Grammy-winning singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens was taking a walk after having dinner with her children and saw a tweet.
She had won the Pulitzer Prize for music. “It was literally a total shock,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter from Ireland, where she currently lives.
The work that won her the prestigious prize alongside composer Michael Abels is Omar, the opera about Muslim American slave Omar ibn Said. It is based on his autobiography A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar ibn Said, which was written in 1831 and is the only known memoir written by a slave in America in Arabic.
Omar ibn Said
“I was minding my own business in my studio trying to be creative and my lawyer called me and said without any hello, ‘You just won the Pulitzer Prize!’ And it took me the rest of the call to be convinced that he wasn’t lying,” says Abels,...
She had won the Pulitzer Prize for music. “It was literally a total shock,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter from Ireland, where she currently lives.
The work that won her the prestigious prize alongside composer Michael Abels is Omar, the opera about Muslim American slave Omar ibn Said. It is based on his autobiography A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar ibn Said, which was written in 1831 and is the only known memoir written by a slave in America in Arabic.
Omar ibn Said
“I was minding my own business in my studio trying to be creative and my lawyer called me and said without any hello, ‘You just won the Pulitzer Prize!’ And it took me the rest of the call to be convinced that he wasn’t lying,” says Abels,...
- 5/15/2023
- by Mesfin Fekadu
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
[Saratoga Springs, NY] — February 9, 2023 Mary Birnbaum, a decorated opera director, takes the reins of Opera Saratoga ahead of the 2023 summer festival season.
Opera Saratoga’s board of directors announces that Mary Birnbaum has been named the company’s new general and artistic director. She succeeds former General and Artistic Director Lawrence Edelson, whose eight year tenure concluded at the end of the 2022 season. Birnbaum is the tenth general director in the Opera Saratoga’s celebrated history. Board President Steve Rosenblum shared, “We are incredibly excited and honored to have Mary Birnbaum join Opera Saratoga. She was selected after an extensive nationwide search, in which we interviewed many highly qualified candidates. Mary’s level of enthusiasm and love of opera are infectious and I am certain she will be an inspirational leader for the company as well as an integral part of the Saratoga Springs community.”
Birnbaum is a stage director, educator, and artistic leader,...
Opera Saratoga’s board of directors announces that Mary Birnbaum has been named the company’s new general and artistic director. She succeeds former General and Artistic Director Lawrence Edelson, whose eight year tenure concluded at the end of the 2022 season. Birnbaum is the tenth general director in the Opera Saratoga’s celebrated history. Board President Steve Rosenblum shared, “We are incredibly excited and honored to have Mary Birnbaum join Opera Saratoga. She was selected after an extensive nationwide search, in which we interviewed many highly qualified candidates. Mary’s level of enthusiasm and love of opera are infectious and I am certain she will be an inspirational leader for the company as well as an integral part of the Saratoga Springs community.”
Birnbaum is a stage director, educator, and artistic leader,...
- 2/13/2023
- by Music Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Music
Exclusive: As Warner Bros Pictures continues to find its footing under new management, the studio on Thursday secured the services of a cornerstone filmmaker, signing a first-look deal with its Elvis director-writer-producer Baz Luhrmann.
The deal was made by Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy. This comes on the heels of eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture that the film received Tuesday. Already the top-grossing original film in the Oscar crop with 151 million domestic and 287 million worldwide — the second-highest musical biopic gross worldwide — Elvis is poised to build that number further as the film returns to theaters across North America this weekend for a limited engagement.
For Luhrmann, the result is particularly satisfying in that it was the first major movie to be pulled off line at the start of the Covid pandemic; it fades in memory, but Tom Hanks was the...
The deal was made by Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy. This comes on the heels of eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture that the film received Tuesday. Already the top-grossing original film in the Oscar crop with 151 million domestic and 287 million worldwide — the second-highest musical biopic gross worldwide — Elvis is poised to build that number further as the film returns to theaters across North America this weekend for a limited engagement.
