That trend is abundantly apparent this year in Cannes, where several major pacts were closed prior to the official launch of the Marche du Film on Thursday.

On Tuesday, two key deals were announced for IM Global and Alliance Films’ Ends of the Earth, with CBS Films snapping up domestic rights and Sony Pictures Acquisitions buying rights to multiple international territories.

SPA, a major market force these days, picked up rights in markets including German-speaking Europe, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Italy, Australia/New Zealand, Latin America and South Africa.

Ends of the Earth is from Automatik, the production and film financing joint-venture backed by IM Global and Alliance. Alliance holds rights to Ends of the Earth in Canada, the U.K. and Spain.

The movie, which is being shot in Europe, is described as having elements of Lost Boys and Chronicle and features both found footage and narrative styles to tell the tale of two best friends traveling through Europe. They encounter what is described as an “impossible phenomenon” that changes their lives.

The film is co-written and co-directed by Derek Lee and Clif Prowse and features a cast of up-and-comers. IM Global’s Stuart Ford, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Alliance’s Charles Layton are exec producing. Telefilm Canadia provided backing.

Automatik, headed by Kavanaugh-Jones, acquired worldwide rights to the movie after seeing a promo circulated by the filmmakers’ reps at Verve.

There are a raft of other Cannes titles that have closed deals with key distributors from around the globe in recent days, with one buyer quipping, “the market will be over by the weekend.”

“All the big distributors from Germany head to L.A. two weeks before Cannes and have their pitch meetings,” said Martin Moszkowicz, head of film and television at German indie giant Constantin Film, which was one of the few international buyers that did not pick up any titles ahead of the Cannes market.”"“They go back, get their budgets approved and everything sorted and by the time Cannes starts, the real business is pretty well over.”

Also on Tuesday, Universal Pictures International announced it has bought rights to Kathryn Bigelow’s U.S. Navy SEALs pic in multiple territories, including the U.K., France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Scandinavia, South Africa and Spain. Sony Pictures releases the film, about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, stateside on Dec. 19.

Megan Ellison financed and produced Bigelow’s untitled film through her Annapurna Pictures, while her new sales company Panorama, headed by Kim Fox, is debuting the project to foreign buyers at Cannes. But with a deal already in place between Universal International and Panorama, many territories aren’t even available.

The cast includes Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Fares Fares, Jason Clarke and Mark Strong.

Another project heading into Cannes with a significant deal in place is Intrepid Pictures’ Oculus. FilmDistrict has picked up domestic rights to the film, directed by Mike Flanagan and based on his acclaimed short film of the same name.

Intrepid’s Trevor Macy and Marc D. Evans are producing and fully financing Oculus, which Focus Features International is debuting to foreign buyers in Cannes. Intrepid’s Anil Kurian will executive produce.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Toronto is returning to the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema for its 37th edition after the downtown Toronto theater received a makeover from the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival.

Long a home for its Midnight Madness sidebar, the remade Bloor Hot Docs Cinema will this year show mostly premieres of documentaries and Vanguard program selections.

Midnight Madness selections now screen at the Ryerson Theater.

Elsewhere, the Visions sidebar will be folded into the avant-garde Wavelengths program, to be curated by Andrea Picard.

That gives Wavelengths short films, as well as feature films not previously booked into the Visions program.
And the Real to Reel program of non-fiction films has been renamed TIFF Docs.

The festival is also adding the TIFF Cinematheque sidebar of classic film titles from Canadian and international film vault.

And the Canada First! program has been jettisoned for the 2012 edition, as first-time features from Canadian filmmakers go elsewhere in the festival lineup, including the Discovery section for emerging directors.

The Toronto International Film Festival is set to run from Sep. 6 to Sept. 16, 2012.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

While financial incentives to lure film and TV production have been controversial in other cities and states, especially in an era of budget gaps and fiscal austerity, New York has worked to retain its leading role.

A 2010 study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concluded that generous tax credits were not a good value since the best jobs went to people from outside the state.

But film and television production in New York City employs 130,000 people, including the support sectors of construction and food service, according to a report by the Boston Consulting Group, conducted at the city’s request free of charge.

“This report confirms what I’ve been seeing on sets and sound stages around the city – the film and television industry in New York City has never been bigger,” the mayor said in a statement.

In 2011, the industry generated $7.1 billion in direct spending, the study found.

