Year

Country

Home

People

Films

Articles

Store

 2009

Staff and students at the Marubi Academy of Film and Multi-Media in Tirana stage a strike and lock-in following the arrest of the school’s rector, a professor and three students by police at violent riots over a property dispute. [MORE]

Prime Minister Sali Berisha sacks Ylli Pango, the country’s Minister of Culture over the ongoing dispute over property rights to the Marubi Film Academy in Tirana.   A police officer who assaulted Kutjim Cashku, the Academy’s rector, is also fired. [MORE]

Elissa Down wins the Best Director award for The Black Balloon, which also wins Best Film, at the 2009 Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards. [MORE]

Baz Luhrmann’s Australia becomes the country’s second-highest grossing domestically produced film at home with receipts of A$36.786 (£16.56 million).   Crocodile Dundee achieved the country’s highest gross with A$47.7 million in 1986. [MORE] [ADD]

The Greater Union Cinema Chain reverses its earlier decision to cancel screenings of The Combination, a local film depicting the 2005 riots between white and Lebanese youths.   The screenings were originally cancelled following reports of violence at a cinema. [MORE]

British director Ken Loach withdraws his film Looking for Eric from the Melbourne Film Festival in protest at its acceptance of funding from the state of Israel.   Unlike the Edinburgh Film Festival, which capitulated to Loach’s threats to withdraw, Richard Moore, the Melbourne  festival’s director, refuses to bend to political pressure. [MORE] [ADD]

Three Chinese films are withdrawn from the Melbourne Film Festival following festival director Richard Moore’s refusal to bow to pressure from the Chinese Government to cancel a screening of Jeff Daniel’s The 10 Conditions of Love, a film about Rebiya Kadeer’s fight for the rights of 10 million Uighurs in China. [MORE]  

Hackers with a Chinese ISP replace information on the Melbourne Film Festival’s official website with an image of the Chinese flag and anti-Rebiya Kadeer slogans in an ongoing protest at the festival’s decision to premiere 10 Conditions of Love, Jeff Daniel’s documentary about the champion of Uighur's rights. [MORE]

Yong Hong Lin becomes the first person in Australia to be imprisoned for music and movie piracy by a jury. [MORE]

Warwick Thornton’s Samson and Delilah wins the major Australian Writers Guild’s AWGIE Award, while Andrew Bovell, Melissa Reeves, Patricia Cornelius and Christos Tsiolkas wins best adapted feature screenplay for Blessed. [MORE] [ADD]

Veteran Australian actor Ray Barrett dies of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 82.   Barrett appeared in such film as Don’s Party, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Baz Luhrmann’s Australia. [MORE] [ADD]

Samson and Delilah, Warwick Thornton’s examination of growing up as a black in Australia’s outback, wins seven awards, including Best Film, Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay, at the Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards in Melbourne. [MORE]

Bahamas

9/1 -

John Travolta’s 16-year-old son, Jett, dies of a seizure at the family home in the Old Bahama Bay Resort. [MORE]

Police launch an investigation into an attempt to extort money from John Travolta over the death of his 16-year-old son Jett. [MORE]

Two people accused of attempting to extort millions of dollars from John Travolta following the death of the actor’s son plead not guilty to the charge in a Bahamian court. [MORE]

The trial of former senator Pleasant Bridgewater and medic Tarino Lightbourne takes place in the Bahamas.  The pair are accused of demanding money from actor John Travolta following the death of his son Jett in the Bahamas in January 2009. [MORE]

The trial against paramedic Tarino Lightbourne and former Bahamas senator Pleasant Bridgewater, in which they are accused of attempting to extort money from John Travolta immediately after the death of his son Jett, is declared a mistrial after it is alleged that a member of the jury leaked information about its decision. [MORE] [ADD]

Erik Van Looy’s psychological thriller Loft replaces the 1990 comedy Koko Flanel as Belgium’s most successful local film with audience figures close to 1.1 million after 17 weeks on release.   The film had grossed 7.3 million Euros (approx. £6.4 million) by 20^th February 2009. [MORE] [ADD]

