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Insights from home entertainment industry experts. Home Media blogs give you the inside scoop on entertainment news, DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases, and the happenings at key studios and entertainment retailers. TK's Take analyzes and comments on home entertainment industry news and trends, Agent DVD Insider talks comic adaptations, and IndieFile delivers independent film news.

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November 13, 2009
News From AFM 2009

This year IndieFile is reporting updates from the American Film Market (AFM). This page will be updated as news comes in, so check back. If you have news, please send it to indiefile@questex.com or bgil@questex.com.

• More acquisitions — Indican Pictures has acquired Re-generation, a sci-fi film they compare to the likes of Blade Runner and Twelve Monkeys. Starring Peter Stebbings and Clark Johnson, the film will be released in February 2010. Additionally, Breaking Glass has acquired distribution rights for the catalog of Unearthed Films (formerly distributed by TLA Releasing), comprising 26 titles. The deal includes U.S. and select international VOD rights. 

• Nov. 9 — Some news from Cinema Epoch on acquisitions: The company has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Skirt Day, starring Isabelle Adjani. Adjani stars as a teacher at a school for “difficult” children who becomes inadvertently involved in a hostage crisis. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. The film will be released theatrically in early Spring and is one of Cinema Epoch's first theatrical acquisitions in the arthouse/foreign language market. Cinema Epoch also acquired North American distribution rights to Korean films Eye for an Eye and Fighter in the Wind from sales company Finecut, as part of Cinema Epoch's theatrical series of contemporary Korean cinema, which will screen in a tour of U.S. Cities, followed by DVD releases. More titles in the series are forthcoming.

 

•    Nov. 8 — A panel on changing independent film strategies backs the adage “the more things change, the more things stay the same” — everyone wants a theatrical release, but getting one and having it be successful is trickier than ever (read more here).

But perhaps the strangest thing I heard — or rather, saw — at AFM was footage of Michael Jackson's Neverland estate. And not the pseudo-crazy stuff — the private wing, with junk strewn about everywhere, Christmas garland permanently adorning the stairway and childlike mannequins all over the place. The footage was apparently taken during a police investigation. Alexander Nohe of Walking Shadows has seven hours of this stuff he's selling. Hey look, This is It has already made close to $60 million in the U.S. Alone. My guess is he won't have too much trouble finding a buyer.

•    The 30th AFM is playing host to more than 80 newly accredited acquisition companies, according to Jonathan Wolf, AFM managing director and EVP of the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA). That more than doubles the number of first-time participants in most previous years. This year AFM is screening 486 films in 28 languages, including 75 world premieres and 328 market premieres.

•    Artist View for the 20th year held an opening night party, at Ye Olde King's Head Pub in Santa Monica, Calif. Filmmakers and cast from MTI Home Video films Pandemic and California Dreaming were in attendance. Pictured (L-R): Scott Jones, president, Artist View Entertainment; Patricia Richardson, actress, California Dreaming; Ricki Maslar, producer, Pandemic; Larry Brahms, president, MTI Home Video.

 

•    Artist View also picked up worldwide distribution for psychological thriller 31 North 62 East, starring John Rhys-Davies of “Lord of the Rings” fame; crime thriller Chicago Overcoat, starring Frank Vincent and Kathrine Narducci of “The Sopranos”; and suspense thriller The Other Side of the Tracks, starring stars Brendan Fehr (“Bones”) and Tanyia Ramond (“Lost”).

•    Bass Entertainment Pictures has inked with Epic Pictures Group for the international releases of psychological thriller Junkyard Dog, starring Vivica A. Fox and Brad Dourif, and action film Kill Speed, starring Andrew Keegan, Nick Carter and Tom Arnold. Both films screened at AFM. Epic also nabbed domestic distribution rights to Kill Speed.

•    Producer/director Damian Chapa (Polanski Unauthorized) and actress and co-producer Leslie Garza host the world premiere of Bobby Fischer Live, telling chess champ Bobby Fischer’s life story, at the Fairfax Theater in Los Angeles Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m., with a red carpet at 6:30 p.m. Worldwide rights are available through Amadeus Pictures.