Bloomberg has long argued New York City’s reputation as a cultural hub brings jobs and bolsters its international reputation, generating more tourism.

The state of New York offers a program that provides qualifying film and television productions a 30-percent tax credit on expenditures.

The city has a series of programs designed to complement the state’s tax credit, costing the city between $10 million and $20 million per year, according to its Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting.

Bloomberg said the media landscape in the city – which serves as a backdrop for such TV shows as “30 Rock,” “Gossip Girl” and “The Good Wife” – “has shown strong growth throughout the economic downturn.”

Reuters: Vancouver Sun

“We moved from Vancouver for economic reasons,” Fox line producer Joe Caracciolo told media in Sydney, Australia, according to a report by Screen Daily. “More and more there is pressure on the costs of pictures and the numbers were not adding up [in Canada.]“

Screen Daily reported that Australia provided a $13-million cash incentive to 20th Century Fox to film the movie in star Hugh Jackman’s hometown.

“The Wolverine is expected to generate more than $80 million in production expenditure in [New South Wales] and create more than 720 jobs for NSW-based cast and crew, along with opportunities for up to 1,200 extras,” Australian NSW State deputy premier and Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Stoner said in a news release.

The Wolverine is the sixth instalment in the X-Men movie franchise, and at least two of the earlier films were filmed in Vancouver. In March, The Vancouver Sun reported that Ontario has overtaken B.C. as a film and television production centre in Canada for the first time in many years despite overall film and television spending on the West Coast increasing 16 per cent in 2011 to nearly $1.2 billion.

Some commentators at the time said that Ontario’s more generous tax credits were luring film companies east, and away from B.C.’s film industry, which employs 20,000 people involved in 281 productions in 2011.

Peter Leitch, chairman of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of B.C. and president of North Shore Studios, said he prefers B.C.’s model of providing tax credits to all productions, over targeting specific productions as Australia does.

“I think the B.C. model is a better one and provides certainty to encourage private-sector investment and create job growth,” Leitch said in an email. “A decision to provide more incentives to one production over the other would be counterproductive and short-term thinking.”

He said B.C. has many advantages when it comes to getting film and television production jobs, including great crews, great infrastructure and competitive pricing.

“We are not always going to be the ‘low cost’ producer but our goal is to provide the best value over the long term,” Leitch said. “So far it has worked pretty well, although it is becoming more challenging with the high dollar and aggressive tax credits of other jurisdictions.”

British Columbia is the fourth-largest overall film and television production centre in North America, behind Los Angeles, New York and Toronto.

Filming of The Wolverine will begin this year, and the movie is expected to be released in July 2013.

Montreal Gazette

Per person, the decline comes out to be about 30 seconds a day, hardly a seismic shift. But cumulatively, the decline is significant because – to the astonishment of some in the industry – total TV viewership has been steadily rising year-over-year despite a plethora of other entertainment options. It may suggest that some people are opting for Web video or are spending more time playing video games and less time watching TV.

A previous survey, throughout the first nine months of 2011, the average time spent watching TV each month was up versus the same period in 2010, just as 2010 was up over 2009.

The total number of Americans who watched any traditional TV in a given month also declined during the last three months of 2011, according to Nielsen: 284.4 million, down about 1.7 per cent from 289.3 million during the same time period in 2010.

In a report to its television industry clients, Nielsen wrote of the viewership decline: “This may be the result of leveling off after a period of sustained growth, weather and economic factors or of other viewing options.”
Nielsen defines traditional TV as consumption through a television set, either live or via a digital video recorder or video-on-demand service. The company does not count consumption on computers, phones or tablets like the iPad. That may explain, in part, why the total number of viewers slipped late last year.

Nielsen also said that it believed the total number of American households with television sets is continuing to shrink. Last year, for the first time in 20 years, Nielsen said the figure dropped to 114.7 million, from 115.9 million previously, despite a rise in the number of households in the country. Nielsen attributed the drop both to economic factors and to technological ones.

The company’s latest estimate once again shrinks the total number of homes with TV sets, this time to 114.1 million. It also estimates that the total number of people living in those homes has shrunk, but at a lesser rate-— to 289.2 million, down 100,000 from 289.3 million previously.

Source: Advanced Television

The deep, reassuring timbre of the Oscar winner’s voice has guided audiences through Million Dollar Baby, Shawshank Redemption and March of the Penguins.