For Luhrmann, the result is particularly satisfying in that it was the first major movie to be pulled off line at the start of the Covid pandemic; it fades in memory, but Tom Hanks was the...
- 1/26/2023
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
[Editor’s note: The following article contains spoilers for “Annette.”]
There was nothing that could possibly stop actor Simon Helberg from starring in Leos Carax’s daring movie musical “Annette.” Citizenship issues? Fixable. Doesn’t know how to conduct? He can learn. Have to act alongside a puppet? Wonderful. Might get drowned by Adam Driver during a pivotal scene? Bring it on. Not entirely sure about his character’s emotional state? Just refer to a picture of Peter Lorre.
Even now, nearly two years after wrapping production on the ambitious feature and four months after its divisive Cannes premiere, Helberg still slips into something of a fever when talking about the film, which sees him starring alongside Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard as a lovestruck conductor simply known as “The Accompanist.”
What was it that so captivated him about the film and the role? “Well, some kind of demonic possession or a desire to just torment and self-immolate,” he...
There was nothing that could possibly stop actor Simon Helberg from starring in Leos Carax’s daring movie musical “Annette.” Citizenship issues? Fixable. Doesn’t know how to conduct? He can learn. Have to act alongside a puppet? Wonderful. Might get drowned by Adam Driver during a pivotal scene? Bring it on. Not entirely sure about his character’s emotional state? Just refer to a picture of Peter Lorre.
Even now, nearly two years after wrapping production on the ambitious feature and four months after its divisive Cannes premiere, Helberg still slips into something of a fever when talking about the film, which sees him starring alongside Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard as a lovestruck conductor simply known as “The Accompanist.”
What was it that so captivated him about the film and the role? “Well, some kind of demonic possession or a desire to just torment and self-immolate,” he...
- 11/10/2021
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
It's been a lot more than just 525,600 minutes since Rent first made its Broadway debut. The iconic and beloved rock opera, loosely based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème and penned entirely by the late genius Jonathan Larson, first bowed on the Great White Way nearly 25 years ago at the fittingly once derelict Nederlander Theatre, premiering on April 29, 1996. And it truly was a season of love when it did. The show was rapturously received, earning 10 Tony nominations that year and taking home four, including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Score, while also earning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Sadly, Larson wasn't around to bask in the acclaim or see his passion project go on to become the...
- 4/29/2020
- E! Online
This Riverdale review contains spoilers.
Riverdale Season 4 Episode 17
“We are relentlessly slammed with crisis after crisis.”
A few years back, Twitter exploded with the (almost certainly apocryphal) story of a high school performance of Rent which took some serious creative liberties. Here, instead of dealing with AIDS, the characters in Jonathan Larson’s 1990s boho rewrite of La Boheme were coping with diabetes…and the show now had Roger and Mimi forgoing Azt breaks to have their beepers reminding them to take insulin.
I bring this up not to make light of any disease – indeed, I wouldn’t even attempt gallows humor involving any ailment given our terrifying current situation – but mainly to illustrate how even the slightest change to a beloved source material can ultimately dishonor it.. This was a concern that popped into my mind when I heard that Riverdale would be making the decidedly adult-themed Hedwig and the Angry Inch...
Riverdale Season 4 Episode 17
“We are relentlessly slammed with crisis after crisis.”
A few years back, Twitter exploded with the (almost certainly apocryphal) story of a high school performance of Rent which took some serious creative liberties. Here, instead of dealing with AIDS, the characters in Jonathan Larson’s 1990s boho rewrite of La Boheme were coping with diabetes…and the show now had Roger and Mimi forgoing Azt breaks to have their beepers reminding them to take insulin.
I bring this up not to make light of any disease – indeed, I wouldn’t even attempt gallows humor involving any ailment given our terrifying current situation – but mainly to illustrate how even the slightest change to a beloved source material can ultimately dishonor it.. This was a concern that popped into my mind when I heard that Riverdale would be making the decidedly adult-themed Hedwig and the Angry Inch...
