ITV

Category: Movies

  • ‘Mother‘ is Korea‘s Oscar entry

    MUMBAI: The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) has announced that the country‘s entry to the Oscars best foreign language film category would be Bong Joon-ho‘s mystery thriller Mother.

    The film features actress Kim Hye-ja as a mother in a rural village desperately trying to prove the innocence of her mentally-challenged son played by Won Bin when he is accused of murdering a high school girl.


    Besides Mother, KOFIC also included Park Chan-wook‘s vampire film Thirst, Yang Ik-june‘s domestic violence drama Breathless and Lee Chung-ryoul‘s cow documentary Old Partner.


    KOFIC‘s jury for the final Oscar submission comprised of five members included director Lee Myung-se, Screen International critic Darcy Paquet, and KOFIC commissioner and Jeonju IFFprogrammer Jung Soo-wan.

    The jury stated that they selected the film on the criteria of how appropriate it would be for the Oscars‘ foreign film category voters, whose previous choices were deemed “comparatively conservative”, the quality of the film, distribution capabilities in the US, and the profile of the director and film.

  • Alain Resnais’ ‘Wild Grass’ to open New York Film Festival

    MUMBAI: Alain Resnais‘ Wild Grass will open the 47th New York Film Festival while Pedro Almodovar‘s Broken Embraces will close the festival. Sony Pictures Classics holds domestic rights to both titles.

    Among the 29 films from 17 countries that would vie for a look up at the festival that would run from 25 September to 11 October, Lee Daniels‘ Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire will be the centre of attraction.


    Notable films to be shown at the festival include Von Trier‘s horror film Antichrist, Haneke‘s Palme d‘Or‘s The White Ribbon, Marco Bellocchio‘s Vincere and Bong Joon-ho‘s thriller Mother.


    Audiences will also get to see Catherine Breillat‘s fantasy Bluebeard, Todd Solondz‘s Happiness companion piece Life During Wartime and Clare Denis‘ White Material among others.


    Maren Ade with Everyone Else, Samuel Maoz with Lebanon, Joao Pedro Rodrigue with To Die Like A Man and Sabu with his Kanikosen will be among the first-time filmmakers to come to the festival.

  • Venice Film Festival lists 9 films for Persol 3-D award

    MUMBAI: The Venice Film Festival has declared the names of nine eligible films for the best stereoscopic 3-D film of the year for the upcoming Venice‘s new Persol 3-D award.The films selected are Eric Brevig‘s Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3-D, Rob Letterman and Conrad Veronon‘s Monsters Vs Aliens, Patrick Lussier‘s My Bloody Valentine, Aristomenis Tsirbas‘ Battle For Terra, Henry Selick‘s Coraline, Bruce Hendricks‘ Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, Carlos Saldanha‘s Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, Peter Docter‘s Up and the world premiere of Joe Dante‘s The Hole.

    Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov was the last named as member of the main competition jury that comprises of film historian David Kerr, critic Scott Foundas and Italian 3-D filmmaker Nadia Ranocchi. The award will be announced along with the other festival winners in the Sala Grande on 12 September.


    The Persol 3-D award category that comprises of 3-D films produced around the world between September 2008 and August 2009 aims to show in detail the wave of innovative 3-D filmmaking as well as the returned focus of watching films in traditional cinema settings.


  • Oscilloscope in DVD distribution deal with Milestone

    MUMBAI: US-based distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories has entered into an exclusive three-year DVD distribution deal with Milestone Films. With this, O-scope will get exclusive distribution rights to DVD releases of all DVD releases of The Milestone Cinematheque including future releases.
    Kent McKenzie‘s 1961 The Exiles, about twenty-something Native Americans in the 1950s who leave their reservation to move to Los Angeles. Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish and Tommy Reynolds star will see deal kicking off in November.

    Milliarium Zero, the sister company of Oscilloscope and Milestone‘s will also release the Mariposa Film Group‘s documentary of gay and lesbian identity titled Word Is Out: Stories Of Some Of Our Lives.


    Milestone‘s library includes films like Killer Of Sheep, I Am Cuba, The Sorrow And The Pity, Bon Voyage, and Winter Soldier.

  • Malayalam film set to premiere at Montreal film fest

    MUMBAI: The Montreal World Film Festival, which is kicking off on 27 August, will see the premiere of Malayalam film Kutty Srank (The Sailor of Hearts) on the opening day.

    The film will be screened in the “World Greats” section of the 12-day festival.



    Directed by noted filmmaker Shaji N Karun, the film revolves around a mariner (Srank) played by Malayalam superstar Mammootty. Kamalini Mukherjee, Padmapriya and Sri Lankan actress Meenakumari are playing lead female artiste in the movie.



    Kutty Srank is a short-tempered, lonely, but law-abiding boatman whose work leads him to travel the back waters of Kerala. One day, when the local police station discovers an unidentified body washed ashore, three women come forward claiming it to be the dead body of Kutty Srank. Each of the three women – a rich women aspiring to be a Buddhist nun, a convict, and a mute – claim to be Srank‘s wife.


    Director Shaji N Karun is coming back after a long pause with this film, and he tells the story of the mariner and his voyages through the eyes of the three women.


