South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp shot on location in Johannesburg for his new sci-fi feature Chappie. The movie looks set to boost South Africa’s production profile, but the country faces a challenge providing the studio facilities to meet growing international demand.
The entry window for film submissions to this year’s Berlin fashion Film Festival (BfFF) closes on 20 March next week. The festival celebrates branded video content focussing on fashion, lifestyle and luxury, and the festival has announced its jury for this year.
Reese Witherspoon’s Wild and Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel were the movie winners over the weekend at the Location Managers Guild of America (LMGA) Awards in Beverly Hills. Five hundred industry professionals and press attended the ceremony.
The major new Chinese filming facility Wanda Studios Qingdao has made its debut at the AFCI Locations Show. Scheduled to open in mid-2017 in the Shandong Province of eastern China, the studios will be a subsidiary of Dalian Wanda Group and are set to span nearly 500 acres.
New feature The Truth Commissioner will spend the next five weeks filming on location in Belfast and Dublin, and other parts of the Republic. Belfast is home to Game of Thrones and Dublin hosts shows including Vikings and Ripper Street.
Somesuch filmed on location in New Zealand for a new spot promoting Asics’ running footwear. Entitled It's a Big World. Go Run It, the spot shows runners responding to a rallying call and jogging across cities, through forests and across mountains to converge on a remote ridge.
New period drama Agnus Dei has wrapped seven weeks of location filming in Poland. Based on a true story, the film is set in 1945 and follows a young intern with the French Red Cross helping repatriate French survivors of the German death camps.
The Mayor of Los Angeles has appointed a film liaison officer to help make the city more film-friendly. California’s filming incentive programme gets a major boost this summer and city departments in Los Angeles will also get more funding to help them increase filming services.