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AFM brieFs Uncork’d rises with Moon UK genre specialist Jinga has sold Jeremy Wooding’s werewolf Western Blood Moon, starring Shaun Dooley, to Uncork’d Entertainment for North America.
Raven lights up Dark Sky Raven Banner has picked up Canadian rights from Dark Sky Films/MPI to a trio of genre titles. The deal covers SXSW Midnighters’ Late Phases directed by Adrian Garcia Bogliano; Starry Eyes from directors Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer and producer Travis Stevens; and Conor McMahon’s Fantastic Fest premiere From The Dark.
Mandela Fest packs in 400 titles By WenDy MiTchell
The new Mandela International Film Festival is gearing up for its inaugural edition to run December 3-13, 2015 in Port Elizabeth’s Nelson Mandela Bay in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, is a patron of the festival. Festival founder David Selvan, a media lawyer and executive producer, told Screen: “We honour
Double does Trilight triple Double Dutch International president Jason Moring has secured worldwide sales rights from Trilight Entertainment to Archie: Robodog, The Adventure Club and Derailed Dreams.
Mandela and what Mandela stood for.” The festival theme will be “hope and reconciliation” and all 400 films playing at the festival will be connected to that theme. Films will be selected in all genres from around the globe, and the festival will showcase classic films as well as new ones. Directors and actors will be recruited to programme some of their favourite films related to the theme.
Vinnie Jones stars as the handler of a retired FBI agent who is framed in a presidential assassination plot in Decommissioned, which Cardinal XD has introduced to AFM buyers. Timothy Woodward Jr directs; Johnny Messner, James Remar, Estella Warren and Michael Paré also star.
Around 40 films will be about Mandela himself and members of his family will speak. The team says the festival, planned as an annual event from 2015 onwards, will have an “intellectual character” and include debates, panels and masterclasses. The festival will aim to showcase South Africa as a shooting location and co-production partner, as well as showing off the tourism appeal
of the Eastern Cape. Backers of the event so far include local and national government, the House of Mandela, South African Tourism, Vodacom and Thebe Investment Corporation. The delegation from the festival attending AFM includes Selvan, chief marketing officer Manzini Zungu, head of sponsorship Naniwe Maqetuka and US representative Regis Brown. » mandelafilmfestival.com
EFM head talks TV, doc focus By WenDy MiTchell
Matthijs Wouter Knol, the new director of Berlin’s European Film Market, is looking to spotlight TV series and documentaries as special themes at the 2015 edition. EFM Series, announced last month, will run February 9-10. It will not aim to be a fully fledged TV market but will connect the associated parts of the film and TV
businesses. “It will partly overlap with our usual attendees,” Knol said, “and bring in new buyers, commissioners and producers.” Berlinale Co-Production market will add an extra day (February 10) to overlap with EFM Series. There will also be a focus on docs and there will be a more visible platform for producers to network at EFM.
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6 Screen International at AFM November 8, 2014
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