ITV

Category: Movies

  • Christopher Harris’ film to screen at Rotterdam Film Fest

    MUMBAI: UCF Film Professor Christopher Harris‘experimental film,28.IV.81 (Bedouin Spark) will screen at the 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam that will be underway from 27 January to 7 February.


    The film is the first instalment of an ongoing series of films collectively titled The Angle of Dust. The series is dedicated to poet Nathaniel Mackey and inspired by a volume of his prose composition, “Bedouin Hornbook.” Each film in the series is a single 100-foot roll of film that is edited in-camera and improvised as it is shot.


    The International Film Festival Rotterdam offers a quality selection of worldwide independent, innovative and experimental cinema, as well as a series of film-related visual arts exhibitions and live performances.


    The festival is devoted to actively supporting independent filmmaking from around the globe. During the festival, hundreds of filmmakers and other artistes will present their work to audiences at 24 screening venues located within central Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

  • Lola wins best film award at Dubai fest

    MUMBAI: Philippine director Brillante Mendoza won the Muhr Africa/Asia Award as the 6th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) drew to a close on 16 December.


    Mendoza bagged the award for Lola, his tale of two grandmothers dealing with the consequences of murder, Iran‘s Mohammad Rasoulof took the special jury prize for San Sebastian title White Meadows.


    Michel Khlefi‘s won the Muhr Arab Award for Zindeeq, a bleak drama about a Palestinian film-maker returning to a devastated Ramallah in 1948. It received a mixed response from local film critics, the jury, led by Algerian director Ahmed Rachedi, described the drama as “a very inspiring work”.


    Meanwhile, one of the festival‘s standout titles Harragas besides winning a special jury prize, also took the FIPRESCI prize and the Human Rights Film Network Award.

  • 4-screen Cinepolis plex to launch with Avatar in Amritsar

    MUMBAI: India‘s first international film exhibitor, Cinépolis India has announced the opening of its four-screen multiplex at Advance India Project Ltd.‘s Celebration Mall on Batala Road in Amritsar.


    The first screen of Cinépolis would be launched with James Cameron‘s science fiction Avatar. The film features amazing and first of its kind 3-D special effects which can be seen in Cinepolis theatre-the only such theatre equipped to show 3-D content in the state.


    The cinemas would feature state-of-the-art technology including the first fully digital and Digital 3-D enabled auditoriums in Punjab.


    Speaking on the occasion, Cinépolis The Cinepolis plex would be the first multiplex theatre of the city and would offer a world-class film-viewing experience to the people of Amritsar.


    Said India managing director and country head Milan Saini, “We are excited to open our first multiplex in the country in this great city of Amritsar. With a world class product and a promise to win the hearts and minds of our patrons, we would like to become the #1 entertainment option for the city.”


    “For this historic launch, we are pleased to partner with AIPL, one of the country‘s premier real estate developers. We will work collaboratively with them to make Celebrations Mall, a true venue of celebration for the people of Amritsar,” Saini added.


    Cinépolis‘ popular services would include advanced technology enabled mobile and internet ticketing with ‘Cineticket‘, gourmet food and beverage offerings with ‘Coffee Tree‘ and its internet portal that has won numerous awards as being the industry‘s best.


    The Cinepolis experience comes at an affordable price spectrum that ranges from Rs.80 to Rs 160.

  • Big Home Video launches home video of Wake Up Sid

    MUMBAI: Big Home Video has launched the home video of Dharma Production‘s Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Wake Up Sid.


    Says Big Music and Home Entertainment CEO Kulmeet Makkar, “Wake Up Sid is one of the rare movies that is a combination of commercial success and critical acclaim and we are proud to be associated with it.


    The film‘s concept, direction, screenplay, music and indeed all other technical aspects are among the finest. With our pan-India distribution network we ensure that our products reach the right audience. We are sure that the Wake Up Sid home video, with its exclusive and special features will make it a true collector‘s copy.”