- 4/16/2020
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
Watching a documentary about a famous and beloved artist, I’ll sometimes be suffused with a childlike desire to see his or her life flow forward in one long uninterrupted river of happiness and achievement, with no slumps or setbacks, no peccadilloes, no dark side. It never works out that way, of course. If it did, the subject wouldn’t be human.
Yet for a great long stretch of “Pavarotti,” Ron Howard’s ebullient and elegantly straightforward documentary about the most celebrated operatic singer of the second half of the 20th century, it’s easy to get swept up into the fantasy that Luciano Pavarotti, in his robust and rotund smiling-tenor-of-the-masses way, was at once a supreme performer and an exemplary person, relatively simple in his success. The son of a baker in the Italian comune of Modena (capital city of sports-car makers and balsamic vinegar), Pavarotti liked to describe himself as a “peasant.
Yet for a great long stretch of “Pavarotti,” Ron Howard’s ebullient and elegantly straightforward documentary about the most celebrated operatic singer of the second half of the 20th century, it’s easy to get swept up into the fantasy that Luciano Pavarotti, in his robust and rotund smiling-tenor-of-the-masses way, was at once a supreme performer and an exemplary person, relatively simple in his success. The son of a baker in the Italian comune of Modena (capital city of sports-car makers and balsamic vinegar), Pavarotti liked to describe himself as a “peasant.
- 5/31/2019
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Ron Howard’s “Pavarotti” is a warm but distant (and hagiographic) documentary about the most lucrative tenor who’s ever lived. It opens with its boisterous namesake belting out an aria in the middle of the Amazon, and then spends the rest of its running time showing us how the humble son of an Italian baker managed to fulfill his dream of bringing opera to the entire world. That’s a hell of a story — more than compelling enough to sustain a well-edited womb-to-tomb portrait that moves along a clean upward trajectory.
But while this film provides an open invitation for people to rediscover Pavarotti’s genius, the man behind the Maestro remains something of a mystery. If the best moments of Howard’s doc suggest that Pavarotti was a pure soul whose generosity resonated as strongly as his vibrato, the worst stretches leave the flimsy impression that this larger-than-life...
But while this film provides an open invitation for people to rediscover Pavarotti’s genius, the man behind the Maestro remains something of a mystery. If the best moments of Howard’s doc suggest that Pavarotti was a pure soul whose generosity resonated as strongly as his vibrato, the worst stretches leave the flimsy impression that this larger-than-life...
- 5/29/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Paramount Studios was blessed with “Seasons of Love” as Fox’s live broadcast of Jonathan Larson’s Rent took the stage at Deadline’s The Contenders Emmys. Executive producers Adam Siegel, Julie Larson and Alex Rudzinski as well as stars Vanessa Hudgens and Emmy nominated actor Brandon Victor Dixon (via Skype) talked about bringing the musical to live TV, how Brennin Hunt’s injury during production did not hinder the event and honoring Jonathan Larson’s legacy.
“Expect the unexpected is the mantra,” Rudzinski told Deadline’s Pete Hammond.
As a result of Hunt’s injury, Fox aired a full dress rehearsal with the finale of the musical being live. Even so, that didn’t take away from the live aspect of the show. Rudzinski said that this event blends movies, TV and theatrical to create a one-of-a-kind energy that is like opening night and closing night of a show.
Siegel...
“Expect the unexpected is the mantra,” Rudzinski told Deadline’s Pete Hammond.
As a result of Hunt’s injury, Fox aired a full dress rehearsal with the finale of the musical being live. Even so, that didn’t take away from the live aspect of the show. Rudzinski said that this event blends movies, TV and theatrical to create a one-of-a-kind energy that is like opening night and closing night of a show.
Siegel...
- 4/7/2019
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
“I feel if I were to organize it correctly I would try to sing like a Mexican and think like a German. You know what I mean? I get it mixed up,” Linda Ronstadt joked to Rolling Stone in 1978. The quip was a comical reference to her Mexican-German heritage but also, in retrospect, a reflection of Ronstadt’s many musical influences and interests, along with the self-deprecating humor she has employed throughout more than five decades of music stardom. Born in July 1946 in Tucson, Arizona, where her father, Gilbert, the...
