News

A panda travels to Africa to save his kidnapped dragon bestie in this bland, animated attempt to imitate some distinguished predecessors

Here is an animated feature, financed by production companies spanning the European Union, about a panda and his dragon best friend having adventures in Africa; it is, to be honest, sensationally derivative and not on the same level as Pixar, Disney or even Dreamworks films at their best. Even those studios are very derivative these days, quite inferior to their best from just a few years back. But it doesn’t really matter because most kids are fantastically uncritical viewers, bless them, so this ought to earn back in receipts the equivalent of its tax exemptions at least.

Judging by the smooth rendering and thoughtful character design, the film-makers probably spent a fair few euros pulling it together, but it comes perilously close to competitors’ intellectual property, especially The Lion King...

Clemenger Bbdo Melbourne was named agency of the year at the Melbourne Advertising & Design Club Awards tonight.

The agency won top honours for the second year running. However, rival Gpy&R Melbourne – which won more lions at Cannes this year than any Australian agency – did not enter for the second consecutive year. Last year, Patts Ecd Ben Coulson cited cost reasons for not supporting the event, which is Melbourne’s top awards show.

The awards list in full:

The Adstream Award for Agency of the Year

Winner

Clemenger Bbdo Melbourne

The Madc Award for Best in Show

Winner

Guilt Trips V/Line Agency McCann

The Madc Award for Lifetime Achievement

Winner

Scott Whybin, Whybin Tbwa

The Blackley Award for Creative Leader of the Year

Winner

Jason Williams, Leo Burnett

The Madc Award for Client of the Year

Winner

Carlton United Brewers

The Exit Films Award for Best Junior

Winners

Jono...

Christa Wolf, one of the best-known writers from the former East Germany whose works described war and politics from a woman's perspective, has died," reports the AP. "She was 82."

"Her first big success was the novel Divided Heaven, which deals with the divided Germany," noted Die Zeit in a biographical sketch that accompanied an interview that ran in 2005. "The book won her the prestigious East German Heinrich Mann Prize, and was made into a movie by East German filmmaker Konrad Wolf in 1964."

From that lengthy interview conducted by Hanns-Bruno Kammertöns and Stephan Lebert and translated by signandsight: "It's still my book with the highest run. One of the official reproaches in the Gdr, apart from criticism of its content, was to say that it was written in too 'modern' a fashion. I can't say it still corresponds to my idea of literature at its best. But after that I wrote...

And here's the rest, including the Midnight Section, all after the break.

Encounters

This collection of engaging and entertaining narrative features and documentaries, a mixture of dark comedies and lighter fare, offers work from returning filmmakers, established talent, and popular subjects, and includes 10 World Premieres. Included in Encounters are performances from Academy Award®-nominated actors Thomas Haden Church, Melissa Leo, Elisabeth Shue; directorial debuts from both Eric Bana and Cheryl Hines (from a screenplay by Adrienne Shelly); stories ranging from an ill-fated man's discovery of inspiration and happiness, dysfunctional families, and unrequited high school crushes to a doc on the emergence of New York’s independent film scene.

• Blank City, directed by Celine Danhier. (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Celine Danhier’s kinetic doc mirrors the urgent, anything-goes energy of her subject: the Diy independent film movement that emerged in tandem with punk rock in late ‘70s downtown New York.

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands -- Will the Dutch stay in touch with the Dutch? That is the main concern of the film community in the Netherlands this year. Last year's local market share dropped below 10%, from more than 13% in 2003, leaving the industry reflecting on how to improve results this year. The irony is that in the past few years, local films had managed to gain the confidence of a skeptical local audience that traditionally has been lukewarm to national product. Since 1999, Dutch market share had nearly tripled, spurring optimism among Dutch producers. Better promotional campaigns and casting popular television stars like soap actors Katja Schuurman, Georgina Verbaan and Daan Schuurmans resulted in more efficient targeting of the youth audience. In particular, NL Film, the production house of producer-director Johan Nijenhuis, had a string of successes with such titles as Costa! and Full Moon.