Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Taiwan will showcase work of renowned Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman from 28 November in Taipei.

In total, 15 Bergman‘s classics will be shown in the festival, including early films never screened in Taiwan.

Taiwan film and culture association director-general and director Hou Hsiao-Hsien said that Begman films conveyed the theme of detachment but in different methods.

The film festival is organised by the Council for Cultural Affairs of the Executive Yuan and sponsored by the TFCA.

Hou said that although not every Bergman’s film would be screened in the festival, the collection of 15 films in total was still a rare opportunity since the film copies had been difficult to retrieve.

MUMBAI: Fashion, co-produced by UTV Motion Pictures and Madhur Bhandarkar, has claimed to garner Rs 336 million in its first week of release at the worldwide box office.

Released worldwide on 29 October in 750 theaters, the Priyanka Chopra starrer has already earned Rs 90 million from in-film advertisements and co-promotions alone.

The film is made on a budget of Rs 180- Rs 200 million.

UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur said, “Fashion has surpassed all expectations with the sort of business it has achieved in just a week of release, coupled with the critical acclaim it has generated in India and around the world.

“It has shattered the myth that a heroine oriented film cannot do the sort of business that a movie with a male protagonist can. The success of Fashion is testament to what can be achieved when you bring together a visionary director, a talented cast and crew, a compelling script, great production values, aggressive marketing and a sound distribution strategy.”

MUMBAI: Golmaal Returns, the comedy film by Shree Asthavinayak Cine Vision, is being accused of infringement of copyright act by Shakuntala Bhatia, the owner of Kiron Production.

Bhatia has filed a complaint against the producers of Golmaal Returns with the Indian Motion Picture Producers‘ Association (IMPPA). In her plea, Bhatia has alleged that the film directed by Rohit Shetty is a direct copy of 1973 release Aaj Ki Taza Khabar, starring Kiran Kumar, Radha Saluja and Asrani, which was produced by her husband Rajendra Bhatia.

Bhatia claimed that she was in process of re-making Aaj Ki Taza Khabar herself and has demanded a compensation of Rs 50 million from the producers of Golmaal Returns.

Golmaal Returns starring Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Arshad Warsi, Celina Jaitley, and Amrita Arora, was released on 29 October.

MUMBAI: The first Eastern Neighbours film festival is scheduled from 6-9 November at Utrecht in the Netherlands. The film festival, with the aim to promote the films and culture of Eastern European countries, will showcase over 30 films.

The festival will have movies, short films, documentries and short-films from 14 different countries.

As per the film festival’s artistic director Rada Šešic, the intention if this festival is to showcase the region’s cinema, which is “modern in cinematic style and appealing for the world audience” while at the same time having kept its unique “Eastern European black humour” and “Eastern European sense of storytelling”; to allow the Dutch to get acquainted with its neighbours some of which have already joined the EU (Bulgaria and Romania) and some of which will in the future; and to broaden the Dutch audience’s “knowledge and mind about Muslims and their culture” through films from Balkan countries that have significant Muslim population, such as Bosnia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Albania, and Kosovo.

The films will be from Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, Russia, Moldova and Belorussia. Some of the films to be screened are: Shadows, Upside Down, Magic Eye, Corridor#8, Das Fräulein and Plastic Jesus.

MUMBAI: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Anand Sharma held the first meeting of the organising committee of the 39th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in New Delhi. The meeting was to review the arrangements for the festival which will begin on 22 November in Goa.

In his note, Sharma said that Indian cinema over the years has attracted global attention, and events like IFFI-2008 should serve as a platform to evoke greater interest of global audience. The event should be mutually enriching for visiting delegates from International film arena and the Indian film industry.

The minister also announced that 200 seats will be reserved for delegates from the film fraternity to ensure their larger presence at the opening night at Panji.

Additionally, a system of daily registration has been introduced to enable the local film buffs to register themselves on daily basis by paying Rs 100 and watch three films of their choice from the Indian section.

Over 5000 delegates, from India and abroad, are expected to attend the festival, which will have cinema of the world, competition section, foreign retrospective, film heritage section, and Indian retrospective besides Indian panorama as major attraction.

This time there are three country focuses – Russia, Switzerland and Iran.

A Film Bazaar will be organised by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) on the sidelines of IFFI-2008. The Film Bazaar aims at creating opportunities for networking and business for producers, filmmakers and distributors from across the world.

MUMBAI: Gearing up for the release of Bond‘s next flick Quantum of Solace’s on 7 November in India, Excel Home Video has launched a Bond extravaganza DVD collection.

The offering includes a DVD box set collection of all the 21 Bond films on to two-disc edition set along with bonus features. This is the first time that all the 21 Bond movies will be seen together in one collection, priced at Rs 12,000.

Presented on two-disc special (ultimate) edition DVDs spanning 42 discs, this will also grant access to “Bond archives, 40 hours of documentaries, featurettes, commentary by directors, interviews of the cast and crew.”

In addition, the box also offers exclusive ‘collectables’ that include poker chips and playing cards as seen in the last Daniel Craig starrer Casino Royale.

Says Excel Home Video CEO Roby Abraham, “The Bond box set includes all the fast-paced adventures, high-performance sports cars, futuristic gadgets, narrow escapes, explosive battles, a bevy of brazen bond girls and other intoxicating ingredients that comprise the ultimate spy character. As this set encompasses the entire bond legacy, it’s a mega-collection that is a must-own for all bond fans whether their favorite 007 is Sir Sean Connery, Sir Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig.”

