WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE WORLD OF ENTERTAINMENT?

• ATTENDANCE DROPS AT AFM

This year’s American Film Market had bad luck with the number of attendees. Numbers from world’s top entertainment markets, including the US, Japan, and the UK significantly dropped. However, there were new players in the field who seemed a bit more willing to lay money on new titles. Some of these new players include the Middle East, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

Despite the drop in the number of attendees and deals, there was no significant reduction in the prices during negotiations. This is evidently due to the fact that theatrical box office is still holding up in many territories, DVD is weakening, and sales to TV have been mostly miserable.

There was much discontent and disappointment amongst both sellers and buyers. "We've had to work very hard to get to the same point; it has taken longer," said Focus' Thompson.

The number of films screened at the market also dropped compared to last year.

To read this article, please visit: www.variety.com/article/VR1117995784.html?categoryid=13&cs=1


* Got any news to spread? Send them to eg@filmannex.com and we’ll publish it on our next newsletter!


WHAT'S NEW ON FILM ANNEX?

• FILM ANNEX PARTNERS WITH FESTIVAL DEI POPOLI, FLORENCE TO PROMOTE THE FILMMAKERS FROM THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL

Film Annex has partnered with Festival Dei Popoli in order to promote the filmmakers whose films are being screened at this year’s festival, 49th edition starting November 14th in Florence.

Through the collaboration between Film Annex and Festival Dei Popoli, the filmmakers will be able to promote their films on Film Annex’s online platform for free. Film Annex will give the filmmakers the opportunity to create advertising revenues and also enable them to sell their past and current productions. Film Annex will give the filmmakers 100% of the revenues from these sales and assist them in finding the right theatrical and TV distributors to set up further distribution deals.

Film Annex and Festival Dei Popoli work together to promote the filmmakers from this year’s festival by enabling them to reach 2.5 million people through Film Annex’s online platform in addition to the audience that will crowd the streets of Florence in a few days.

To visit the Film Annex page of Festival Dei Popoli, go to:
www.filmannex.com/FestivaldeiPopoli

MIAMI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS FOR ITS FLORIDA FOCUS SHORT FILM COMPETITION

MIAMI, Oct. 31, 2008 – The Miami International Film Festival (MIFF), a Miami Dade College (MDC) Cultural experience, recently announced its first Florida-based film competition. Festival organizers will accept submissions for the Florida Focus Short Film Competition from Nov. 1 until Dec. 31, 2008. Winners will be announced during the 26th Annual Miami International Film Festival being held March 6-15, 2009. The competition is open to amateurs as well as professionals and includes two specific categories – Miami Minis Shorts and Student Social Shorts.

For more information, visit: www.filmannex.com/posts/blog_show_post/miami-international-film-festival-accepting-submissions-for-its-florida-focus-short-film-competition/2498

WHAT SHOULD I WATCH ON FILM ANNEX?


BEAT THE DEVIL

This week’s classic is Beat the Devil directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart. Film Annex Classic Film Adviser Baxter Martin says, “Although the film was not liked by some who made it, notably Humphrey Bogart, Beat The Devil survives as a testament for what a great writing team (Huston and Truman-Capote), great crew and a great cast can create. It’s as if the lines were born for this cast of actors and actresses to play.”

Synopsis: On their way to Africa, Bogey and Gina Lollobrigida get stranded in Italy while waiting for steamboat repairs. A band of rogues are also on hand, and these weird, seedy characters sit around in off-kilter close-ups and exchange wry dialogue. Eventually it's revealed that they all have secret plans involving Uranium deposits. It's nearly incomprehensible at times, and yet it has a captivating vibe that makes it compulsively watchable. It was a flop but has subsequently become a cult classic.

To watch the film for free, go to: www.filmannex.com/movie/film/312/beat-the-devil


TERMINALLY AMBIVALENT OVER YOU

Directed by the award-winning animation filmmaker Alex Budovsky, Terminally Ambivalent Over You tells the story of a prisoner who works in a prison's gramophone factory and thinks of his girlfriend while assembling the gramophones.

The short film was chosen “Official Selection” at Krok International Animated Film Festival in 2003 (Russia/Ukraine) and at the Ottawa Student Film Festival in 2003. This film is based on Stephen Coates' song from the album "When Psyche meets Cupid".

To watch this film go to: www.filmannex.com/movie/film/766/terminally_ambivalent_over_you


THE NEW LIFE

Triggered by Dante Alighieri’s "Vita Nova", albeit not an adaptation, The New Life shows how a man’s ideal world crumbles as he discovers that his life is nothing but a fantasy conjured by the darkest of beings. An atmospheric supernatural tale about demonic possession.

The film won Honourable Mention at Fano International Film Festival, the Scream Queen Award at A Night Of Horror, the Gold Remi at WorldFest Houston, the Jury's Prize at Cryptshow Festival, and the Best Horror Short at Illinois International Film Festival.

To watch the film, go to: www.filmannex.com/movie/film/394/the_new_life


WHAT ELSE IS PLAYING? WHAT'S GOOD?

• SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

Synopsis: The story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions. Intrigued by Jamal's story, the jaded Police Inspector begins to wonder what a young man with no apparent desire for riches is really doing on this game show? When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out...

* Opens today. Check out locations and show times here: movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809956055/details

• THE WILD CHILD

Don’t miss the chance to see this new incredible 35 MM print of The Wild Child by Francois Truffaut (1970).

Synopsis: 1970) 1798, and farmers in the south of France, on the hunt for a predator, find it’s a naked young boy, presumably grown up in the wild without human contact. As the latest sensation, he’s paraded before fee-paying gawkers at the institute for the deaf and dumb, as Dr. Itard (played by director Truffaut) debates with his mentor Dr. Pinel as to his fate — a purely natural human, a tabula rasa, or simply an idiot? Aided by his housekeeper, Truffaut takes the boy into his home in an attempt to educate and civilize him — but, as he notes, babies take eighteen months to learn to talk. Based on an actual case, with its voiceover narration (delivered staccato-style by Truffaut) an adaptation of Itard’s two reports into diary form, this is the director’s nearest approach to documentary, with Nestor Almendros’ striking b&w photography evoking the earliest days of the cinema and a much-imitated all-Vivaldi score.

*Playing at the FILM FORUM, NYC through November 20th. For more information, visit: www.filmforum.org/films/wildchild.html


Seen anything good? Send your reviews to eg@filmannex.com and we’ll publish them on our next newsletter!


WHAT EVENTS SHOULD I NOT MISS?

• FESTIVAL DEI POPOLI, FLORENCE, ITALY

If you’re passing through Florence for one reason or the other, don’t forget to stop by the 49th Festival Dei Popoli to see some great works by both established and emerging filmmakers.

In the making of the 49th edition of the Festival dei Popoli, the Director and the Selection Committee viewed more than 2,500 films. Among them, more than 1,500 were directly submitted to the Festival dei Popoli, while the others were viewed at International Documentary Film Festivals around the world.

For more information, visit: www.festivaldeipopoli.org/en/blog/see_news/2008/49th-festival-dei-popoli-instruction-for-use/8


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