    Kutty Srank is produced by Reliance Big Picture and Mega production house in Malayalam, and will be released later in India.

  • Big Entertainment signs Chris Columbus for ‘The Last Campaign’

    MUMBAI: Filmmaker Chris Columbus, director of Harry Potter1 and Harry Potter 2 has been signed by Big Entertainment to direct its forthcoming English venture titled The Last Campaign. Incidentally, Columbus has also been the man behind Home Alone 1 and Home Alone 2.

    The film based on Thurston Clarke‘s best-selling novel The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days that Inspired America shows all about Robert F. Kennedy‘s 1968 presidential campaign.


    Though the pre-production of the film titled The Last Campaign is on in full swing, no actors have yet been signed for the project.


    This will be the first-ever Hollywood venture to be produced by an Indian corporate.


    Recently, Reliance has been in talks with Steven Spielberg to be a partner in his production company Dreamworks.

  • Teen Choice award for Britney Spears

    MUMBAI: At the 2009 Teen Choice Awards held on Sunday last, Britney Spears was presented with the ‘Ultimate Choice Awards‘ the highest of honours of the awards.
    The singer had been all but written off two years ago after a series of bizarre incidents, legal entanglements was magnified when an out-of-sorts, out-of-shape Spears gave a lackluster performance in Gimme More at the 2007 MTV Music Awards.

    Miley Cyrus, who presented the singer with the award remarked, “She‘s a good friend of the family, so I‘m just happy to finally show everyone that she‘s back, and she never went anywhere. She‘s had a successful career, I‘m proud of her and both of us being Southern girls, I love that.”

  • MercuryMedia to partner Microcinema to distribute films internationally

    MUMBAI: San Francisco-based Microcinema International has partnered with London-based MercuryMedia to distribute some of its titles in Europe, Australia and Asia.
    The first feature under the deal is documentary Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup. Mercury will also offer the film on its video-on-demand service joining thedocs.tv. The latest instalment in the Loose Change series looks at suspicious events following 9/11.

    Said MercuryMedia chief executive Tim Sparke, “It is a tremendous privilege to be working with Microcinema and it‘s fantastic that our first title should be about a subject which continues to resonate and arouses such passion.

    “We are confident that there is an untapped European and Austral-Asian markets for Microcinema‘s fantastic catalogue which we are eager to offer to our appreciative client base.”

  • Movie-Eye, Japan files for bankruptcy

    MUMBAI: Japanese producer-distributor Movie-Eye Entertainment which is also distributor of Oscar-winning films like Crash and Million Dollar Baby has filed for bankruptcy, it is reportedly learnt.It is said that Movie-Eye increased its spend on films in anticipation of becoming a listed company last year but the global slowdown, the recession in Japan and under-performing box-office led to losses of $45m (Y4.29b).

    Established in April 2000 and headed by former Gaga Said MercuryMedia chief executive Tim Sparke, “It is a tremendous privilege to be working with Microcinema and it‘s fantastic that our first title should be about a subject which continues to resonate and arouses such passion.

    “We are confident that there is an untapped European and Austral-Asian markets for Microcinema‘s fantastic catalogue which we are eager to offer to our appreciative client base.”


  • NFDC to trim staff in move to turn profitable

    NEW DELHI: The National Film Development Corporation, which expects to turn into a profit-making body by 2012-13, hopes to reduce its manpower by 30 employees in the near future in a move to cut costs.


    The Corporation had in December 2008 reduced its manpower to 139, after offering Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to 70 employees by paying them Rs 70 million. This has resulted in an annual saving of Rs 20 million.



    The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has given the NFDC a grant-in-aid of Rs 120 million for VRS.



    Launched in May 1975 with a corpus of Rs 30 million in 300,000 equity shares of Rs 100 each, NFDC got an additional share capital of Rs 35 million when the Film Finance Corporation and the Indian Motion Pictures Export Corporation were merged into it in 1980.


    NFDC presently has an authorised capital of Rs 140 million and a paid-up capital of Rs 139.9 million. It has recently been given a fresh equity of Rs 212.3 million and has been allowed conversion of its working capital into equity.



    Ministry sources also told indiantelevision.com that the interest on Rs 57.4 million on working capital loan has been waived. It has also been given Rs 200 million as preferential equity for restoration and digitisation of NFDC films, and a sum of Rs 300 million has been set aside in the Eleventh Plan for production of films in various regional languages.



    The government released Rs 65 million in 2008-09 and a provision of Rs 65 million has been made for 2009-10 for financing films in regional languages.



    The NFDC had in 1992 also launched a trust in the name of Cine Artistes Welfare Fund of India with a corpus of Rs 48.9 million, which presently stands at Rs 63.6 million. Just under 1000 cine artistes have availed pension and other benefits and around 450 are doing so at present.



    NFDC has so far produced or financed over 300 films which include 17 international co-productions, the most prominent being ‘Gandhi’ which won eight Oscars including one for Indian costume designer Bhanu Athaiya.



    The NFDC showed a loss of Rs 92.549 million in 2003-04, which came down to Rs 38.674 million a year later. The Corporation showed profit of Rs 24.815 million in 2005-06 but again ran into a loss at Rs 50.56 million and Rs 22.76 million in 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively.