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2008

Abu Dhabi

3/9 -

imagenation abu dhabi, a newly-created company, announces its intention to invest $1 billion of its oil revenue in motion picture productions over the next five years. [MORE]

Antigua

18/3 -

A lawyer representing the island nation issues a warning to the US government that it will revoke intellectual property treaties and authorise the copying of US films, music and other ’soft targets’ if America fails to respond to proposals to settle a long-running trade dispute. [MORE]

Argentina

11/1 -

Actor Cesar Bertrand, the star of numerous comedies from the 60s to the 80s, dies in Buenos Aires at the age of 74. [MORE] [ADD]

16/1 -

Authorities ban Marc Forster’s The Kite Runner because it contains implicit scenes of the rape of a boy and scenes of ethnic conflict. [MORE] [ADD]

31/1 -

Rodolfo Ledo’s Brigada explosiva, mision pirata (Bomb Squad: Pirate Mission) is released, knocking the US adventure film, National Treasure: Book of Secrets off the box-office top spot.   Emilio Disi and Gino Renni star. [MORE] [ADD]

31/5 -

88-year-old actress Nelly Lainez dies in Buenos Aires of acute urinary infection.   The comedy actress made her film debut in 1950’s Cinco grandes y una chica. [MORE] [ADD]

2/7 -

Paula Felix-Didier, the new director of the Museo del Cine, discovers 25 minutes (approx. 700 metres) of missing scenes from Fritz Lang’s classic silent sci-fi film, Metropolis. [MORE]

21/7 -

Actress Maria Vaner dies of a heart attack in Buenos Aires at the age of 73. [MORE] [ADD]

Australia

24/4 -

The government announces it is to return eight silent-era films to the United States as part of a new partnership to preserve American filmmaking history. [MORE]

5/5 -

The government announces that existing guidelines for investment in domestic films will continue to the end of the year despite the planned merger of the Australian Film Commission, the Film Finance Corporation and Film Australia into a single unit called Screen Australia on 1^st July. [MORE]

7/5 -

The Asia Pacific Screen Awards announces that it is to launch a film academy with Australian screen legend Jack Thompson as its patron. [MORE] 

13/5 -

The Labour government announces that funding for Screen Australia, the new federal agency replacing the Film Finance Corporation, Film Australia and the Australian Film Commission, will be A$103 million from 1^st July 2008 - $11 million less than the combined 2007 budgets of the three agencies it replaces. [MORE] [ADD]

29/10 -

A poll by the Australian Film Institute concludes that the top five Australian films in no particular order are Gallipoli, Muriel’s Wedding, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Castle and Lantana. [MORE] [ADD]

The world premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s Australia takes place at Greater Union’s George Street multiplex in Sydney.   Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, David Wenham and Jack Thompson star in the epic romance about an English lady who settles in the country during the Pacific War.   The film is the most expensive Australian movie ever made. [MORE] [ADD]

Baz Luhrmann’s epic Australia enjoys only moderate success at the domestic box office. [MORE]

Austria

3/5 -

A 58-year-old technician working on the latest James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, is seriously injured after being stabbed with a steak knife in a domestic dispute. [MORE]

Belgium

27/10 -

Erik Van Looy’s thriller Loft creates a box office record in its first weekend on release, attracting more than half the nation’s total audience. [MORE] [ADD]

Canada

3/3 -

Sarah Polley’s Away From Her wins seven awards at this year’s Genie Awards including, best actor (Gordon Pinsent), best actress (Julie Christie) and best director (Sarah Polley). [MORE] [ADD]

China

3/1 -

Fang Li and Li Yu, producer and director of the film Lost in Beijing are banned from any involvement in filmmaking for two years after screening an unapproved version of the film at the Berlinale in 2007. [MORE]

10/1 -

Director Zhang Yuan is arrested on drugs charges after a raid on his home in Beijing is broadcast on local television. [MORE]

11/2 -

The Film Bureau refuses permits for Weinstein Co. to shoot the film Shanghai, starring Gong Li and John Cusack, in Shanghai. [MORE]

13/2 -

US director Steven Spielberg withdraws as artistic advisor for the Beijing Olympics.   He gives his reason as China’s failure to use its economic influence to force a resolution of the crisis in Darfur. [MORE]

20/2 -

The overseas edition of the Chinese ‘People’s Daily’ newspaper carries an editorial criticising US director Steven Spielberg for resigning as artistic director to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on 12/2/08.   While naming no names, the article accused a ‘certain Western director’ of being ‘naïve’ and living in ‘a world of science fiction.’ [MORE]

26/2 -

The government announces that annual revenue of the country’s film industry has risen by 25% each year since 2002. [MORE]

10/3 -

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issue a list of censorship criteria as part of a general crackdown on screen sex and violence. [MORE]

10/3 -

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft) ban a Pond’s skin cream commercial starring Tang Wei because of her appearance in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution which Sarft disapproves of because of its perceived glorification of traitors. [MORE] [ADD]

19/5 -

All forms of public entertainment are banned for three days for a period of mourning in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake, China’s worst natural disaster for 32 years. [MORE] [ADD]

29/5 -

Govt officials launch a scathing attack on actress Sharon Stone following her comments that the country’s devastating earthquake was the result of ‘karma,’ and a leading cinema chain threatens to ban her films. [MORE]

9/6 -

23-year-old stuntman Lu Yanqing is killed when a stunt goes wrong during filming of John Woo’s Chi Bi (Red Cliff) in Beijing. [MORE]

1/7 -

Despite the impact of the devastating Sichuan earthquake, the Chinese box office enjoys a 26% surge in revenue in May compared to the same month in 2007.   Attendance increased by 27%.   Gross at the box office in May 2008 was 253 million yuan (£18.5 million). [MORE] [ADD]

8/7 -

The success of Kung Fu Panda raises questions as to why such a film replete with Chinese symbols and settings could not have been made in the country itself. [MORE]

10/7 -

Red Cliff, Asia’s most ambitious ever movie project is released.   The movie, which stars Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen and Lin Chiling is director John Woo’s first Asian film since the 90s. [MORE] [ADD]

6/8 -

Documentary filmmaker Arto Halonen is denied entry to Beijing, where he was to attend the Olympics as a member of a Finnish cultural delegation.   Halonen claims it is because of his 1998 film, Karmapa -- Two Ways of Divinity, which focused on China's religious and cultural oppression of Tibet. [MORE] [ADD]

16/10 -

Gordon Chan’s Painted Skin, a fantasy film about a woman who eats the hearts of her lovers earns 200 million yuan (approximately £16 million) in its first 19 days of release. [MORE] [ADD]

Chinese actress Gong Li, the star of Farewell My Concubine and Curse of the Golden Flower is denounced as a traitor on internet blogs after renouncing her Chinese citizenship to become a citizen of Singapore.  [MORE]

Cuba

17/9 -

Director Humberto Solas, one of the founders of the New Latin American Cinema wave, dies from cancer at the age of 66. [MORE] [ADD]

Czech. Republic

18/3 -

Miroslav Janek and Pavel Koutecky’s documentary film Obcan Havel (Citizen Havel) becomes the country’s most successful non-fiction film when it records admissions surpassing 100,000 in its first six weeks of release.   The film took thirteen years to make. [MORE] [ADD]

Denmark

8/2 -

Nordisk Film buys 50% of the shares in rival production company Zentropa. [MORE]

12/6 -

Culture Minister Brian Mikkelsen opens the Danish Film Institute's £4.25 million underground vault in Hillerod, which will house 6,800 nitrate films including classics by Carl Theodor Dreyer and D. W. Griffith and the first Danish film with sound, Schneevoigt's 'Præsten i Vejlby' from 1931. [MORE]

2/9 -

Jacob Jorgensen’s JJ Film announces that Queen Margrethe II will write the script for a short film based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Wild Swans. [MORE]