Brazil

5/1 -

Daniel Filho's If I Were You 2 breaks the country’s record for a domestic film’s opening weekend, earning 5.6 million reals (£1.635 million).   The comedy sequel stars Tony Ramos and Gloria Pires as a bickering couple who gain a better understanding of one another when they temporarily swap bodies.  [MORE] [ADD]

Following its success at the Venice Film Festival in 2008, Haile Gerima’s Teza wins the Golden Yennenga Stallion prize at the 40^th Fespaco film festival.   The South African film Nothing But The Truth wins second prize. [MORE] [ADD]

Canada

12/1 -

Milk, in which Sean Penn plays Harvey Milk, one of America’s first openly gay politicians, wins the Best Film award at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle awards.   C'est pas moi, je le jure! wins the prize for best Canadian film. [MORE]

1/4 -

Director David Cronenberg receives the Légion d'honneur, France’s highest honour, at a gala awards ceremony in Toronto. [MORE]

Paul Gross’s WW1 film, Passchendale wins six prizes at the 2009 Genie Awards including Best Picture, while Benoit Pilon wins the Best Director award for Ce qu'il faut pour vivre (The Necessities of Life). [MORE]

China

7/1 -

Revenue for Feng Xiaogang’s If You Are the One reaches $44 million, making him the first Chinese director whose films have broken through the 1 billion yuan (aprox. £97,793,000).   Feng’s other hits include Cellphone, Big Shot’s Wedding and The Banquet. [MORE] [ADD]

20/1 -

Walt Disney Co. reach an agreement with the Chinese government to build the first Disneyland theme park on the mainland. [MORE]

Bill Ernest, Walt Disney Co.’s head of Asian operations, denies reports that the company has concluded a deal to open a theme park in Shanghai.  Ernest said, ‘We don't have a deal yet, and we don't have anything agreed to yet. We are still waiting.’ [MORE] [ADD]

Filming begins on The Great Cause of China’s Foundation, a film conceived by Beijing Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the Communist revolution. [MORE]

China Film Group announces that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has commissioned more than 30 state-owned and private production companies to produce 50 propaganda films to mark the 60^th anniversary of the revelation that saw the communists win power. [MORE]

After five months, City of Life and Death and John Rabe, two films focusing on the slaughter of Chinese civilians by the Japanese in 1937 are cleared by government censors. [MORE]

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen breaks box office records with receipts of 400 million yuan (£35.5 million), beating the 1998 record set by James Cameron’s Titanic, which took £31.95 million. [MORE] [ADD]

The World Trade Organisation rules that China’s restriction of the distribution of American films within its borders is in violation of international trade rules. [MORE]

The Founding of a Republic, a 60^th anniversary celebration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China is released at 2pm and scores a record-breaking opening half-day, grossing £1.16 million nationwide.   The film, which chronicles the struggle for power immediately prior to China’s civil war, stars Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Zhang Ziyi, Vicky Zhao Wei, Leon Lai and Andy Lau. [MORE] [ADD]

Feng Xiaogang’s war film The Assembly wins four prizes, including Best Film and Best Director, at the 27^th Golden Rooster Awards in Nanchang City, Jiangxi. [MORE] [ADD]

The Zinhua News Agency announces that The Founding of a Republic has broken box-office records for a Chinese film with a take of approximately $59 million.  It’s domestic performance is exceeded only by Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Titanic. [MORE] [ADD]

Broadway Cinematheque MOMA, China’s first arthouse cinema, opens – in Beijing’s MOMA residential compound.   The first film screened there is the Beijing premiere of Michael Jackson’s This Is It. [MORE] [ADD]

Zhang Yimou’s A Simple Noodle Story, a slapstick remake of the Coen brother’s 1984 film Blood Simple, goes on general release.   Despite being widely panned, the film takes almost $15 million (£9.39 million) in its’ opening four days. [MORE]

