The really good news is that the South African Oscar-nominated film, Tsotsi, is at the number four spot, with R864 734 in just one week. This is an impressive result considering it is more of an arthouse film rather than a mainstream release.
In number two spot is Jim Carrey’s Fun With Dick & Jane, followed by Charlize Theron’s Oscar-nominated performance in North Country. Sky High, a family film about Superheroes, is in fifth place.
If you book before Monday 13 March, you can save €300 (R2,200) on your participant registration to all the events at both MIPTV and MILIA which takes place from 3 – 7 April (Monday to Friday) in Cannes, France
From 8 February until 13 March ~ € 990 + VAT
After 13 March, the participant fee will be as follows ~
From 14 March until 31 March ~ €1190 + VAT
From 1 April (Walk in) ~ €1290 + VAT
REGISTER ONLINE NOW AT www.miptv.com, OR contact SCREEN AFRICA – we will be happy to send you the email registration form and information. Contact Angela on angela@screenafrica.com
or Tel 011 719 4380
MIPTV (3 – 7 April)
is considered the world’s premiere television market. Held in the seaside resort setting of Cannes in France, MIPTV 2006 offers five days of non-stop action., whether you are buying or selling programming, or making contacts with key decision-makers.
More than 10,000 broadcasters, producers, distributors and production companies from over 99 countries attended MIPTV. MIPTV offers an opportunity to meet the world in 5 days in one place which represents a saving in time and money.
Please check www.miptv.com for more information.
MILIA (3 – 7 April)
the leading global forum for owners, buyers and distributors of digital content and new interactive technologies, runs alongside MIPTV. MILIA is a great place for key operators to get together and generate new mobile, broadband and interactive TV business. It features –
WHO SHOULD ATTEND MIPTV / MILIA:
THE CONFERENCE PROGRAMME is considered outstanding by international delegates. This year it will continue to cover the major shifts within the TV and entertainment industry.
Conference highlights –
The Egyptian Radio & Television Union (ERTU) organised and coordinated this year’s African Cup and acted as the host broadcasting organization.
The ERTU decided to streamline the coverage of the event and placed an order for 5 brand new XT Series Servers in addition to the 4 existing EVS servers already operated by the broadcaster.
Stadiums across Egypt including Cairo, Alexandria, Ismailia, and Port Saïd, were each equipped with 2 XT Series Servers (6 channels) recording directly from multiple cameras (10 to 14 cameras depending on the stadium) to cover all the action during the games. Each XT server was equipped with the Multicam LSM & XNet software application used to instantaneously produce slow motion replays, clips, and highlights of the best angles and shots ingested during the game. Thanks to XNet high speed, high bandwidth network (540Mbps/1,5 Gb/sec), the operators were able to share media in real-time without having to duplicate the content.
“Our recent order for EVS tapeless technology, showcased by the powerful XT Series platform, has enabled us to provide a large choice of footage for such an important event as the African Cup of Nation,” said Mahmoud Gaber, General Manager of Studios Projects, ERTU. .
SportFive, who owns the TV rights for the 2006 edition of the African Cup of Nations, provided the international “clean feed” signal (video + 4 audio channels) from the different venues and redistributed the signal to the world broadcasters including SABC, Eurosport, BBC, ARD, ZDF, TV5, TeleSud, Lc2, MNET, ERTU, 2M, RTM, ESPN, NHK, and Fuji TV
EVS Technology controlled most of the content delivery allowing the ERTU and SportFive to offer viewers the best images of this international event.
After the Africa Cup of Nations, ERTU integrated some of these new systems in their existing OB vans as well as in their studio.
Virgin Mobile will join forces with NTL and Microsoft launch what is expected to be Europe’s first nationwide digital television broadcast service for mobile phones. Confirmation of the service is expected to made at 3GSM in Barcelona.
Virgin Mobile, which is the target of a potential £920m ( approx R9bn) offer by NTL, is preparing to launch the TV service to subscribers by the middle of the year. A four-month trial was held in 2005. Virgin Mobile TV, as it is expected to be called, will run over the UK’s established digital audio broadcast (DAB) network.
It is expected to offer at least five TV stations and access to a large number of radio channels. The service is offered on a wholesale basis by BT as the ‘Movio’ service which it has developed in conjunction with Microsoft. TV Licensing has warned UK mobile phone TV viewers that they still need a valid licence. Failure to have a licence could mean a fine of £1,000 (R11 000)
Confirmation of the service is expected to made at 3GSM in Barcelona shortly
Virgin Mobile, which is the target of a potential £920m ( approx R9bn) offer by NTL, is preparing to launch the TV service to subscribers by the middle of the year. A four-month trial was held in 2005. Virgin Mobile TV, as it is expected to be called, will run over the UK’s established digital audio broadcast (DAB) network.
It is expected to offer at least five TV stations and access to a large number of radio channels. The service is offered on a wholesale basis by BT as the ‘Movio’ service which it has developed in conjunction with Microsoft. TV Licensing has warned UK mobile phone TV viewers that they still need a valid licence. Failure to have a licence could mean a fine of £1,000 (R11 000)
Confirmation of the service is expected to made at 3GSM in Barcelona shortly
Tsotsi is creeping up Cinema Nouveau’s Top 10 films (screened by Jameson) for the past weekend, Friday 10 Feb – Sunday 12 February 2006.