17/9 -

The Danish Film Institute starts a fund entitled Rafilm (Raw Film) to finance low budget films (under $2 million) with limited appeal that are required to reach an audience of only 75,000. [MORE]

15/6 -

Acclaimed 82-year-old filmmaker Youssef Chahine falls into a coma after suffering a brain haemorrhage. [MORE]

27/7 -

Legendary director Youssef Chahine dies in Cairo at the age of 82 after falling into a coma following a brain haemorrhage in June. [MORE] [ADD]

Finland

2/1 -

First-time director Juha Wuolijoki’s Christmas Story, released by Snapper Films on 16^th November, is the most successful domestically produced film of 2007. [MORE]

Germany

15/1 -

Til Schweiger’s latest comedy, Keinohrhasen comes under fire from parents because of a rating that permits children as young as 6 to see an explicit sex scene and numerous sexual references. [MORE]

8/2 -

Director Til Schweiger announces his intention to establish a new domestic movie award along the lines of America’s People’s Choice Award after his romantic comedy Keinohrhasen (Rabbit Without Ears) is overlooked by the German Academy for the 2008 German Film Award nominations. [MORE]

13/3 -

Dennis Gansel’s thriller Die Welle (The Wave) is released.   Jurgen Vogel plays a charismatic high school teacher who creates a fascist autocracy amongst his pupils.   The film is based on a real-life experiment conducted in a California high school in 1967. [MORE] [ADD]

19/8 -

Film giant Internationalmedia declares itself bankrupt, and partly blames its problems on financier David Bergstein, an accusation he strongly refutes. [MORE]

26/8 -

11 extras injured during the filming of United Artists' Valkyrie sue the studio for $11 million, despite having signed waivers before agreeing to participate in the scene in which they were injured. [MORE]

Greece

31/3 -

American director Jules Dassin dies in a hospital in Athens, Greece at the age of 96 after a short illness.   Dassin began his career behind the camera as an assistant to Alfred Hitchcock in 1940, and went on to direct the Oscar-winning Never On Sunday in 1960. [MORE] [ADD]

Greenland

16/5 -

Producer Mikisoq H. Lynge announces he is to produce Nuummioq, the country’s first feature film. [MORE]

Holland

28/2 -

Al-Qaeda issues a fatwa calling for the execution of filmmaker and politician Geert Wilders, producer of a 15-minute anti-Koran film called Fitna (Discord). [MORE]

19/3 -

General John Craddock, NATO’s Supreme Commander for Operations, voices his concern that Geert Wilder’s Fitna, a short documentary criticising the Koran will provoke attacks on the 43,000 NATO soldiers serving in Afghanistan. [MORE]

22/3 -

Geert Wilder’s plans to screen Fitna, his controversial short film about the Koran, are jeopardised when Network Solutions, the US-based host web service, shut down his site due to complaints. [MORE]

28/3 -

Geert Wilder’s Fitna is released on the Internet after he finds a new web host following the closure of his site by previous host Network Solutions. [MORE]

28/3 -

Geert Wilders’ anti-Koran film Fitna is pulled from the internet after Liveleak.com receives threats it believes ‘could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff.  The website issues a statement proclaiming it is a ‘sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else.’ [MORE] [ADD]

31/3 -

The British-based Liveleak.com website puts Geert Wilders’ anti-Koran film Fitna back on its site, stating it has upgraded security for its staff and their families following threats received the previous week. [MORE]

Hong Kong

11/2 -

B-list actor Edison Chen’s performance is reported to be cut from the forthcoming film, Jump, after a flood of photographs showing him engaging in sex with a number of female actresses, are posted on the internet. [MORE] [ADD]

19/2 -

Lydia Shum (aka Fei Fei’), one of Hong Kong’s best-loved film and TV stars, dies from liver cancer in Queen Mary Hospital at the age of 60. [MORE] [ADD]