The World Trade Organisation dismisses China’s appeal against the decision to outlaw the country’s policy of restricting the number or foreign films that can be distributed within its borders. [MORE] [ADD]

Sins of My Father, the documentary about the efforts of Juan Pablo Escobar, the son of notorious drugs baron, Pablo Escobar, to deliver letters of apology to the sons of some of his father’s victims generates a media frenzy that guarantees it a wider than usual release in Colombia. [MORE] [ADD]

Petr Zelenka’s The Karamazovs, which was the Czech Republic’s submission for Best Foreign-Language film at the 2009 Academy Awards, wins Best Film, Best Director and  Best Feature at the Czech Academy Awards. [MORE]

Henrik Ruben Genz’s offbeat thriller Terribly Happy wins seven awards including the Best Film award at the Danish Film Academy’s 2009 Robert Awards in Copenhagen. [MORE]

Henrik Ruben Genz’s Terribly Happy wins five awards, including Best Danish Film, at the 61^st Bodil Awards in Copenhagen. [MORE]

Debate rages over the demands made by a number of Coptic activists and lawyers for the banning of the as-yet unseen film Wahed Sifr (One-Zero), in which Elham Shahin plays a Coptic woman who has a baby out of wedlock after being denied a marriage licence following her divorce through a civil court. [MORE] [ADD]

The body of French documentary filmmaker Christian Poveda is found in a car a few miles from San Salvador.   The 53-year-old has been shot numerous times in the head. [MORE]

Ake Lindman, one of Finland’s most popular film and TV actors, dies after a long illness at the age of 81.   Lindman starred in the Finnish classic, Unknown Soldier (1955). [MORE] [ADD]

Germany

9/1 -

Uli Edel’s adaptation of Stefan Aust’s book The Baader Meinhof Complex, which tells the story of the early years of Germany’s infamous Red Army Faction (RAF), faces legal action from the widow of one of RAF’s victims over the accuracy of the story.   Edel will be forced to re-shoot certain scenes if the widow is successful. [MORE] [ADD]

The Peruvian film The Milk of Sorrow wins the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. [MORE]

A group of disenchanted filmmakers consider launching a new film festival after voting to boycott the country’s film awards and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. [MORE]

140 filmmakers threaten to boycott the Thessaloniki Film Festival in November unless the newly-elected government takes steps to improve industry funding. [MORE] [ADD]

The Greek State Film Awards are cancelled as a result of over 200 filmmakers withdrawing their films from the Thessaloniki Film Festival in protest over film financing laws.   The Award’s winners are selected from films shown at the festival. [MORE]

A court rules that internet access to file-sharing site The Pirate Bay in the Netherlands must be blocked within 10 days for a period of two months. [MORE]

The country’s submission for the foreign language Academy Award is changed from Jean van de Velde’s The Silent Army to Martin Koolhoven’s Oorlogswinter (Winter in Wartime) after the Academy rejects the original film because it is not considered an original work.  The Silent Army is a re-cut version of the 2008 film Wit Licht. [MORE] [ADD]

John Woo’s Red Cliff Part II, the sequel to 2008's Red Cliff, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

Edison Chen gives evidence in Vancouver via video-link for the trial of Ho-Chun Sze, a computer technician accused of releasing sexual images of the actor he stole from a laptop belonging to Chen that he was repairing. [MORE]

23/3 -

Three Japanese films – Tokyo Sonata, Still Walking and Departures – win four of the top prizes at this year’s Asian Film Awards. [MORE]

Computer technician Ho-Chun Sze is sentenced to 34 weeks imprisonment for stealing 1,300 private shots of Edison Chen and female sexual partners from the actor’s computer and subsequently posting them on the internet. [MORE]

Golden Harvest, the Hong Kong film studio which rose to prominence in the 70s with a series of Kung Fu films is resurrected as Orange Sky Golden Harvest following its merger with Orange Sky Entertainment Group in 2007.  The company announces it intends to release five films a year and expand its cinema chain from 12 to 600 venues within three years. [MORE] [ADD]