Now, that voice is part of a remarkable journey involving two film students from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C.

Ian MacDougall and Mack Warner have just returned to Vancouver after a five-day whirlwind trip to the United States. The trip culminated with them finding Morgan Freeman in Mississippi, and getting him to be in their film, which is due for a school assignment this week.

That would be bizarre enough. But the film, called Narrated by Morgan Freeman, is itself about trying to get the Hollywood star to narrate their documentary.

“It’s been pretty incredible,” said MacDougall from an airport in Houston, where he and Warner were editing between flights. “We’ve been blown away by the response of people to the project … and the kindness of others along this trip.”

Inspiration for the duo’s journey came not from a dream but desperation.

MacDougall was trying to finish a different film last week when his hard drive began to crash regularly. Knowing that the class assignment was due this Saturday, he remembered an idea that his classmate Warner had come up with months ago.

“Reaction from friends and family was mixed. The majority thought it was a bit overly ambitious. But the minute we committed to it, pretty much everyone got behind us.”

They managed to find out that Freeman was at a fundraiser in a blues club he owns in tiny Clarksdale, Mississippi. Thousands joined a Facebook group in support of the film.

The moviemakers maxed out their credit cards to fly to Memphis and more than $2,000 was donated to their cause.

They bought the very last two tickets to the fundraiser. It turned out the person they sat next to on their plane was also going and had a rental car.

Unfortunately, while Freeman was fine being on camera, he couldn’t narrate Narrated by Morgan Freeman.

“He said he always has to go through his agent for these things,” said MacDougall. But he’s hoping for the ultimate Hollywood ending — Freeman narrating a full-length documentary of their quest.

Source: The Calgary Herald

War Witch, the story of an African child soldier, directed by Montreal filmmaker Kim Nguyen, won best film in the world narrative category.

Also, the film’s 15-year-old star Rachel Mwanza was named best actress in a narrative feature film.

Nguyen shot War Witch in the Congo, where his young lead was previously living on the streets. Mwanza, who earlier won best actress at the Berlin Film Festival, plays a girl kidnapped by rebels, forced into life as a child soldier and concubine of a rebel leader.

The jury said Mwanza “so fully inhabits her role that there are no borders to her stunning performance, no distance at all between the actress and the unforgettable character Komona.”

Promoting the film in Montreal last week, Nguyen told CBC News he discovered Mwanza after watching a documentary about people living on the streets of Kinshasa. She had never acted before, but comes across as fully genuine in the difficult role, he added.

“She could go in all of these emotions, happiness as well as sadness. So, I just asked her and she said she just relates to things she lived in the past,” Nguyen said.

The World Before Her, directed by Canadian Nisha Pahuja, was named best documentary feature.

The film juxtaposes the lives of Indian girls pursuing pageant glory as Miss India with those participating in a Hindu fundamentalist movement.

“The filmmaker takes us on a journey to examine how the pressures of faith, fashion and family are bringing up a generation of women who are desperately searching for meaning amidst a reality of few real choices,” the jury said.

In an recent interview with CBC News, Toronto-based filmmaker Pahuja said her film “reveals one of the key divisions in the country. India is at a kind of precipice — it’s kind of deciding whether it’s going to become modern and secular — it is secular but not quite — or whether it is going to back to tradition and have religion play a key role in politics.”

Winning drama becomes reality
The U.S., U.K. and Cuban film Una Noche was also a major winner, with Dariel Arrechada and Javier Nunez Florian sharing the title of best actor, director Lucy Mulloy named best new narrative director and wins for Una Nocha’s cinematography and photography.

The drama, about poor Cuban teenagers who decide to defect to the U.S., became reality when it emerged that Cuban actor Florian and a fellow performer — actress Analin de la Rua de la Torre — disappeared in Miami during a layover while en route from Havana to New York for the festival. They are presumed to have defected.

Other Tribeca winners include:

New documentary director: Jeroen van Velzen (the Netherlands) for Wavumba.
Editing, documentary feature: The Flat (Hadira), directed by Arnon Goldfinger (Israel, Germany).
Screenplay, narrative feature: All In (La Suerte en Tus Manos), directed by Daniel Burman (Argentina).
Narrative short: Asad, directed by Bryan Buckley (U.S.).
Documentary short: Paraiso, directed by Nadav Kurtz (U.S.).
Student visionary award: Stitches, directed by Adiya Imri Orr (Israel).
“We salute the courage of the jury to award films that not only tell stories about real issues in the world, but are beautifully constructed and crafted,” Tribeca artistic director Frederic Boyer said in a statement.