- 2/7/2019
- by Stephen L. Betts
- Rollingstone.com
Tech glitches, broken bones, ghosts of stage productions past and, worst of all, live television’s unfortunate and intrusive vogue for giving studio audiences far, far too much screen time couldn’t do overmuch damage to Rent, Jonathan Larson’s beloved-by-many ’90s musical that added another chapter to both TV’s refound love of Broadway and the show’s own against-the-odds trouper legend.
In what turned out to be a fortuitous move, Fox had not been calling the new Rent anything other than that one-word title (early reports had it as Rent: Live!). Good thing: the show became more Rent: Somewhat Live! after star Brennin Hunt, who played struggling musician Roger, broke his foot during a dress rehearsal yesterday.
What aired on Fox tonight, as explained by the cast in an address to the television audience early in the proceedings, was mostly last night’s dress rehearsal, taped before a live audience,...
In what turned out to be a fortuitous move, Fox had not been calling the new Rent anything other than that one-word title (early reports had it as Rent: Live!). Good thing: the show became more Rent: Somewhat Live! after star Brennin Hunt, who played struggling musician Roger, broke his foot during a dress rehearsal yesterday.
What aired on Fox tonight, as explained by the cast in an address to the television audience early in the proceedings, was mostly last night’s dress rehearsal, taped before a live audience,...
- 1/28/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
“Rent”-heads, it’s been more than 525,600 minutes since Fox announced the Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical would come to television, and finally “no day but today” has arrived. The special joins the ranks of other Broadway musicals that have been given the live-tv treatment, such as NBC’s “Jesus Christ Superstar: Live” and Fox’s own live “Grease,” both of which earned critical acclaim.
Based on the music, book, and lyrics by Jonathan Larson — who sadly passed just before the musical debuted off-Broadway — “Rent” has earned a rabid following and numerous awards. The gritty update of Puccini’s “La Bohème” follows seven struggling artists who live in New York’s East Village of the late 1980s/early 1990s.
Sunday’s broadcast comes with a note of sadness. Country artist Brennin Hunt, who competed in the first season of “The X-Factor,” plays struggling musician Roger Davis in the show, but during...
Based on the music, book, and lyrics by Jonathan Larson — who sadly passed just before the musical debuted off-Broadway — “Rent” has earned a rabid following and numerous awards. The gritty update of Puccini’s “La Bohème” follows seven struggling artists who live in New York’s East Village of the late 1980s/early 1990s.
Sunday’s broadcast comes with a note of sadness. Country artist Brennin Hunt, who competed in the first season of “The X-Factor,” plays struggling musician Roger Davis in the show, but during...
- 1/28/2019
- by Hanh Nguyen, Liz Shannon Miller, Ben Travers and Steve Greene
- Indiewire
This is a small sample of what FilmFinders' clients and contributors receive now and will soon be receiving both before and after the major international film markets in Berlin, Cannes, AFM, Sundance and the major fall festivals of Venice, Toronto, Pusan, Locarno and other upcoming markets and festivals.
If you are interested in this subscription service, please email us at FilmFinders-Sales@imdb.com. If you would like to contribute to the buzz with your own items, please send it to buzz@imbd.com.
AFM 2008, Santa Monica California RIGHTS ROUNDUP
6 SALES licensed 'The Narrows' to Koba for France and Movie Bank for Benelux after its premiere showing in Toronto. 'Wave' went to ARD Degeto for free TV in Germany and Kino Swiat for Poland.
ARTHOUSE FILMS licensed 'The Universe of Keith Haring' to Pretty Pictures for France and Germany. ARTHOUSE FILMS acquired international sales rights to 'Chuck Close'. Arthouse plans a theatrical release early 2009. Arthouse Films acquired 'Herb & Dorothy' which recently won best documentary and the audience award at the Hamptons International Film Festival for North American and world rights.