For the first time ever, the Jussi award for Best Picture goes to an animated film, Hannu Tuomainen and Marteinn Thorisson’s Niko and the Way to the Stars. [MORE]

A court reverses a 2005 government ban on showing smoking in film and on TV. [MORE]

Several hundred people rampage through a cinema in Patna in protest at the Danny Boyle film Slumdog Millionaire.   The protestors, organised by social activist Tateshwar Vishwakarma, were offended by the use of the word ‘dog’ to describe slum dwellers. [MORE]

The prospect of no new releases to multiplex chains across the country looms as talks between producers and exhibitors over the profit sharing of revenue stall. [MORE]

Producers refuse to release to exhibitors in an escalation of the dispute over the split of box-office revenue producers and distributors receive. [MORE] [ADD]

Police investigate a dispute between the estranged parents of Rubina Ali, one of the child stars of Slumdog Millionaire, after a British tabloid alleges the father tried to sell the 9-year-old to an undercover reporter. [MORE]

Bollywood star Feroz Khan dies of cancer in Bangalore at the age of 69.   The legendary actor was best known for his roles in Qurbani (1980), Dharmatma (1975) and Janbaaz (1986). [MORE] [ADD]

Director Prakash Mehra, the man who launched Amitabh Bachan to superstardom by casting the actor opposite Jaya Bhaduri in Zanjeer, dies of pneumonia in a Mumbai hospital at the age of 69. [MORE] [ADD]

The 8 week dispute between producers and multiplexes over the share of revenue from film comes to an end following agreement over a revised schedule. [MORE]

Bollywood actress Leela Naidu dies of lung failure following a lengthy bout of influenza in Mumbai at the age of 69.   Naidu, a former Miss India, was best known for her roles in Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke and The Householder. [MORE] [ADD]

The decision by US immigration authorities in Newark NJ to detain and interrogate Bollywood star Shah Rukh ‘King’ Khan when he attempts to enter the United States triggers an angry reaction in India. [MORE]

Bollywood production company B.R. Films, makers of the film Banda yeh bindaas hai, is ordered to pay 20^th Century Fox $200,000 for copyright infringement when the courts find that the film is an unauthorised remake of Fox’s 1992 film My Cousin Vinny.   B.R. Films believed an agreement was in place, but Fox denied there was any firm deal. [MORE] [ADD]

59-year-old film legend Vishnuvardhan dies of a heart attack. [MORE]

Indonesia bans Robert Connolly’s Balibo, a politically sensitive film about the Balibo Five, a group of Australia-based reporters murdered by Indonesian soldiers in the East Timorese town of Balibo in 1975. [MORE]

Directors Mahnaz Mohammadi and Jafar Panahi are arrested at a cemetery near Tehran as they try to lay flowers at the grave of Nedha Agha Soltan, the 27-year-old music student whose death on 20^th June during protests over the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was viewed by millions on the internet. [MORE]

Masoud Jafari Jozani begins work on In the Wind’s Eye, the first Iranian film to be shot in the United States since the Islamic revolution.   The film, which is based on a mammoth 52-hour Iranian TV series, spans six decades as it follows three generations of Iranians. [MORE] [ADD]

Actor Mohammad Reza Golzar’s payment of £55,000 for three days work on the film Democracy in Bright Daylight prompts threats of a tax crackdown in the country. [MORE]

Laura Hastings-Smith and Robin Gutch’s Hunger wins seven awards at the 2009 Irish Film & Television Awards. [MORE]

A group appointed by the Government to find areas where public service costs can be cut recommends scrapping the Irish film Board (IFB) [MORE]

Italy

3/1 -

British actor Edmund Purdom, best known for his role in The Egyptian (1954) dies at the age of 82. [MORE] [ADD]

