ITV

Category: Movies

  • Last Train Home clinches top IDFA prize

    MUMBAI: Lixin Fan‘s Last Train Home annexed the main prize at the 22nd International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). The festival closed on 28 November 28.


    The film, that won the VPRO IDFA Award for best feature documentary, is the tale about the gruelling journey undertaken each year by migrant Chinese workers returning to their family homes in remote and impoverished rural villages.


    On the other hand, Dutch director John Appel‘s The Player won the inaugural IDFA Award for best Dutch documentary.


    A special jury award went to the US documentary, The Most Dangerous Man In America. The documentary is set in the early 70s and tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg, a young analyst in the US Department of Defence, who turned against the Vietnam War and leaked top secret 7000 page document to The New York Times by the Pentagon Papers.


    Other winners included Louie Psihoyos‘ The Cove and Ross McDonnell and Carter Gunn‘s Colony that won The First Appearance Award.


    Veteran US documentary maker Fred Wiseman picked up the festival‘s first Living Legend award.

  • LFCC names Apocalypse Now as best film in 30 years

    MUMBAI: The London Critics‘ Circle (LFCC) has voted Francis Ford Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now as the best film in the last 30 years.


    The film, that has won a slew of awards and nominations since its release in 1979, was chosen as the clear favourite in the poll.


    Apocalypse Now ranked way ahead of Schindler‘s List, The Lives of Others, Unforgiven and Brokeback Mountain.


    LFCC chairman Jason Solomons praised the Coppola‘s film as a “worthy winner,” going by its anti-war message that is relevant even today as it was 30 years ago.


    The 30th annual London Film Critics‘ Circle Awards will take place on 18 February and benefit the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).
     


     

  • Silverman in a new role at Warner Bros

    MUMBAI: Greg Silverman has been elevated to the newly created position of executive vice-president of creative development and production at Warner Bros.


    Effective January 1, next year, Silverman will assume full oversight of development activities and budget and seek out fresh opportunities to diversify the slate. He will report to Warner Bros Pictures Group president Jeff Robinov.


    Previously served Silverman as executive vice-president of production and contributed to the making of The Hangover, 300 and The Dark Knight, among others, as well as such upcoming releases as Inception from Christopher Nolan and Sucker Punch from Zack Synder.


    Silverman initially joined Warner Bros in 1999 as a junior production executive, then left for Revolution Studios as senior vice-president of production before returning to Warner Bros in 2002 as vice-president of production. He was promoted to senior vice-president of production in 2004 and then executive vice-president of production in 2006.
     

  • Breathless laps up top prize at Tokyo Filmex

    MUMBAI: Director Yang Ik-june‘s Breathless won the grand prize and $11,560 (1million Yen) and the audience award at the tenth Tokyo Filmex that ran from 21-29 November.


    The film was singled out by a competition jury headed by Japanese director Yoichi Sai. The prizes add to previous accolades including major awards at Rotterdam, the New York Asian Film Festival and Montreal‘s Fantasia.


    Yang made his feature directorial debut on Breathless. He stars as a brutal loan shark who bonds with a female high school student enduring an abusive household. The film is set for a domestic release in March 2010 through Bitters End.


    The special jury prize and $8,000 in Kodak colour film stock went to Bahman Ghobadi‘s No One Knows About Persian Cats.


    For its tenth anniversary Tokyo Filmex had as many as 61 titles in its line-up including a retrospective on French director Jean-Pierre Melville and a concurrent Korean Film Showcase.
     

  • Deepak Segal joins Sahara One as head of motion pictures

    MUMBAI: Deepak Segal, former Fox Television Studios India head, has joined Sahara One Motion Pictures.


    “Segal has taken charge as head of Sahara One Motion Pictures from today,” says a Sahara official.


    Segal will head Sahara‘s movie production arm. He has taken the position which was vacant after Gayatri Singh left the company a couple of months back.


    Segal had quit the TV production house Fox Studios two months back.


    Sahara One Media and Entertainment COO posistion is still lying vacant following the exit of Sanjay Chitale.

  • Fame Cinemas unleashes online campaign

    MUMBAI: Fame Cinemas has launched an online campaign, ‘Decode To Win,‘ for its valuable patrons booking their tickets through its official website, www.famecinemas.com.


    Through this initiative, every customer buying tickets would get an assured gift that include Holiday Packages, Spa Vouchers, Jewellery Vouchers, Gym Vouchers, Bluetooth Speakers and much more.


    States Fame Cinemas Vice President- Technology and VAS Arshad Kazi, “We are proud to launch ‘Decode To Win‘, the main objective behind which is to incentivise the customer who is booking on our website as 30 per cent of our ticket bookings happen online. With the introduction of this campaign, we anticipate an increase in the same as more people will book their tickets through our website. We are aiming to get a minimum of 50,950 transactions through this campaign.”
     