    Apart from the film, the disc is full of exclusive, never-before-seen content. It contains specials like ‘making of the movie‘, ‘making of iktara‘, ‘making of life is crazy‘, ‘making of Wake Up Sid, ‘making of Kya Karoon‘, ‘Wake Up Sid (remix) music video‘, ‘making of Wake Up Sid remix video‘, ‘Bloopers‘, ‘deleted scenes‘ and ‘Date with Sid‘.


    While the 2-DVD pack is priced at Rs. 399, the 2-VCD pack costs Rs. 149.


    Commented UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur, ” Wake Up Sid has been a huge commercial and critical success for us and we are confident that movie fans will enjoy and appreciate this movie at home as they have in the theatres. Universal admiration and appeal for Wake Up Sid makes this DVD the perfect gift for the 2009 holiday season.”


    The home video launch will be supported by an all-encompassing marketing campaign across TV, Radio, OOH and internet along with a strong focus on retail activation and on-ground promotion.

  • Sony mulls remake of Millennium Series

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Entertainment is all set to close a deal to make a English-language remake Millennium Series that is based on the late Swedish writer Stieg Larsson‘s crime novels.


    Scott Rudin was instrumental in securing the rights and is attached to produce alongside Ole Sondberg and Soren Staermose of Yellow Bird Films, the company behind the Swedish Millennium films.


    The first film in that series was the smash hit The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (pictured), which went on to gross more than $100m in Europe alone and is being released in North America through Music Box. The second two entries are The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet‘s Nest.


    Yellow Bird‘s Mikael Wallen and Anni Fernandez will serve as executive producers on the English-language productions, which centre on the unique crime-solving pair Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist and investigator and Lisbeth Salander, a punk computer hacker with a photographic memory.

  • Veteran film historian and critic Ron Holloway no more

    MUMBAI: Veteran film historian, critic and filmmaker Ron Holloway died in Berlin on Wednesday morning at the age of 76.


    Hailing from IIlinois, Holloway came to Paris at the end of the 1960s as a Rockefeller Fellow on a two-year grant and completed a doctoral thesis on The Religious Dimension in the Cinema with particular reference to the films of Carl Theodor Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman and Robert Bresson at the University of Hamburg.


    He had just completed his dissertation when an offer came from Variety to serve as the US trade paper‘s correspondent for Germany and Eastern Europe. He and his wife Dorothea Moritz moved to Berlin in 1976 after Ron was invited by the newly appointed Berlinale festival director Wolf Donner to become a member of the Berlinale selection committee with responsibility for Russia. In addition, he played an instrumental role in the setting up of the German Films sidebar which Donner launched in 1977 to spotlight certain types of cnema which had been neglected beforehand.


    In 2007, Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick recognised the Holloways‘ special contribution to the festival over 30 years by presenting them with the Berlinale Camera Award.


    Holloway directed two documentaries on the filmmakers Elem Klimov and Sergei Paradjanov as well as two TV features about film – Made in Germany and Sundance for public broadcaster ZDF. He was also a co-founder of the Chicago Center for Film Study and the Cleveland Cinematheque.

  • Last Station, Lightkeepers to open/close Palm Springs

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Classics‘ The Last Station will open the 21st Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) on 7 January and, ten days later, New Films International‘s The Lightkeepers will close the event.


    Helen Mirren, who was nominated for a dramatic actress Golden Globe for her portrayal of Sofya Tolstoy in The Last Station will receive the Career Achievement Award at the awards gala on 5 January.


    The Lightkeepers is a romantic comedy set in 1912 Cape Cod that stars Richard Dreyfuss, Blythe Danner, Tom Wisdom, Bruce Dern and Mamie Gummer.


    Other films to be shown at the festival includes Michael Haneke‘s The White Ribbon, Giuseppe Tornatore‘s Baaria, Andre Téchiné‘s The Girl On The Train, Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s Air Doll, Carlos Carrera‘s Backyard, Rachid Bouchareb‘s London River and Ken Loach‘s Looking For Eric.


