Technology Business

Cape Town-based The Blackheart Gang completed an animation last year entitled "The Tale of How'. It recently received the prestigious award Best Independent Film on the British Animation Festival The animation has been shown on a number of the world’s top film festivals such as 100 Poins of Light, The RightEye Short Film Festival, Resfest, onedotzero, Nicktoons animation Festival (top ten), Animago, Edit, Norwich, Clipped, ALTER-NATIVE 14, Woodstock Film Festival (Honourary mention) Cleremont-Ferrand Film Festival and Nemo Film Festival.

Italy's Ministry of Culture has announced that the Venice Film Festivals long awaited renovated venue will be completed in 2010.

Media group Primedia told Business Day on Wednesday 10 January that it had been approached by a consortium of investors wanting to buy it out. Based on a possible buyout, Primedia shares surged 15% higher at R23 on the JSE after the announcement. Its "N' shares were 11,1% higher at R22, valuing the group at R5,4bn.

On 9 January, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) announced the nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for the year 2006.

John Barker’s film "Bunny Chow' has been selected to compete in the Rotterdam Film Festival’s Tiger Awards, to be held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, from 24 January to 4 February. This screening will be its European premier.

Hollywood’s awards season is well underway and the latest list of nominees to be announced is that of the Visual Effects Society (VES), which celebrate VFX work across film, broadcast and music videos.

The 57th Berlin International Film Festival (8 - 18 February) has announced the names of films it has selected for this year’s Competition. The selection for the Competition films will be completed by mid-January.

Leonardo DiCaprio received three nominations in the SAG Award nominations announced on Thursday 4 January. He was recognised for "Blood Diamond" in which he plays the lead character, for his supporting role in "The Departed" and also as a cast contributior in the latter.

Director CB Hackworth's documentary "Rwanda Rising" has been selected to open the 15th annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival which runs from 8 - 19 February.

British Sky Broadcasting has announced that it is on track to reach its target of 25 percent Sky+ DVR penetration in advance of the original 2010 deadline. This week it passed the 2 million mark.