Category: International

MUMBAI: Samson & Delilah has won the best film award in the feature category at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), held on 26 November at the Gold Coast.

The directors of two other films that were best film nominees – Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi and Israeli filmmaker Eliz Sulieman – shared the grand jury prize for About Elly and The Time That Remains.

The grand jury prize is awarded at the discretion of the judges. Farhadi was also acknowledged for his screenplay.
A fourth best film nominee out of the five selected, City Of Life And Death from China, earned Lu Chuan the top prize in the category for directing.

Other significant award winners included best animated film Mary & Max, from Australia, and best children‘s film, A Brand New Life, from Korea. Producer Lee Chang-dong won the best feature award in the first APSA ceremony with Secret Sunshine.

MUMBAI: UK-based documentary distributor MercuryMedia has appointed Simon Shaps, the former director of television at British broadcaster ITV as its chairman.

Shaps will take up the newly-created position in January next year. The company‘s board already includes chief executive Tim Sparke, who founded MercuryMedia in 2000 and Nick Ware, managing director of MercuryMedia‘s video-on-demand channel joiningthedocs.tv.

Shaps left ITV in May last year after three years in office. Previously he was the chief executive of ITV‘s global production and distribution business. He has been working with a number of media companies since leaving the broadcaster.

Said Shaps, “Tim and the team have done an impressive job in creating one of the very few VOD businesses that is up and running with paying customers. I am genuinely excited by the potential of joiningthedocs.tv and Mercury.”

MUMBAI: The fourth edition of this festival, which will take place on the 18, 19 and 20 December in De Fabriek in Zaandam (the Netherlands) will not only look back at the events of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but will also focus on Iran‘s current situation.

The festival will track the development of Iran in the 30 years since the establishment of the Islamic Republic through documentaries, short films and interviews with international guests.

For instance, the audience can relive the hostage-crisis in Tehran‘s U.S. embassy in 1979 with Mohammad Shirvani‘s documentary 444-day Face-off (2008), or can choose to join president Ahmadinejad as he tours around the country in Letters to the President (Petr Lom, 2009). 

Through two short films, attention is also given to the protests that followed Iran‘s presidential elections in June, which gave rise to the enormous Green Movemet.

The upcoming edition of the Iranian Film Festival also creates room for young film talents. Novice directors will be invited to present their work in a special short-film competition, led by a professional jury including Kees Driessen, Floortje Smit, Bart Groenendaal, Jankees Boer and Mostafa Heravi.

MUMBAI: The Coca-Cola Zero brand of the Coca-Cola Company has entered into a partnership with Twentieth Century Fox for a major global promotional campaign for James Cameron‘s epic-adventure film Avatar.

Set to be activated in over 30 countries, the partnership centers on bringing consumers unique access to exclusive and authentic content from the world of Avatar in a variety of exciting ways.

Said The Coca-Cola Company Worldwide Entertainment Marketing Director Chip York, “Avatar shares the same aspirational, edgy and unconventional brand values as Coca-Cola Zero.

“Working so closely with the studio and filmmakers has allowed us to create authentic and exclusive content that provides fans‘ unique access into the world, deepening their AVATAR experience.” 

Special AR enabled Coke Zero packaging featuring the AVTR mark will provide consumers with an immersive Avatar-related experience. Through the use of AR technology – a web based application that enables the user to interact with 3D motion graphics – Coke Zero consumers will be able to maneuver a Samson helicopter, a vehicle featured in the movie.

Users can unlock the AR experience in a number of ways including holding a promotional pack in front of a webcam, accessing the experience at AVTR.com or taking a picture of the AVTR mark or Coca-Cola Zero logo from some camera phones.

Once unlocked, consumers can use a computer keyboard to trigger different actions including; shooting a missile, maneuvering the rotors of the helicopter and shooting its guns. AVTR.com will include a call-to-action telling the visitor to use one of the activating symbols against their webcam to initiate the experience.

MUMBAI: Philippe Lioret‘s Welcome is the winner of the 2009 European Parliament LUX Film Prize after having received a majority of European Parliamentarians‘ votes.

Worth around $131,000 (€87,000), the prize will help in the subtitling of the film in all 23 of the European Union‘s official languages, including the adaptation of the original version for visually- or hearing-impaired people and also the production of a 35-mm print or a contribution to the DVD release for every EU member state.