“The amazing first-time performances by young actors are a tribute to the creativity of the films and filmmakers.”

The Tribeca Film Festival was founded in 2002 following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center to re-energize the TriBeCa neighbourhood in Lower Manhattan. This year’s event ends Sunday, when organizers will screen the winning films at various venues all day.

Source: CBC News

Joining Nanni Moretti, whose presidency of the jury was announced in January, will be four men and four women, with the usual mix of star glamour and serious-minded cinephilia.

Two of the jurors are British: actor Ewan McGregor and writer-director Andrea Arnold. The latter, particularly, owes much to Cannes’ influence, as her first two films, Red Road and Fish Tank, both won the third place jury prize (in 2006 and 2009) after competing for the Palme d’Or.

France has supplied veteran actor Emmanuelle Devos, probably best known internationally for the 2001 thriller Read My Lips, and eccentric designer Jean-Paul Gaultier.

Oscar-winning writer-director Alexander Payne is the sole US representative on the jury; his only film in competition to date has been About Schmidt in 2002.

The panel is rounded out by: German actor Diane Kruger, whose most high profile film is (arguably) Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds; Palestinian actor Hiam Abbass, whose Lemon Tree was an international hit in 2008; and Haiti-born director Raoul Peck, best known for the documentary Lumumba, about the Congolese president.

The Cannes film festival opens on 16 May.

Source: The Guardian

The government axed the Saskatchewan Film Employment Tax Credit (SFETC) in the budget released in March. 

Petitioners hope to gain enough signatures to sway the Wall government into creating a new incentive program.

“I have little kids, I own properties here, I, I, I can’t even conceive a future where I’m not making animation here in Sask,” said local animator Tim Tyler.

Premier Brad Wall has said his government would consider alternatives in the future.

“I’d really like to see government supporting culture in whatever way they can,” said film producer Sandhya Padmanabh.

The deadline for applications under the existing SFETC program was extended from March 31st to June 30th.

The petitions will be personally mailed to Brad Wall in mid-May.

Source: Global Saskatoon

Boyer joined festival founders Robert De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal for an opening presentation Wednesday in lower Manhattan where movies will be shown until April 29.

The 89 films, including 50 world premiers, and 60 short films were selected from 46 countries for Tribeca.

Boyer, who was recently in charge of the Directors’ Fortnight at the much bigger Cannes festival, said he sees room for Tribeca to expand.
“In Cannes there’s a lot of pressure, because it’s the biggest festival in the world and it’s also a market. Most people don’t want to miss Cannes for strategic and financial reasons,” he told AFP. “Now, people ask themselves, ‘Why not do Tribeca?’ You can do a premiere here, there’s huge media and the US public.”

Choosing films for Tribeca required an open mind, he said.

“A program it’s like a menu, it’s an adventure. We want the audience, like us, to be moved, to be educated by films,” he said at the opening press conference.

“We don’t choose a film because it’s African, we chose the film because it’s good,” he said.

Boyer said he’s a fan of art house films but he’s also “very pop culture. I love rock, and blockbusters when they’re good.”

That flexibility invited an avalanche of candidates for the 2012 program: 3,090 full-length films and documentaries and 2,860 short films, beating the then record total of 5,624 offers last year.

Among contestants for the six prizes in the official contest are “All In” by Argentina’s Daniel Burman, “Unit 7″ from Spain’s Alberto Rodriguez, and the US-Mexican “The Girl” by David Riker.

Documentary subjects include Kenyan fishermen, Coptic Christians in Egypt, handicapped lovers in South Korea and Chinese youths rebelling against Internet censorship.

Outside the official competition are films including “As Luck Would Have It” from Spain’s Alex de la Iglesia, and “Xingu,” from Brazilian Cao Hamburger, which tells the story of three brothers taking part in the settling of the Mato Grosso wilderness.

Tribeca was founded in 2002 in a bid to help the neighborhood around the destroyed World Trade Center to recover. Although it isn’t an A-list festival, it has established a following.

“We founded Tribeca in response to 9/11. We’re entering our second decade and we are really excited about what Tribeca is today. We continue with our core principles: community, innovation, discovery and industry,” Rosenthal said.

Source: AFP