ASPECT licensed 'The Utopian Society' to Scanbox for Scandinavia, Globcom for Romania, and Front Row for the Middle East. 'Familiar Strangers', 'Drawn, In Memory of My Father', and 'The Clan' were licensed to Front Row for the Middle East. 'The Peter Green Story: Man of the World' was licensed to Scanbox for U.K., Ireland and Scandinavian distribution.
ATRIX FILMS licensed 'Buy, Borrow, Steal' to Anchor Bay for Austrialia/New Zealand. First Look Studios will release in North America.
ATLAS INTERNATIONAL FILMS licensed '(Cheeky Girls' 'Freche Madchen') to Swift for France, and Film Depot for CIS.
BAC FILMS licensed 'Silent Wedding' to Vendetta Films for New Zealand, Syrena Entertainment Group for Poland, and IMO Vision for Brazil. They are also in advanced discussions for Italy, Spain and Bosnia. Their film 'Jasper' to Daisy for Korea and Eagle Films for India. 'Back Soon' was licensed to Ripley for Italy, and MCF MegaCom for Bosnia. 'Melody Smile' was licensed to Nueva Era for Mexico. Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia also picked up rights to 'Jasper', 'Lascars' and 'Journey to Saturn'.
BANKSIDE FILMS licensed 'The Baker' to Panorama Entertainment for U.S. for a spring 2009 theatrical release.
BAVARIA licensed 'Moscow, Belgium' to NeoClassics for North America.
BETA CINEMA licensed 'La Boheme', Robert Dornhelm's film version of the Puccini opera to Wild Bunch Benelux,' to Axiom for UK and Star Sands for Japan, Palace for Australia and New Zealand and Hollywood Classics for Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is currently in release in Germany and Austria through NFP/Warner and Constantin Film, respectively. 'Il Divo' went to MPI Media Group for U.S., Delphi Films for Germany, Folkets Bio for Sweden, Sunrise Film for Denmark, Against Gravity and HBO Poland (Pay TV) for Poland, David Matous Communications for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and Best Hollywood for Hungary. 'North Face' went to Lady Film for Italy, and Mars Productions for Turkey. 'Machan' has been sold to UGC for France, Alliance Atlantis for Canada, and Rialto Film for Switzerland. 'Berlin Calling' was sold to Best Hollywood for Hungary, and David Matous Communications for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 'Run for Your Life' was licensed to Best Hollywood for Hungary, and Pa-Dora for Croatia/Bosnia/Serbia. BETA CINEMA acquired international sales rights to 'Ayla' a feature debut of Su Turhan. BETA CINEMA acquired international sales rights to 'Bride Flight'. The Dutch film which made over $1.5 million in its first two weeks of release.
CELLULOID DREAMS licensed 'A Year Ago in Winter', 'When a Man Comes Home', 'Still Walking', 'White Night Wedding', to IFC Festival Direct. Plans are to release through the Festival Direct VOD service as well as theatrical release via upcoming festivals.
CELSIUS licensed 'Crusade: A March Through Time' to Focus Cultural Media Co. for distribution in China.
CINEMA MANAGEMENT GROUP licensed 'Zambezia' to Televisa for Mexico, RCV for Benelux, VC Multimedia for Portugal, Vision Film for Poland, Film Pop for Turkey, and Front Row Entertainment for the Middle East.
CINEMAVAULT acquired international sales rights to 'The Hammer'. CINEMAVAULT licensed 'IOUSA' to MercuryMedia for U.K. television for BBC's current affairs strand This World for IOUSA. It will be released theatrically in the UK from November 14 in Picturehouse Cinemas as part of the joiningthedots.tv programme backed by The Independent newspaper and Sheffield Doc/Fest. MercuryMedia's slate also includes 'Sea Point Days', 'Dominick Dunne: After The Party', 'How Ohio Pulled It Off' and 'Loose Change Final Cut'.