Fausto Brizzi’s ensemble piece Ex replaces Giovanni Veronese’s Italians at the top of the domestic box office chart.   Brizzi’s film stars Cristiana Capotondi and Alessandro Gassman. [MORE] [ADD]

Screenwriter Tullio Pinelli, who collaborated with Federico Fellini on La Dolce Vita and 8½ dies in Rome at the age of 100.   Nominated for four Academy Awards, Pinelli, who wrote for the stage as well as the screen, also worked with Roberto Rossellini, Pietro Germi, and Mario Monicelli. [MORE] [ADD]

Rome’s Café de Paris, which gained international fame after appearing in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, is raided by police who believe it has fallen into the hands of the Ndrangheta, the Calabrian Mafia. [MORE]

The organisers of the Venice Film Festival announce that a prize will be awarded for best 3D stereoscopic film for the first time at this year’s festival. [MORE] [ADD]

Joe Dante’s The Hole wins the Venice Film Festival’s first Premio Persol to a 3D feature. [MORE] [ADD]

Danish-Italian director Nicolo Donato’s debut feature Brotherskab (Brotherhood) wins the Golden Marc’Aurelio Award for Best Film at the Rome Film Festival, while Giorgio Diritti’s The Man Who Will Come wins the international jury’s Silver Marc’Aurelio Grand Jury Award and the Golden Marc’Aurelio Audience Award For Best Film. [MORE] [ADD]

Index Holdings announces that it will sell its 71% stake in Nikkatsu, the country’s oldest studio, by the end of February 2009. [MORE]

Yojiro Takita's Departures wins 10 awards, including best picture of 2008, at the 32nd Japan Academy prize awards held at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa, Tokyo. [MORE]

Toho delay the release of Ballad – Na no naki koi no uta (Ballad – Song of Love Without a Name), after its star, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, is arrested for indecent exposure. [MORE]

Takashi Shimizu begins filming horror-thriller  The Shock Labyrinth, Japan’s first live-action 3D feature film.  The cast features Yuya Yagira, Misako Renbutsu, Ryo Katsuji, Al Maeda, Erina Mizuno and Suzuki Matsuo. [MORE] [ADD]

The country sees an unexpected surge in demand for pornographic movie downloads to mobile phones following the introduction of unlimited mobile data plans.   Hirotak Ishimori the Head of Soft on Demand tells Bloomberg that the estimated annual sales value of porn films in Japan is $1 billion. [MORE] [ADD]

Gokusen, the movie adaptation of a popular TV series, in which Yukie Nakama stars as the granddaughter of a Yakuza gangster who realizes her ambition of becoming a teacher at an all-male high school sees off Hollywood blockbusters Knowing and Monsters vs. Aliens to become the number one box office draw in its’ opening weekend. [MORE] [ADD]

The producers of Dakara oretachi wa, asa o matteita (So We Have Been Waiting for Morning) announce the release of the film will be delayed indefinitely after Tokyo prosecutors announce they plan to charge leading man Manabu Oshio with drug possession. [MORE]

A police Labrador named Paddy leads Malaysian police to six warehouses used to store 35,000 pirate DVDs in the state of Johor. [MORE]

Renowned Malaysian writer-director Yasmin Ahmad dies of a stroke and cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 51 after collapsing during a meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday 23^rd July. [MORE] [ADD]

Hollywood studios delay the release of major movies following an outbreak of swine flu which has killed up to 150 people.  Summer blockbusters affected include Angels & Demons, Terminator Salvation, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Star Trek. [MORE] [ADD]

Cinemas begin re-opening in the wake of the swine flu outbreak under stringent health guidelines from health officials.   Patrons must sit seven feet apart, employees handling food must wear masks and gloves, and ticket-holders must be offered anti-bacterial gel. [MORE] [ADD]

Nigerians voice their indignation at the manner in which they are portrayed in Neill Blomkamp’s District 9.   In the film, Nigerian immigrants, most of whom are gangsters, prostitutes or witch doctors – are seen eating flesh and engaging in sex with alien creatures. [MORE] [ADD]