  • Paa set to release in 700 screens worldwide

    MUMBAI: Paa, an AB Corp presentation in association with Reliance Big Pictures, is set to cast an ‘Auro‘ spell when it releases in 700 screens worldwide on 4 December.
    Reliance Big Pictures will release the film in 20 countries worldwide including India, UK, US, Canada, UAE, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and many others.


    The film has followed a week-on-week 360 degree marketing and promotion campaign that kick-started with an innovative teaser and progressed to a novel and eye-catching promotion in multiplexes with Auro‘s on-screen photo slides that read ‘Please stand up for the national anthem or else I will tell my Paa‘, ‘Please switch off your mobile phone or else I will tell my Paa‘ and ‘Don‘t dirty the theatre or I‘ll tell my Paa‘ poster on trash cans.


    There have been a couple of promotions that have been pressed into operation.
    Idea Cellular has tied up with Paa for an activity-based on ‘Talk to Auro‘ concept, wherein callers can leave messages for Auro on an Idea number and in return receive calls from Auro on a pre-determined date. This will be promoted through a co-branded TV advertisement. Apart from this, ring back tones in Auro‘s voice and other value-added services too are available on the network.


    Bajaj Allianz has tied up with the film for an integrated TV advertisement on ‘Child Plans‘ that has been interspersed with the film‘s promos and is currently on air on 24 prime television channels.


    On November 14, Paa‘s TV promos carried a special message wishing all viewers Happy Children‘s Day and a mall activation invited father‘s with their children for day-long fun-filled activities.


    Big FM is on board as the film‘s radio partner. To maintain the essence of the central character, the 13-year-old Auro has been speaking as himself to all radio and TV interactions while Abhishek Bachchan has been dressing up in his Paa get- up of a white kurta pyjama for all media interactions.

  • New Moon maintains No.1 position at US box-office

    MUMBAI: Summit Entertainment, that distributed New Moon in the US, must be very happy, for its film maintained its number one position at the US box-office with a record collection of $190 million.


    The Chris Weitz directed film remained on top for the second consecutive weekend in spite of a 70 per cent plunge from its opening weekend receipts. New Moon roped in an additional $42.5 million this weekend and crossed the $200 million mark last Friday, exceeding the total gross of 2008‘s Twilight that amassed $192.8 million.


    Said Summit Entertainment president, domestic distribution, Richie Fay, “It‘s been a real snowball effect – once the midnight showing numbers came in, we kind of knew what we had.”


    On the No. 2 spot was Sandra Bullock‘s The Blind Side that recorded a rise of 17 per cent to $40.1 million. Warner Bros. distribution chief Dan Fellman said, “Due to the sensational opening of New Moon, 70 per cent of the audience of the film‘s opening-weekend were older than 25. But this weekend, the young people came flocking in.”

  • This Is It on DVD, Blu-ray disc on 26 January

    MUMBAI: Michael Jackson documentary This I s It is set for release on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 26 January.


    The film has garnered $71 million in the US box-office since its release on 28 October.


    Both the DVD and high-definition versions of the documentary will include several mini-docs and other special features. Blu-ray Discs also will include two versions each of the Jackson music videos Smooth Criminal and Thriller.


    While the DVD of This Is It will have a price tag of $28.96, the Blu-ray version will cost $39.95. Along with, a PlayStation portable disc is also planned, at $24.94.

  • Warner in plans for Clint Eastwood DVD collection

    MUMBAI: Warner Home Video is in plans to bring out a Clint Eastwood DVD collection.


    The collection contains Eastwood films from Where Eagles Dare till last year‘s Gran Torino. The collection will also carry a feature documentary on the filmmaker by Time magazine critic and film historian Richard Schickel.


    “I‘ve known Clint for most of the time he‘s been at Warner Bros.,” Schickel said. “I was fortunate to be able to wander around the Warner lot with him and hear his reminiscences. To be able to show him in the places where he works and lives and feels most comfortable is, I think, a unique opportunity.”


    “I‘ve known Clint for most of the time he‘s been at Warner Bros.,” Schickel said. “I was fortunate to be able to wander around the Warner lot with him and hear his reminiscences. To be able to show him in the places where he works and lives and feels most comfortable is, I think, a unique opportunity.”


    The collection includes films in which Eastwood has acted, acted and directed, or helmed. Other materials in the box set include a biographical booklet.


    Priced at $179.98, the 19-disc ‘Clint Eastwood: 35 Films, 35 Years at Warner Bros.‘ is set to hit the circuit on 16 February.