20/2 -

Edson Chen, the B-list actor embroiled in the celebrity photos scandal, in which photographs of him having sex with various actresses were posted on the internet, announces his retirement from the Hong Kong entertainment industry. [MORE] [ADD]

3/4 -

Three Kingdoms - Resurrection of the Dragon, a pan-Asian co-production starring Andy Lau, Sammo Hung and Maggie Q, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

7/7 -

The government refuses to help finance billionaire businessman Yu Panglin’s plans to to turn martial arts icon Bruce Lee’s former home in Hong Kong's Kowloon Tong district into a Lee museum. [MORE]

1/10 -

Edison Chen refuses to testify at the trial of a man accused of distributing explicit pictures of him engaging in sexual acts with a number of women. [MORE]

9/10 -

A dispute over ownership of the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival which was previously jointly-managed by arthouse exhibitor Broadway Cinematheque and the non-profit independent film-makers group Ying E Chi, results in Ying E Chi breaking away to create its own festival, the Hong Kong Asian Independent Film Festival. [MORE]

Iceland

7/10 -

Sergey Dvortsevoy’s Tulpan, about a young Kazakhstani who cannot tend his own flock until first becoming married, wins the Golden Puffin at this year’s Reykjavik International Film Festival. [MORE]

India

25/2 -

The state of Madhya Pradesh bans Bollywood melodrama Jodhaa Akbar from its screens following violent demonstrations. [MORE]

27/2 -

Screenwriter S. Rangarajan dies in Chennai at the age of 72 after a short illness.   Rangarajan wrote such hits as Ayitha ezhuthu, Sivaji the Boss and Dasavatharam. [MORE] [ADD]

28/4 -

Veteran actor Om Puri is appointed head of the National Film Development Council. [MORE]

25/8 -

A court in Mumbai hears a Warner Bros lawsuit against Mirchi Movies forthcoming film, Hari Puttar – A Comedy of Terrors, about a 10-year-old boy whose family move to Britain. [MORE] 

22/9 -

Mirchi Movies, the producers of a Bollywood film called Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors wins its legal battle with Warner Bros, who sought to block the film’s release because of the title’s similarity to their Harry Potter franchise. [MORE]

1/10 -

Film production comes to a halt as approximately 147,000 workers belonging to a federation of 22 unions go on strike for a 12-hour maximum working day, improved safety and on-time payment. [MORE]

A meeting between the Federation of Western Cine Employees and the Film and Television Producers Guild fails to produce an end to the strike in Bollywood..[MORE]

3/10 -

The three-day Bollywood strike comes to an end following agreement between the Federation of Western Cine Employees and the Film and Television Producers Guild. [MORE]

23/10 -

Director C.V. Sridhar dies from a heart attack in Chennai at the age of 75. [MORE] [ADD]

B. R. Chopra, Bollywood director and founder of BR Films, dies in Mumbai at the age of 94. [MORE] [ADD]

Indonesia

2/4 -

Students attempt to storm the Dutch consulate building in protest at Geert Wilder’s anti-koran film, Fitna. [MORE]

23/10 -

The Federation of Motion Picture Producers in Asia (FPA) announces that the Asia Pacific Film Festival, which was due to run from the 18^th to the 21^st November has been cancelled due to lack of interest. [MORE]

30/10 -

The government passes a wide-ranging anti-pornography bill which opponents claim will result in the banning of most films from around the world. [MORE]

Iran

12/2 -

Sources within Iran claim that the country’s ministry of culture is encouraging filmmakers and technicians to work in the TV industry so that it has greater control over censorship of content. [MORE]

7/7 -

The producers of Assassination of a Pharaoh, a film about the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981, come under fire from the slain leader’s family, who threaten to sue for defamation, and cools hopes of an easing of tensions between the two countries. [MORE]

Iraq

21/4 -

Mohammed al-Daradji’s award-winning Ahlaam (Dreams), an account of the last hours of Saddam Hussein’s regime, is released. [MORE]

Israel

3/6 -

Legendary French film director Jean-Luc Godard cancels his scheduled appearance at the 12^th annual Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival for ‘circumstances beyond his control’ following calls on him to boycott the festival from Palestinian pressure groups. [MORE] [ADD]

Italy

25/1 -

Federico Moccia’s Scusa se ti chiamo amore (Sorry If I Call You Love), a romance starring Raoul Bava based on a bestselling novel, is released to scathing reviews. [MORE] [ADD]

8/2 -

Antonio Luigi Grimaldi’s Caos calmo (Quiet Chaos) is released.   The film stars Nanni Moretti as a television executive who takes to a park bench following the death of his wife. [MORE] [ADD]

28/2 -

A new list of the 100 greatest Italian films causes controversy because it fails to include any films by a female director. [MORE]

7/3 -

Carlo Verdone’s comedy Grande, grosso e Verdone (Big, Bad and Verdone) in which he also stars as a variety of comical characters, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

28/3 -

Paolo Virzi’s Tutta la vita davanti (Your Whole Life Ahead of You) is released.  Elio Germano, Valerio Mastandrea, and Sabrina Ferilli star as workers in a call centre. [MORE] [ADD]

17/4 -

French actor Gerard Depardieu is ordered to pay compensation to paparazzo Dario Orlandi for attacking him on 3^rd October 2005. [MORE]

23/4 -

Stuntman Aris Comninos suffers serious injuries in Lake Garda after colliding with another vehicle while driving an Alfa Romeo 159 during the filming Quantum of Solace, the latest James Bond film.  Co-driver Bruno Verdirosi is less seriously injured. [MORE]

4/6 -

Former Italian movie mogul Vittorio Cecchi Gori is questioned about his alleged attempts to move money around his companies in order to appear insolvent and avoid paying his creditors. [MORE]

7/6 -

Film director Dino Risi dies at his home in Rome at the age of 91 after a long period of ill health.   Risi received two Academy Award nominations for his 1974 film Profumo di Donna (Scent of a Woman) which was later remade by Hollywood with Al Pacino. [MORE] 

16/6 -

The Vatican confirms that it has refused permission for filming of Angels & Demons, the prequel to The Da Vinci Code, to take place in its churches. [MORE]

8/9 -

Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, in which Mickey Rourke plays a washed-up wrestler staging a comeback, wins the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival.   The Silver Lion goes to Alexei German Jr for Paper Soldier, while Ethiopian Haile Gerima’s Teza wins the Special Jury Prize. [MORE] [ADD]

29/9 -

Controversy surrounds the press screening of Spike Lee’s WWII drama Miracle at St. Anna when the director and writer James McBride are accused of deliberately misrepresenting the facts.   Lee refuses to apologise. [MORE]

7/10 -

Film producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori is released from preventative custody after a total of four months behind bars and under house arrest on charges of fraudulent bankruptcy. [MORE]

21/10 -

Gaetano Blandini, the Ministry of Culture’s general director for cinema, puts the government’s 24% stake in Rome’s Cinecitta Studios up for auction. [MORE]

23/10 -

Producer Gianluigi Braschi, who collaborated with Roberto Benigni on a number of the comic actor’s films, dies in Milan at the age of 45 after a long illness. [MORE] [ADD]

24/10 -

Approximately 1,000 university students stage a sit-in on the Rome Auditorium catwalk at the Rome Film Festival in protest at education cutbacks prior to the screenings of Uli Edel’s Baader Meinhof and Connie Walther’s Long Shadows.   They quickly disperse in the face of policemen clad in riot gear. [MORE] [ADD]

Japan

10/1 -

Masayuki Suo’s courtroom drama I Just Didn’t Do It is awarded the best Japanese Picture of 2007 award by Kinema Jumpo, the country’s oldest film magazine. [MORE] [ADD]

29/1 -

Davis Guggenheim’s An Inconvenient Truth sets a new record for a single theatre release with an anticipated box office of 90 million yen by the end of January. [MORE] [ADD]

