New ways of financing and effective distribution for the film industry: 19-22 May 2007International filmmakers can benefit from a growing range of tax incentives and public funds as well as from newly established private equity funds. By integrating brands into their film they can create valuable cross promotion effects, relieving their budget, while Video on Demand platforms enable them to distribute their films worldwide to targeted audiences.International experts will help you to stay on top ...

Avance Rapide Communication, in partnership with avec Nicéphore Cité and UP3D (the French association of 3D image producers), is organising the first edition of Dimension 3 expo, the 3D image forum. The event will take place in Chalon sur Saône (Burgundy, France) from June 5 to 7, 2007, at the Espace des Arts.Hollywood studios and leaders on the electronic market for entertainment are turning to 3D in order to reach out to new audiences and new markets.The first conference on 3D images, Dimen...

Friday, February 16-----The Berlinale Keynotes , a new information initiative launched this year by the Berlin Film Festival organization, got off to a successful start. Over 300 distinguished international industry representatives, invited by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and the Berlin International Film Festival, came together to watch the new event format at the Ritz-Carlton, Berlin. The first edition focused on the future of the film industry in the digital age, in terms of technology, con...

International Film Festivals in AsiaPumelo International Film Festival(PIFF) ( http://www.pumelo.com ) is screening 60 award winning films out of 265 films entered from 42 countries. There is a competition for the best film based purely on audience choice & they also award prizes for best director, best cinematography, best music score, best short, best documentary, best actor, best actress, etc. The films screened at the Pumelo International Film Festival are selected by a jury comprising o...

Tuesday, February 13----Actress-turned-director Julie Delpy's TWO DAYS IN PARIS, which had its world premiere in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival a few days ago, has been purchased for North American rights. The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Netflix's Red Envelope Entertainment have announced the joint acquisition of the film, which they are planning to release in the US and Canada this coming summer. TWO DAYS IN PARIS is a romantic comedy about a French woman photographe...

Sunday, February 11----Arts Alliance Media (AAM), a UK company that is leading the charge on the creation of digital cinema networks in the UK and the rest of Europe, is the leading sponsor for the European Film Market (EFM). This successful collaboration will culminate next year with the company serving as the exclusive main partner of the EFM. “With Arts Alliance Media, we have found the ideal partner for digital film services,” comments EFM director Beki Probst. The London-based compan...

Friday, February 9----As the hooplah from last evening's Gala Opening Night has died down, it is now time for the Berlinale to get serious about the business of international film. After several days of preparation, the European Film Market opens this morning, shattering previous records of attendance, exhibition booths and films to be screened. With the changes in the industry calendar of the past few years, the EFM has become an indispensable place for sellers to hawk their wares and for buy...

Saturday, January 27----A series of "last minute" deals were announced in the past 24 hours that have made this Sundance a very positive one for film buyers and sellers. While there will undoubtedly be more announcements in the coming days, these acquisition pick-ups underscores the Festival's growing importance as not only a treasure trove of American indies, but of international fare as well. This was evident with the announcement that ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS, a Danish documentary by Eva Mulva...

Friday, January 26---On the eve of the Festival's closing weekend, several impressive distribution deals have been announced, which have made this one of the more active Festivals in recent years. In light of the box office and awards bonanza of the little-film-that-could LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (a Sundance pick-up last year for Fox Searchlight), acquisition execs have been aggressive in snatching up films with equal potential. Of course, whether these were wise decisions that will pay off hands...

Thursday, January 25----Deals are coming fast and furious as the Sundance Film Festival enters its final weekend. While some acquisition execs will be waiting to see what American and international titles win jury and audience awards, the activity has been brisk with more deals announced in the past 48 hours of various films that have world premiered at the Festival. ONCE, a tender Irish romantic musical comedy by John Carney, has sold worldwide rights to sales company Summit Entertainment. O...

Tuesday, January 23----A slew of acquisition pick-ups have accelerated as the Sundance Film Festival heads into its final days before the announcement of its awards on Saturday evening. Talks of bidding wars, all night negotiation sessions and aggressive kibitzing have generated alot of buzz in indie circles, with more announcements expected in the coming days. Among the prominent deals announced, Paramount Vantage, the newly formed specialty arm of Hollywood major Paramount Pictures, has pi...

Monday, January 22----In one of the few deals announced here for a fiction feature (documentaries have been getting all the action so far), The Weinstein Company has announced its acquisition of worldwide rights to GRACE IS GONE, screening in the US Dramatic Film Competition here. The film, directed by James C. Strouse, stars John Cusack in a departure from his useful laconic screen self, as a father who is overwhelmed when he gets news that his wife has been killed in the Iraq War. The film ...

Monday, January 22----European Film Promotion, the pan-European organization that represents all the individual film promotion agencies in Europe, is lending financial and marketing support for eleven European films that are screening at the Sundance Film Festival. Film Sales Support (FSS), the European Film Promotion sales support initiative, is backing the promotion of 8 European feature films and 3 documentaries screening here this week. Begun in 2004, FSS is funded by the MEDIA Programme ...

Saturday, January 20----CRAZY LOVE, a documentary feature competing in the US Documentary Film Competition ,is one of the first to be close to a distribution deal, according to trade website IndieWire. Magnolia Pictures, a division of 2929 Entertainment, is set to pick up distribution rights to the film, which had its world premiere here on Friday night. The film by Dan Klores, a film publicist-turned-director, documents the long romance between a New York socialite and a shark-like lawyer, ...

Tuesday, January 20----Three filmmakers, whose young careers have been nurtured by Tribeca All Access (TAA), the Tribeca Film Institute program, will have world premieres of their films at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The Tribeca All Access program,now in its fourth year, selects thirty directors and screenwriters from an open call for submissions and provides them with one-on-one meetings with industry insiders. The 2007 Tribeca All Access participants will be announced in early March. A...

Friday, December 29-----In a last farewell nod to the best films of the past year, respected film website IndieWire has announced the results of its first annual Critics Poll. The Romanian drama THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU, an emotionally devastating meditation on the thin line between life and death, was the top choice of a group of 100 leading North American film critics. The film, the second feature of director Cristi Puiu, won the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, wa...

Thursday, December 28-----In a bold new experiment designed to reach younger audiences, New York's famed Metropolitan Opera will offer several of its most celebrated productions to an international network of movie theaters. The first of these will be the December 30th presentation of Mozart’s THE MAGIC FLUTE. The production, directed by stage and film director Julie Taymor, will be beamed live from the stage of The Metropolitan Opera directly into movie theaters around the globe. All of ...

Thursday, December 21----If another indication of the growing influence of non-fiction film was needed, the prestigious Sundance Film Festival has decided to open its ten-day celebration of indie and international cinema with a documentary film. CHICAGO 10, a factual and fanciful look at the infamous trial of organizers of the demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in the summer of 1968, a turning point in America’s evaluation of the Vietnam War, will open the Festiv...