CJ ENTERTAINMENT licensed 'Mother' to Bitters End for Japan and to Diaphana for France. 'Thirst' went to Palisades Tartan U.K. for U.K. and to Diaphana for France. Diaphana will release 'Mother' and 'Thirst' in spring 2009. 'Hello Schoolgirl' 'Lost and Found' and 'A Portrait of Beauty' were licensed to Rose Media for Thailand. 'Four Horror Tales', 'Wide Awake', and 'Black Cows' were licensed to Catchplay for Taiwan. Also 'Public Enemy Returns' was licensed for Turkey.
This is a partial compendium from the major trade magazines of rights acquired from international sales agents and other sales representatives during the recent American Film Market. The complete Rights Roundup Report was just issued to our clients and contributors this week.
If you are interested in this subscription service, please email us at FilmFinders-Sales@imdb.com. If you would like to contribute to the buzz with your own items, please send it to buzz@imbd.com.
The Rights Roundup Report will soon be supplemented by other equally relevant and easily navigable FilmFinders Reports, which are made possible by IMDbPro's technical skills coupled with its vast storehouse of data supplied by professionals in the industry. Our thirty years of combined experience is now being harnessed to create new business tools designed to serve our changing industry. Subscribe now and save later! You'll find yourselves light years ahead of those who rely on old methods for new business and your bottom line will prove it.
If you are interested in this subscription service, please email us at FilmFinders-Sales@imdb.com. If you would like to contribute to the buzz with your own items, please send it to buzz@imbd.com.
AFM 2008, Santa Monica California RIGHTS ROUNDUP
6 SALES licensed 'The Narrows' to Koba for France and Movie Bank for Benelux after its premiere showing in Toronto. 'Wave' went to ARD Degeto for free TV in Germany and Kino Swiat for Poland.
ARTHOUSE FILMS licensed 'The Universe of Keith Haring' to Pretty Pictures for France and Germany. ARTHOUSE FILMS acquired international sales rights to 'Chuck Close'. Arthouse plans a theatrical release early 2009. Arthouse Films acquired 'Herb & Dorothy' which recently won best documentary and the audience award at the Hamptons International Film Festival for North American and world rights.
ASPECT licensed 'The Utopian Society' to Scanbox for Scandinavia, Globcom for Romania, and Front Row for the Middle East. 'Familiar Strangers', 'Drawn, In Memory of My Father', and 'The Clan' were licensed to Front Row for the Middle East. 'The Peter Green Story: Man of the World' was licensed to Scanbox for U.K., Ireland and Scandinavian distribution.
ATRIX FILMS licensed 'Buy, Borrow, Steal' to Anchor Bay for Austrialia/New Zealand. First Look Studios will release in North America.
ATLAS INTERNATIONAL FILMS licensed '(Cheeky Girls' 'Freche Madchen') to Swift for France, and Film Depot for CIS.
BAC FILMS licensed 'Silent Wedding' to Vendetta Films for New Zealand, Syrena Entertainment Group for Poland, and IMO Vision for Brazil. They are also in advanced discussions for Italy, Spain and Bosnia. Their film 'Jasper' to Daisy for Korea and Eagle Films for India. 'Back Soon' was licensed to Ripley for Italy, and MCF MegaCom for Bosnia. 'Melody Smile' was licensed to Nueva Era for Mexico. Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia also picked up rights to 'Jasper', 'Lascars' and 'Journey to Saturn'.
BANKSIDE FILMS licensed 'The Baker' to Panorama Entertainment for U.S. for a spring 2009 theatrical release.
BAVARIA licensed 'Moscow, Belgium' to NeoClassics for North America.
BETA CINEMA licensed 'La Boheme', Robert Dornhelm's film version of the Puccini opera to Wild Bunch Benelux,' to Axiom for UK and Star Sands for Japan, Palace for Australia and New Zealand and Hollywood Classics for Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is currently in release in Germany and Austria through NFP/Warner and Constantin Film, respectively. 'Il Divo' went to MPI Media Group for U.S., Delphi Films for Germany, Folkets Bio for Sweden, Sunrise Film for Denmark, Against Gravity and HBO Poland (Pay TV) for Poland, David Matous Communications for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and Best Hollywood for Hungary. 'North Face' went to Lady Film for Italy, and Mars Productions for Turkey. 'Machan' has been sold to UGC for France, Alliance Atlantis for Canada, and Rialto Film for Switzerland. 'Berlin Calling' was sold to Best Hollywood for Hungary, and David Matous Communications for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 'Run for Your Life' was licensed to Best Hollywood for Hungary, and Pa-Dora for Croatia/Bosnia/Serbia. BETA CINEMA acquired international sales rights to 'Ayla' a feature debut of Su Turhan. BETA CINEMA acquired international sales rights to 'Bride Flight'. The Dutch film which made over $1.5 million in its first two weeks of release.