13/2 -

Celebrated director Kon Ichikawa dies of pneumonia at the age of 92.   His last film in a career that spanned more than 70 years, was released in 2006. [MORE] [ADD]

18/3 -

Wald9 Cinema in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district cancels the screening of Ying Li’s controversial documentary Yasukuni after ultranationalists threaten the director.   The film takes a look at the Yasukuni shrine honouring the Japanese war dead, including Class A war criminals. [MORE]

19/3 -

Around 250 pieces of original Disney animation art found lying in a caretaker’s closet at Chiba University are returned to the Walt Disney Co. in return for high-resolution copies and a donation of $1 million to be used by the university to further studies in animation art. [MORE] [ADD]

31/3 -

The four cinemas scheduled to show Li Ying’s controversial documentary film Yasukuni, about a war shrine that honours war dead including Class A war criminals, all cancel the screenings. [MORE]

15/4 -

Argo Pictures, distributors of Li Ying’s controversial documentary Yasukuni, consult lawyers after officials at the war shrine demand that footage be cut from the film. [MORE]

6/6 -

Koki Mitani’s comedy film The Magic Hour earns 506 million yen (£2.42 million) in its opening weekend.   Satoshi Tsumabuki, Toshiyuki Nishida, Eri Fukatsu and Koichi Sato star. [MORE] [ADD]

19/6 -

Sound technician Teiichi Saito is seriously injured by falling rocks while filming Tsurugidake at 8,500 feet in Toyama Prefecture. [MORE]

19/7 -

Hayao Miyazaki’s anime feature Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is released. [MORE] [ADD]

12/8 -

The 11 films in the Pokemon cartoon series break the 50 billion Yen (£277 million) barrier at the domestic box office according to Toho, the film’s distributor, making it the country’s all-time highest-earning cartoon series. [MORE] [ADD]

11/9 -

Director Fumiki Watanabe is arrested in Tokyo for putting up nearly 100 posters advertising Tenno densetsu (The Imperial Tradition), his latest film. [MORE]

Lebanon

11/3 -

The award-winning French animated film Persepolis is banned. [MORE]

Myanmar

5/2 -

Bootleg copies of Sylvester Stallone’s latest Rambo film flood the market in Myanmar (Burma), the location for the film’s story. [MORE]

Pakistan

6/1 -

A Karachi-based production company named Skies Unlimited Films, announces that it is to produce a film on the life of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, just 10 days after her assassination. [MORE] [ADD]

21/1 -

Pakistani pop star Ali Haider reveals he turned down an offer to for the lead part in forthcoming Bollywood flick Osama after receiving threatening calls from people mistakenly believing he was to play al-Qaeda boss Osama bin Laden.   ‘Benazir Bhutto cannot have adequate security,’ Haider commented.   ‘What will happen to someone like me?’ [MORE] [ADD]

29/1 -

The government considers lifting the 40-year ban on Indian films from its cinemas. [MORE]

1/3 -

Salman Taseer, the caretaker minister for industries, announces that the entertainment sector has been granted industry status.   The move is intended to enable the industry to develop an infrastructure, conduct research and run training schemes. [MORE]

Philippines

8/1 -

Deposed former president Joseph Estrada announces he will return to his former career as an actor. [MORE]

Poland

12/1 -

Cinematographer Edward Klosinski dies from lung cancer at his home in Milanowek near Warsaw at the age of 65. [MORE] [ADD]

20/9 -

Waldemar Krzystek’s Little Moscow wins the main prize at the 33^rd Polish Film Festival, despite many critics believing Jerzy Skolimowski’s Four Nights With Anna, Malgorzata Szumowska’s 33 Scenes From Life and Michal Rosa’s Scratch were all superior to the winning film. [MORE]

Puerto Rico

18/8 -

Talento de barrio, reggae star Daddy Yankee's movie debut surprises the film’s producers by breaking domestic box-office opening day records with an estimated 12,000 ticket sales. [MORE] [ADD]