The Nigerian Information Minister orders the Film and Video Censors' Board to ask all cinemas to stop showing Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 because of the way in which Nigerians are portrayed in the film. [MORE] [ADD]

The country establishes its first National Film Commission. [MORE]

Thomas Nordseth-Tiller, the 28-year-old writer of WWII thriller Max Manus, Norway’s biggest success in 34 years, dies after a long illness. [MORE] [ADD]

Alec Baldwin finds himself banned from entering the Philippines after being labelled an undesirable alien by the country’s Bureau of Immigration following his joke on the David Letterman show that he was considering paying for a ‘Filipino mail-order bride.’ [MORE] [ADD]

Film critic Alexis Tioseco and his partner, Slovenian journalist Nika Bohinc are shot dead after disturbing burglars robbing their Manila home. [MORE]

Actor Jose Luis ‘Chavito’ Marrero dies of complications from pulmonary fibrosis in Santurce, San Juan at the age of 82.   He was a well-known local actor, featuring in such films as My Little Angel, My Lucky Day and A Flight of Hope. [MORE] [ADD]

Nae Caranfil’s The Rest is Silence picks up six awards at the 2009 Gopos Awards. [MORE]

British company Light Cinema launches the world’s first ‘6D’ cinema in Bucharest.   The 40-seat cinema combines 3D films with environmental elements such as rain, wind and odour, and seat movement.  Only four films, between five and fifteen minutes, are available, and tickets cost from €2 to €4. [MORE] [ADD]

Russia

9/1 -

Fedor Bondarchuk’s Obitaemyi ostrov (Inhabited Island), Russia’s biggest budget movie ever, is released.   Based on a 1968 novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, the sci-fi film tells the tale of a space traveller who lands on a distant planet mercilessly ruled by a gang of five sadistic leaders.  Part two of the film is due in October 2009. [MORE] [ADD]

12/1 -

Russian box office receipts for 2008 total $830 million (£567.8 million), an increase of almost 47% on 2007’s figure of $565 million (£386.5 million). [MORE]

The recently-formed Television and Cinema Producers Association recommend a cap on the wages of seven categories of actors and film crew in the face of a worsening economic crisis. [MORE]

A Moscow court rules that the union congress which elected 83-year-old director Marlen Khutsiev president of the country’s filmmaker’s union in December 2008 acted illegally following a legal challenge led by Oscar-winning director Nikita Mikhalkov. [MORE]

3/4 -

Valery Todorowsky's musical Hipsters wins the Best Film prize at the 2009 Nika Awards ceremony at the Moscow Operetta Theatre. [MORE]

Vladimir Bortko’s Taras Bulba achieves box office takings of $14.5 million in Russia and Ukraine. [MORE] [ADD]

Samoa

Menahi becomes the first film to be shown in Saudi Arabia’s capital city Riyadh in more than 30 years when it is screened at a government–run cultural centre.   Women are banned from the screening.  [MORE]

The Jeddah Festival, the country’s first ever film festival, is cancelled just hours before it is due to begin.   The week-long festival was due to show nearly 100 feature films and shorts. [MORE]

South Korea

6/1 -

Yoo Ha’s Frozen Flower, an adults-only rated historical drama about a ménage-a-trois between a king, his queen and a bodyguard, grosses $6.53 million (approx. £4.37 million) in the seven days since its release on 30^th December 2008, a domestic record for an adult-only release. [MORE] [ADD]

Chung-Ryoul Lee’s Old Partner, a documentary about an old man, his cow and his complaining but sympathetic wife unexpectedly tops the South Korean box office, prompting the film’s producer, Koh Young-jae to hold a press conference asking the media to respect the couple’s privacy. [MORE] [ADD]

Thirst, Park Chan-wook’s vampire tale, is released to a positive response from the public.   The film grosses $4.1 million (£2.7 million) in its opening weekend, easily beating X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which take in $2.5 million from 40 less screens.  Local films My Girlfriend is an Agent and Insadong Scandal occupy third and fourth spots as the Korean film industry continues to enjoy a boom. [MORE] [ADD]