    There are world premieres for Dark Resonance from Bangladesh, the US-Japan-Bahamas entry Dumbstruck. Expecting Mary, Is it Just Me? and Shoot The Hero from the US, the UK-Canada title The Making Of Plus One With Kate, Cate and George: The Story Of A Hollywood Nobody, and Paulista from Brazil.

  • Spielberg’s Dreamworks acquires filming rights of War Horse

    MUMBAI: Steven Spielberg‘s DreamWorks Studios has acquired filming rights of Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 novel War Horse.


    Spielberg will produce the film alongside Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy and Revel Guest. Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) has been signed to adapt the novel to the silver screen.


    The novel revolves around the story of a boy and his horse and, even though they become separated when he goes off to fight in World War I, they still share a connection.


    “From the moment I read ‘War Horse‘ I knew this was a film I wanted DreamWorks to make,” said Spielberg. “Its heart and its message provide a story that can be felt in every country.”


    War Horse has been previously adapted by Nick Stafford, who wrote the stage version of the piece that has been a hit for the Royal National Theatre. This Olivier Award winning production continues to run at the West End‘s New London Theatre till today.

  • Roy Disney dies of stomach cancer

    MUMBAI: Roy E Disney, nephew of Walt Disney who helped rejuvenate the animation division of the company, died of stomach cancer at the age of 79 in Newport Beach, California.


    Roy Disney’s survivors include his wife, Leslie DeMeuse Disney. He is also survived by his former wife of 52 years, Patricia Dailey Disney, and four of their children Tim, Roy Patrick, Abigail and Susan Disney Lord.


    Roy Disney was the last member of the Disney family to work at the entertainment conglomerate built jointly by his uncle and his father Roy O Disney.


    In 1984, when Disney weathered two takeover attempts, Roy Disney helped force the resignation of Ronald W Miller, the husband of Walt Disney’s daughter, Diane, as chief executive.


    In 2004, when Pixar was giving Disney a run at the box-office, Roy helped lead an investor uprising that ended with the departure of Michael D Eisner as chief executive and chairman.


    Along the way, Roy organised Shamrock Holdings, a family investment enterprise that became known for instigating hostile takeovers, including an ultimately failed one of Polaroid in the late 1980s.


    Roy was born in Los Angeles on 10 January, 1930, and had a childhood that most people can only dream about. While playing at the studio, his uncle would occasionally take a break to read storybooks to him.
     


    Roy began his entertainment career in 1952 as an assistant film editor on Dragnet, the landmark television show. He joined Disney in 1953 and worked on nature documentaries like The Living Desert and The Vanishing Prairie, both of which won Oscars. He also wrote for Zorro.


    Although he continued to be a board member, Roy left the company in 1977 after a disagreement within the company and turned an independent producer.


    Coming back to the company in 1984, Roy set about revitalising the floundering animation division. He obtained financing, for instance, for a computerised post production facility, helping to make possible the revolving ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast.


    Citing “serious differences of opinion about the direction and style of management,” Roy resigned for the second time in 2003 and started agitating for Eisner’s ouster. But in 2005, after Eisner announced his departure, Roy became director emeritus and a consultant, that he held until his death.

  • Karan Johar’s My name is Khan in Berlin filmfest

    MUMBAI: My Name is Khan, starring Shah Rukh Khan with Kajol, is to be screened at the 60th Berlinale being held from 11 to 21 February.


    Though this film along with Martin Scorsese’s film Shutter Island USA was initially selected for competition, it is learnt that the film is being screened out of competition as it is expected to be released in India before that date.


    The first seven titles of the 60th Berlin International Film Festival have been confirmed. The films selected so far are from Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany, India, Iran, Turkey, the UK and the USA. Another important entry is Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer which is a France- Germany-British co-production and will have its world premiere at this festival.


    A total of 26 films will be selected for the Competition section of the 60th Berlin International Film Festival. Further Competition title confirmations will be announced in January 2010.