Russia

4/1 -

Timur Bekmambetov’s Irony of Fate 2 – a sequel to the popular 70s Soviet classic – takes a record-breaking $35.7 million in its first two weeks.   The film stars Konstantin Khabensky. [MORE] [ADD]

24/1 -

The comedy spoof Sammi Luchi Film (Very Best Film) which lampoons such Russian box-office successes as Day Watch and 9^th Company, is released.   It goes on to break domestic box-office records by taking $19.5 million in its first week on release. [MORE] [ADD]

11/2 -

The Tom Hanks film Charlie Wilson’s War fails to win distribution in the country. [MORE]

13/3 -

Industrial giant AFT Sistema and Russian World Studio announce a joint venture to create the country’s largest film and TV production company. [MORE]

18/4 -

Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov ratifies a decision to privatise Russia’s oldest film studio, Moscow’s Gorky Studios. [MORE]

8/5 -

Filmmaker Sam Klebanov announces he is to film a remake of Johnny To’s award-winning 2004 Hong Kong crime thriller Daai si gin (Breaking News), the first ever Russian remake of an Asian film. [MORE]

20/5 -

The Federal Agency for Cinematography and Culture is closed following the appointment of a new culture minister. [MORE]

25/5 -

Members of the Communist party call for a nationwide boycott of Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in protest at the film’s depiction of the way Soviet troops are portrayed in the film. [MORE]

23/6 -

Organisers of the Moscow Film Festival refuse to bow to pressure from representatives of the Sri Lankan embassy in Moscow to cancel a screening of Norwegian director Beate Arnestad's My Daughter the Terrorist, a documentary about female suicide bombers in the Tamil Tigers. [MORE]

29/9 -

Marius Veisburg’s Hitler Kaput, a parody of the 1973 TV series 17 Moments of Spring storms the domestic box office despite protests from some lawmakers over its ‘tasteless’ content. [MORE]

7/10 -

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin celebrates his 56^th birthday with a tour of the £125 million Russian World Studios’ complex at St. Petersburg. [MORE]

8/10 -

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledges funding for the domestic film industry and meetings between the Kremlin and industry representatives to improve co-operation and communication. [MORE]

26/10 -

Up to a third of film projects are postponed or abandoned as a result of the worsening international economic crisis. [MORE]

Serbia

14/1 -

The inaugural Kustendorf Film Festival, devised by director Emir Kusturica, is held in the Serbian mountain resort of Mokra Gora. [MORE]

Singapore

20/10 -

It is announced that Sing to the Dawn, Singapore’s first English-language animated feature film will be released on 30^th October. [MORE]

Slovenia

22/4 -

The future of the Kino Otok Isola Cinema Festival looks doubtful after the Slovenian Film Fund withdraws its grant. [MORE]

South Korea

16/1 -

Women’s Team Handball, Yim Soon-rye’s sports picture about Korea’s 2004 Olympics women’s handball team is released.   Moon So-ri and Kim Jung-eun head an ensemble cast. [MORE] [ADD]

4/3 -

The Korean Film Archive discovers a print of the silent 1934 film Crossroads of Youth, making it the country’s oldest existing film. [MORE]

3/4 -

Gong Soo-chang’s The Guard Post (G.P. 506) is released.   An ensemble cast includes Cheon Ho-jin, Cho Hyeon-je and Lee Yeong-hoon. [MORE] [ADD]

12/5 -

The Korean Film Archive inaugurates a new national film museum and cinematheque. [MORE]

17/7 -

The ‘Korean Western’ Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom (The Good, the Bad and the Weird) is released.   It becomes Korea’s fastest selling film of 2008 to reach 4 million admissions. [MORE] [ADD]

2/10 -

The body of 39-year-old actress Choi Jin-sil is found in the bathroom of her home in Seoul.   Police report that she appears to have hanged herself. [MORE]

27/10 -

My Wife Got Married tops the Korean box office upon its release.  [MORE] [ADD]