Entrant companies can now submit work for the 53rd Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in all categories – Film, Press, Outdoor, Lions Direct, Media Lions, Cyber Lions, Radio Lions, Titanium Lions and the new category, Promo Lions.
Entry forms can be completed online at www.canneslions.com
Deadlines:
Press & Outdoor Entries: 10 March 2006
Film Entries: 10 March 2006
Radio Lions Entries: 17 March 2006
Lions Direct Entries: 17 March 2006
Promo Lions Entries: 17 March 2006
Media Lions Entries: 17 March 2006
Cyber Lions Entries: 24 March 2006
Titanium Entries: 24 March 2006
Delegate Registrations are already open. To attend the Festival, please go to www.canneslions.com
In the past SA has not always had good representation in the Cannes Lions International Festival jury line-up. This year, however, SA can look forward to six judges from SA in six out of seven categories.
The SA Cannes Lions jury selection is;
Film: Sandra de Witt
TBWA\Hunt Lascaris
Press: Rob McLennan
JWT South Africa
Outdoor: Wing Wing Mdulwa
AfricaExtraBold
Media: Lucinda Dare
FCB
Direct: Andrew Ambrogioni
Action Ambro’s
Radio: Brett Morris
FCB
Andrew Cuthbertson, General Manager of The INC comments; “Independent Newspapers assumed custodianship for Cannes Lions this year and what a year to kick-off with. Cannes Lions’ selected a full house of jury members from South Africa with jurors in six of the seven categories. We offer our congratulations to those chosen to represent SA in what is the most important advertising festival in the world. We also look forward to fully developing the Cannes Lions brand in conjunction with The Creative Circle.”
Alistair King, Chairperson of The Creative Circle comments; “We are truly delighted. The panel is fantastic and will proudly represent us. Being selected in so many categories is indicative of our level of creative excellence and of the respect our industry has developed over the past few years. As we work in complex markets compared to the homogeneous first-world we see things differently, bringing a fresh and unique take on creativity. This is what we bring to Cannes.”
The five, stand alone short feature films based on the Emmy Award-nominated local series Zero Tolerance, which began broadcasting on SABC2 on 4 February, present a new challenging approach to producing films in SA.
Co-produced by Cinga Productions and Ochre Media, the process has been to take themes from already established material and re-edit them to create an original series of films.
Cinga Productions spokesperson Sara Blecher states: “The Zero Tolerance feature movies were only conceived after the material had been successfully completed as a drama series. We believe this is an exciting, alternative approach to filmmaking in SA, as lack of sufficient finances often makes the production of films impossible.”
Zero Tolerance is loosely based on cases solved by South Africa’s elite crime fighting organisation, The Scorpions, and stars top local actors including Moshidi Motshegwa, Patrick Shai, Meshack Mavuso, Nick Boraine, Terence Bridgett, Ben Kruger and Kim Engelbrecht.
The Zero Tolerance films explore a wide range of gripping topics including Arms Deal corruption in SA, the Afrikaaner uprising in Lichtenburg and the prophesies of Siener Van Rensburg, drug cartels and the country’s horrific rape cases.
The South African Government has introduced a Large Budget Film and Television Production Rebate Scheme (“the rebate”) whereby an eligible applicant will be rebated a sum totalling 15 per cent for foreign productions or 25 per cent for qualifying South African Productions including official co-productions of the Qualifying South Africa Production Expenditure (“QSAPE”) that the applicant has spent on an eligible film production. A finite sum has been allocated over an initial three-year period. The maximum rebate for each project will be R10 million in order to attract an optimum number of productions.
The objective is to provide an additional financial incentive for the production of both foreign and domestic large budget film and television projects in South Africa. In establishing the rebate, the Government recognises that large budget film productions contribute to South Africa’s economic development and international profile by providing valuable economic, employment and skill development opportunities for the South African film production industry. The rebate will ensure that South Africa remains competitive in attracting large budget film productions from abroad. These guidelines set out the eligibility rules for the rebate and outline the process involved in applying. The rules may be subject to change from time to time.
A successful provisional application will depend on the availability of funds. Before making an application, applicants should check with the South African Department of Trade and Industry (“the dti”), which administers the rebate. If a provisional certificate has been issued the funds will be reserved to fulfil a successful final application. The issuing of a provisional or final certificate is at the discretion of the dti panel and the decision of the panel is final. The rebate is tax exempt for the purposes of income tax. The Departments of Trade and Industry, Arts and Culture and Communication have jointly formulated a strategy to develop the content industries. The collaborative effort is recognition that the content industries are a concurrent competency between the three government departments. In particular, content constitutes cultural artefact, a tradeable commodity as well as a medium for television programmes, cinema, animation, video, electronic games and any other audio-visual mode of packaging. The relevance, interest and role of the three departments are self evident given this perspective.
This submission was informed by consultations with The National Film & Video Foundation (NFVF) that has been engaging the industry about the future direction of the film and television content industry since 1999. It was also informed by consultations with the South African Revenue Services about the existing tax incentives regime available for the content industries as well as the South African Programme Production and Digital Broadcast Advisory Body Reports that were presented to Cabinet in 2002 (refer to paragraph 3.5.19 of the minutes of the Cabinet dated 4 December 2002).