Set in Calais, France, Welcome tells the story of a swimming instructor who chooses to help out a young Kurdish refugee who needs to swim across the English Channel to join his girlfriend. It is produced by Christophe Rossignon of France‘s Nord-Ouest Productions.

The LUX Prize is awarded annually by the European Parliament for fiction or animation films illustrating or questioning the founding values of European identity, revealing Europe‘s cultural diversity or providing insights into the EU integration debate.

This year‘s finalists, along with Welcome, were Kamen Kalev‘s Eastern Plays (Bulg-Swe) and Hans Christian-Schmid‘s Sturm (Ger-Den-Neth).
 

MUMBAI: UK distribution outfit Galaxy Pictures‘ debut feature Psych 9 will be the first film released theatrically.

The $4m supernatural thriller set in an abandoned hospital and starring Sara Foster, Cary Elwes, Michael Biehn, and Gabriel Mann will roll-out across 30 digital screens in the UK on 5 February.

Galaxy is handling international sales and will be selling Psych 9 at the European Film Market in Berlin.

Universal Pictures UK has acquired UK home entertainment rights of the film through its indi VISION label.

MUMBAI: After the Swiss Criminal Court granted him a $4.5m bail on 25 November, filmmaker Roman Polanski will leave prison and return to his Swiss chalet immediately.

He is considered to be a high flight risk by the authorities and will remain under electronic tagging, effectively placing him under house at his Alpine residence.

The 76-year-old Polanski will stay in Switzerland while authorities take a decision whether to extradite him to the US to face a court in connection to a series of charges that go back to 1997.

Polanksi‘s lawyers requested for a cash bail against his Paris apartment. It is understood that the LA County district attorney‘s office didn‘t want to comment on the development.

Polanski was arrested and taken into custody by Swiss authorities on 26 September after he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award.

Polanski is understood to have been working from prison on The Ghost that is set to have its world premiere in Berlin in February next.

MUMBAI: After entering into a deal, MGM has begun posting TV episodes and full-length movies to YouTube from Monday, it is learnt. However, the content would be very limited.

As per the deal, MGM will partake of YouTube‘s Video ID copyright protection system and may, in some cases, elect to leave pirated clips up alongside advertising that provides revenue to MGM.

The initial offering will include the old-school version of American Gladiators, action movies like Bulletproof Monk and The Magnificent Seven, and clips from popular movies such as Legally Blonde. 

MGM already has a YouTube channel – which says the studio has actually been a member of the site since October 2005. As of Sunday evening, the channel only has three pieces of content, all trailers of Valkyrie posted in the last month or so. Also, for now, the channel allows embeds (many other major media companies disable them).

Hulu also offers MGM content, and has done so ever since it initially came out last year. One of MGM‘s largest shareholders, Providence Equity Partners, also ponied up Hulu‘s $100 million in outside funding.

Insiders say that other studios that might start posting full-length content on YouTube soon include Time Warner and Sony.

MUMBAI: Mariah Carey will receive the breakthrough performance award at the 21st Palm Springs International Film Festival in January. She will receive the award at the 21st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival.

The singer-and-actress will receive the coveted honour in recognition of her portrayal of a dowdy social worker in Precious.

Said Festival chairman Harold Matzner, “We‘re delighted to be able to present the Breakthrough Performance Award to the extraordinary, very beautiful and versatile Mariah Carey, who, in a critically acclaimed role, completely transformed herself from a glamorous music icon to a forthright social worker for the role of Ms. Weiss in Precious.”

Earlier winners of the prize include Jennifer Hudson, Marion Cotillard and Freida Pinto, who all went on to win an Oscar for their performances.

MUMBAI: Joana Vicente will serve as interim executive director of IFP after Michelle Byrd stepped down from her chair after 16 years.

Vicente currently serves on the board of IFP and is part of the executive search committee to replace Byrd.She will take over as executive director effective 1 December and work with Byrd throughout the month of to ensure a smooth transition. 

She will remain interim executive director until the search committee finds a permanent replacement. During this time she will manage the IFP, continue fundraising efforts, and develop and implement key elements of the body‘s strategic plan.

Said IFP board chairman Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, “Michelle has been with the organization for 16 years and filling her shoes has proven to be a Herculean task.

“Her long standing commitment to and intimate knowledge of IFP, as well as her business, film, and non-profit experience makes her an extremely qualified candidate for the position.”