•    American Cinema International (ACI) has acquired two comedies from writing/directing team the Polish Brothers: Stay Cool, starring Winona Ryder, Mark Polish, Sean Astin, Hilary Duff, Josh Holloway, Jon Cryer and Chevy Chase; and Smell of Success, with Billy Bob Thorton, Teo Leoni and Kyle MacLachlan.
 

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October 21, 2009
SXSW Holds Design Competition

Film design folk, take note: the SXSW Film Festival is holding a title sequence design competition. The first-ever “Excellence in Title Design” award will be given to the best movie title sequence at the festival, taking place in Austin March 12-20, 2010. There also will be an “Excellence in Poster Design” award given.

Entries will be judged by Kyle Cooper of Prologue Films, who directed the sequences for Paramount’s Iron Man and Tropic Thunder; Karin Fong of Imaginary Forces, whose work has appeared in the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, The Wexner Center and publications; Alex Ulloa of The Art of the Title Sequence, a Web resource on film and TV title design, and Femke Wolting of Submarine Channel, an online channel and production company. Submissions are open, and the deadline to submit is Friday, Dec. 11, 2009. The submission fee is $10. Submissions must be hosted online (through such mediums as YouTube HD and Vimeo, or personal or professional sites). Check it out at sxsw.com/film/screenings/design_awards.
 

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October 13, 2009
AFM Announces Screening Schedule

The 30th American Film Market (AFM) is just around the corner, and the schedule has been announced, with 445 films screening, 73 of those being world premieres and 311 market premieres. The schedule is available at www.TheFilmCatalogue.com.

Stars of the films include Steve Buscemi, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Robert Duvall, Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, James McAvoy, Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore, Sissy Spacek, Natalie Portman and Naomi Watts. Who doesn’t love all of those people?

AFM takes place Nov. 4-11, at and around the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. Premieres include Get Low, starring Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek and Robert Duvall (K5 International); Unthinkable, starring Samuel L. Jackson (Sierra Pictures); Harry Brown, starring Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer (HanWay Films); Within The Whirlwind, directed by Marleen Gorris and starring Emily Watson (Telepool GmbH); Coach, starring Hugh Dancy, Liane Balaban and Mamie Gummer (Lightning Entertainment); The Last Flight, starring Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet (Gaumont); Snowmen, starring Ray Liotta, Christopher Lloyd, Bobby Coleman and Doug E. Doug (MPower Pictures); Mother and Child, starring Naomi Watts, Annette Bening, Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington (WestEnd Films); Storm Warriors, starring Aaron Kwok, Ekin Cheng, Nicholas Tse, Charlene Choi and Simon Yam (Universe Films); and The Meaning of the 21st Century, narrated by Michael Douglas (Worldwide Film Entertainment).

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September 09, 2009
People’s Choice, AFM Team for Contest

The People’s Choice Awards and American Film Market (AFM) have partnered for the Favorite Film Pitch contest, which sounds like an “American Idol” for independent film.

Those attending AFM Nov. 4-11 can get their pitches in front of producers, distributors and — gasp — you and I, the voting public. Submissions will be recorded live Nov. 7-10 on a mini-set at AFM. Pitches will be limited to two-and-a-half minutes, and industry folk will pick five finalists to be posted on www.peopleschoice.com after the 2010 People’s Choice Awards airs in January. Fans will pick which movie gets made.
 
The winner will receive the Favorite Film Pitch award and an AFM 2010 package with full access for two to AFM, airfare for two to Los Angeles, hotel for five nights in Santa Monica and scheduled meetings with producers and distributors. Full details are at www.AmericanFilmMarket.com/FavoriteFilmPitch.
 
This sounds a bit like Netflix’s FIND Your Voice competition, and like that contest, it’s a nice gesture toward struggling independent filmmakers. Personally I can’t wait to see these in action. I just hope they post the really bad ones somewhere a la “Idol.”

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September 03, 2009
Register for AFM

The American Film Market is here once again, and registration is open through Oct. 14. The event takes place Nov. 4-11 at the lovely Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel and surrounding theaters. Lots of deal-making takes place at AFM, such as securing the funding for Peter Jackson’s District 9. I was there last year, and I couldn’t have had a nicer time talking to distributors and filmmakers alike. AFM gets a big thumbs up from us for showing IndieFile some love and promoting us on their site. Thanks, AFM!

Register here.
 

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