In addition to the box set, the vanilla one-disc DVDs will also be available individually at Rs 299 each as part of the bond bonanza. The offer is valid till 31 December ony.

The films in this offer include Dr No, Diamonds Are Forever, From Russia With Love, You Only Live Twice, For Your Eyes Only, On Her Majesty‘s Secret Service, A View To A Kill, Goldfinger, Goldeneye, Thunder Ball, License To Kill, Live And Let Die, Octopussy, Die Another Day, Moonraker, The Man With The Golden Gun, The Living Daylights, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day and Casino Royale.

MUMBAI: Secret agent James Bond’s franchise movie Quantum of Solace has broken all box-office records in oversees markets where it released two-weeks prior to the US launch. The movie has broken the British record for a Friday opening.

According to distributors Sony, the 22nd Bond Film has managed to collect $7.99 million (?4.9 million) at UK cinemas on Friday, 31 October. It has smashed the previous record of $6.52 million (?4.025 million), set by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

For the weekend, Daniel Craig’s movie has grabbed 70 per cent of the UK box office collections, amounting to $25.1 million (?15.5 million).

The movie has made $38.6 million (?23.6 million) at 2,123 screenings in the UK, France and Sweden.

The movie will be released in 57 other markets this weekend including India, Germany, Italy and Russia. It is slated to release in US on 14 November.

NEW DELHI: France is the focus country and a total of around 140 feature and short films from over 40 countries are to be screened at the 4th India International Women Film Festival, scheduled to be held here from 7 December.

The eight-day festival which concludes on 14 December will relate to women empowerment, where women are being showcased not just as objects of visual pleasure but behind the camera.

Tributes will be paid to seven Indian women filmmakers: Arundhati Devi, Manju Dey, Sai Paranjpye, Aparna Sen, Kalpana Lajmi, Vijaya Mehta and Prema Karanth.

Hollywood actress Cassandra Gava and Faye Dunway (Oscar Winning Actress) and Bollywood actresses Juhi Chawla and Tanushree Dutta have confirmed participation to encourage women directors and join hands with the IIWFF Slogan “Women Behind the Camera”.

Many celebrities including actress and director Aparna Sen, Madhavi Mukhrjee, filmmaker Nabyendu Chaterjee, painters Jogen Chowdhory and Subha Prasanno are also expected to be present.

According to Festival Director Shymali Banerjee, the Festival has the support of the Union Ministries of Information and Broadcasting, Culture, and External Affairs, and the Government of Delhi NCT. The Associate Partners who have confirmed so far include Sahara India, Asian Academy of Film and Television, 1Take Movie.COM, Times of India, Radio Mirchi, and Zee TV.

The programme this year includes Competition –World Cinema (Feature), Competition (Documentary), Indian Panorama, Retrospective, Kinder Films, Joint Hands, Focus Institute, Male Voice, and Short Films (Out of Competition).

IIWFF is launching a Talent campus this year, which is a platform for amateur filmmakers to conquer the real reel experiences from internationally acclaimed filmmakers. The 2008 Talent Campus will include certain smoldering issues in the field of World Cinema, and will be in the form of Seminars, Workshops and Guest Lectures, and a specially designed programme ’24 Hrs Filmmaking Competition’ which is also a Part of Talent Campus. The top two films will be awarded in the Closing Ceremony and all films will be exhibited on the last day of the festival. Each candidate will be given a Certificate of Recommendation.

The film festival ambience will include a film lounge, seminars, Face to Face, Painting Exhibitions, Open Forums and Cultural Programmes.

MUMBAI: Imagenation Abu Dhabi, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media Company, has signed a $250 million financing deal with Ashok Amritraj‘s Hollywood-based Hyde Park Entertainment.

As per the deal, Hyde Park Entertainment will get the financial support to develop, produce and distribute feature films. The agreement aims to create up to 20 films over seven years and will include additional financing for the production of local language and cross-cultural films.

Hyde Park Entertainment will also establish its regional headquarters at ‘Two Four 54,’ the recently unveiled free media zone in Abu Dhabi.

Hyde Park Entertainment chairman and CEO Ashok Amritraj said, “We intend to produce films that stretch from Hollywood to Asia, enabling us to foster a better understanding between the West, the Middle East and Asia.”

Imagenation Abu Dhabi chairman Mohamed Khalaf Al-Mazrouei added, “Abu Dhabi‘s investment with international media partners is putting the Emirate in the global spotlight at a critical time for the movie industry. Through partnerships like this one with Hyde Park, we can create feature films which open a window on Middle Eastern and Asian culture, enabling audiences around the world to look in and appreciate the region‘s rich and increasingly dynamic heritage.”

In addition to its Abu Dhabi headquarter, Hyde Park‘s LA base will provide a front office function. Hyde Park‘s EVP Patrick Aiello will supervise creative affairs for the partnership, while newly named President of Hyde Park International Mimi Steinbauer will handle foreign sales for pictures produced by the company. Imagenation Abu Dhabi CFO Stefan Brunner will oversee the financial aspects of the joint venture.

MUMBAI: Mukta Arts has posted a net profit of Rs 10.68 million for the quarter ended 30 September 2008, as against Rs 5.86 million in the same prior-year period.

The company’s income from operations has increased to Rs 346.43 million, versus Rs 232.59 million for the same quarter last year.

Total expenditure has seen a jump to stand at Rs 339.18 million in the second quarter, as compared to Rs 211.98 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.