Spain

15/1 -

The United Nations announces its backing for a $100 million film fund aimed at fighting stereotypes in films. [MORE]

25/1 -

Miguel Bardem’s $13 million Mortadelo y Filemón. Misión: Salvar la Tierra (Mortadelo & Filemon. Mission: Save the Planet), a live-action adaptation of Francisco Ibanez’s popular local comic book, is released.   Pepe Viyuela and Eduard Soto star in the title roles. [MORE] [ADD]

13/2 -

The European Commission launches an investigation into the Ciudad de la Luz film studio near Alicante, Spain, suspecting it is gaining an unfair advantage over other European locations through funding estimated at $292 million from the Valencia regional government. [MORE]

Sweden

8/2 -

Actress Eva Dahlbeck, the star of Ingmar Bergman’s Secrets of a Woman (1952) and Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), and the author of a number of novels, dies in a retirement home in Stockholm at the age of 87 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. [MORE] [ADD]

18/3 -

The High Court rules that TV companies cannot insert advertisement breaks into feature films without first obtaining the director’s approval. [MORE]

21/3 -

It is announced that legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman is to have a city square in Stockholm named after him.   The square is situated in the Solna neighbourhood north of the City centre where Bergman began his career in the 40s at Filmstaden (Film City). [MORE] [ADD]

22/4 -

Steve Sodergren, the head of SF Bio cinemas announces that Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D will be the first feature to be screened publicly in digital 3D in Sweden.   The film, which stars Brendan Fraser, will be screened in one of the chain’s Stockholm cinemas in the autumn. [MORE] [ADD]

28/6 -

Longtime Ingmar Bergman collaborator Stig Olin dies of natural causes at the age of 87.  Olin, the father of actress Lena Olin, starred in a number of Bergman films as well as directing his own and composing popular classical music.  [MORE] [ADD]

Thailand

14/3 -

Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul is ordered to cut an additional scene from Saeng Satawat (Syndromes and a Century) following an unsuccessful appeal against four cuts ordered by censors in 2007. [MORE]

21/3 -

Songyos Sukmaganan’s Pidtermyai huajai wawoon (Hormones) is released.   The film, a four-part teen comedy, stars Charlie Trairat, Focus Jirakul, Sirachat ‘Michael’ Jearthavorn and Chutima Teepanart. [MORE] [ADD]

7/4 -

The supernatural thriller Art of the Devil 3 is released. [MORE] [ADD]

6/5 -

The Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand announce that the troubled Bangkok International Film Festival will go ahead this year, although a date is not specified. [MORE]

8/6 -

Shimit Amin’s Bollywood flick Chak De! India (Come on India) wins eight awards at the Indian International Film Awards in Thailand. [MORE]

16/6 -

The Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand and the Thai Directors' Association announce that the Bangkok Film Festival will take place from the 23^rd to 30^th September, but with a budget of just $750,000, down from $5 million before the 2006 coup d’etat. [MORE] [ADD]

25/7 -

Somsak Techaratanaprasert, the president of Sahamongkol, holds a press conference to confirm that Tony Jaa, the star of the international hit Ong-bak, and director if its sequel Ong-bak 2, has been missing since June. [MORE]

28/7 -

Tony Jaa appears on a TV talk show to counter allegations made by Sahamongkol Film International that he has disappeared after over-spending the 200 million Baht (£3 million) budget for his directorial debut, Ong-bak 2. [MORE]

19/9 -

Japanese director Junji Sakamoto’s child prostitution drama Children of the Dark is pulled from the Bangkok Film Festival by the festival’s directors after they deem it to be ‘not appropriate for Thai society.’ [MORE]

UAE

7/7 -

Filmmaker Mohammed Bakri successfully defends a slander lawsuit brought against him by five Israeli soldiers featured in his documentary Jenin Jenin. [MORE]

Ukraine

4/2 -

Release of the French film Asterix at the Olympic Games is delayed following a recent law ordering that all films must be dubbed or subtitled in the local language. [MORE]