CELLULOID DREAMS licensed 'A Year Ago in Winter', 'When a Man Comes Home', 'Still Walking', 'White Night Wedding', to IFC Festival Direct. Plans are to release through the Festival Direct VOD service as well as theatrical release via upcoming festivals.
CELSIUS licensed 'Crusade: A March Through Time' to Focus Cultural Media Co. for distribution in China.
CINEMA MANAGEMENT GROUP licensed 'Zambezia' to Televisa for Mexico, RCV for Benelux, VC Multimedia for Portugal, Vision Film for Poland, Film Pop for Turkey, and Front Row Entertainment for the Middle East.
CINEMAVAULT acquired international sales rights to 'The Hammer'. CINEMAVAULT licensed 'IOUSA' to MercuryMedia for U.K. television for BBC's current affairs strand This World for IOUSA. It will be released theatrically in the UK from November 14 in Picturehouse Cinemas as part of the joiningthedots.tv programme backed by The Independent newspaper and Sheffield Doc/Fest. MercuryMedia's slate also includes 'Sea Point Days', 'Dominick Dunne: After The Party', 'How Ohio Pulled It Off' and 'Loose Change Final Cut'.
CJ ENTERTAINMENT licensed 'Mother' to Bitters End for Japan and to Diaphana for France. 'Thirst' went to Palisades Tartan U.K. for U.K. and to Diaphana for France. Diaphana will release 'Mother' and 'Thirst' in spring 2009. 'Hello Schoolgirl' 'Lost and Found' and 'A Portrait of Beauty' were licensed to Rose Media for Thailand. 'Four Horror Tales', 'Wide Awake', and 'Black Cows' were licensed to Catchplay for Taiwan. Also 'Public Enemy Returns' was licensed for Turkey.
This is a partial compendium from the major trade magazines of rights acquired from international sales agents and other sales representatives during the recent American Film Market. The complete Rights Roundup Report was just issued to our clients and contributors this week.
If you are interested in this subscription service, please email us at FilmFinders-Sales@imdb.com. If you would like to contribute to the buzz with your own items, please send it to buzz@imbd.com.
The Rights Roundup Report will soon be supplemented by other equally relevant and easily navigable FilmFinders Reports, which are made possible by IMDbPro's technical skills coupled with its vast storehouse of data supplied by professionals in the industry. Our thirty years of combined experience is now being harnessed to create new business tools designed to serve our changing industry. Subscribe now and save later! You'll find yourselves light years ahead of those who rely on old methods for new business and your bottom line will prove it.
- 12/8/2008
- Sydney's Buzz
Cologne, Germany -- Opera film "La Boheme," featuring singing stars Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon has sold to the U.K. and Japan ahead of the American Film Market, which kicks off Wednesday.
Beta Cinema closed with Axiom Films in the U.K. and Star Sands in Japan.
Beta has already sold Robert Dornhelm's adaptation of the famous Puccini opera to Australia (Palace) and Czech Republic/Slovakia (Hollywood Classic).
German indie Nfp bowed "La Boheme" in a platform release Oct. 23. The film's international premiere will be in London in December.
Beta Cinema closed with Axiom Films in the U.K. and Star Sands in Japan.
Beta has already sold Robert Dornhelm's adaptation of the famous Puccini opera to Australia (Palace) and Czech Republic/Slovakia (Hollywood Classic).
German indie Nfp bowed "La Boheme" in a platform release Oct. 23. The film's international premiere will be in London in December.
- 11/3/2008
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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