

The fund will provide grants in two categories – development and post-production for feature-length films and documentaries by filmmakers from the Arab world. Development grants will be up to US $20,000 while those for post-production will be up to US $60,000.

The selection committee will comprise of members of the Festival‘s programming and management teams along with highly qualified professionals from the film industry. With the aim of encouraging artistic innovation, the selection committee will seek out bold and remarkable projects from both new and established filmmakers.

As the first fund to be launched by a film festival with the specific aim of supporting filmmakers from across the Arab world, Sanad also aims to build stronger networks within the region‘s film industry.

“Sanad is a concrete way in which the festival can support the region‘s filmmakers in developing their own voices and taking their place in the international film community. There‘s an amazing amount of untapped and unrecognized creative potential in the Arab world and these grants are an important building block in the creation of a vibrant and viable cinema here, especially since they come with the kind of international opportunities and support we can offer,” said Peter Scarlet, the Festival‘s Executive Director.

Applications for the fund are now open until July 15 this year.