Bong Joon-Ho’s eagerly awaited thriller Mother goes on general release.   It achieves over one million admissions by the end of its first weekend. [MORE] [ADD]

5 million people see tsunami disaster movie Haeundae within two weeks of its release. [MORE] [ADD]

Javier Fesser’s Camino wins Best Film, Director, Original Screenplay and Actress Awards at the 23^rd Goya Awards in Madrid. [MORE]

Alejandro Amenabar’s Roman-Egypt film Agora becomes Spain’s highest-grossing locally produced film with takings of 7 million euros (£6.37 million) in its first four days on release.  British actress Rachel Weisz stars. [MORE] [ADD]

Actor, writer, director and producer Paul Naschy, who was known as the Spanish Lon Chaney thanks to his appearance in numerous Spanish horror films, dies of cancer in Madrid at the age of 75. [MORE] [ADD]

Producer Tedy Villalba, whose varied career involved him working with such film legends as Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, John Huston, David Lean and Pedro Almodovar, dies in Madrid after a long illness at the age of 74. [MORE] [ADD]

Sweden

12/1 -

Jan Troell’s Eternal Moment wins the Best Film award at the 2009 Golden Bugs awards ceremony in Stockholm.  It is one of five awards won by the film.   Tomas Alfredson’s vampire film Let the Right One In also wins five awards, including Best Director, while Ruben Ostlund’s Involuntary, which was nominated for five awards, wins nothing. [MORE]

Ung Pirat (Young Pirate), the youth branch of the Swedish Pirate Party which advocates file sharing and copyright reform, receives a 1.3 million kroner (£113,763) grant from the government. [MORE]

The trial of the operators of file-sharing website The Pirate Bay for copyright infringement begins in Stockholm.   Four men linked to the site, from which people can download music and films for free, face two years in fines and $150,000 fines if found guilty. [MORE]

The legal team prosecuting The Pirate Bay website for copyright infringement drop half the charges against the site. [MORE]

Niels Arden Oplev’s Män som hatar kvinnor (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), the first part of the late author Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy is released in Sweden and Denmark with high hopes of breaking domestic box-office records. [MORE] [ADD]

On the final day of the Pirate Bay trial prosecution lawyers call for the four defendants to be imprisoned, fined $180,000 and ordered to pay $13 million in damages. [MORE] [ADD]

The Bergman Centre Foundation appeals for funds to bid for the estate of the late Ingmar Bergman on the island of Faro.   In accordance with Bergman’s will, the estate is due to be auctioned at Christie’s in London on 20^th August 2009. [MORE] [ADD]

The Stockholm District Court denies claims that the Pirate Bay trial was biased because of Judge Tomas Norstrom’s links to groups such as the Swedish Copyright Association, a fact that the site’s owners plan to use in their defence at an appeal hearing.  Their defence comes just one day after the Swedish Pirate Party wins a seat in the European Parliament. [MORE] [ADD]

The government announces that it will shut down the country’s board of film censors in 2011, meaning that any film will be able to be released provided it doesn’t break government laws. [MORE] [ADD]

The beleaguered file-sharing site The Pirate Bay finds itself the target of a new legal challenge as 13 Hollywood studios call for the website to be closed down. [MORE]

Peter Sunde, one of the four members of The Pirate Bay website imprisoned for assisting in making copyright content available over the internet, announces that he has resigned from the site. [MORE] [ADD]

Global Gaming Factory, the company behind the plan to buy internet file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, is barred from trading its shares on the Swedish Stock Exchange amid speculation that the proposed buy-out was an attempt to manipulate stock prices. [MORE]

The belongings of the late Ingmar Bergman are auctioned at Bukowskis auction house in Stockholm.  The auction takes nine hours and raises more than 17.9 kronor (£2.2 million). [MORE]

Norwegian millionaire Hans Gude Gudesen buys the late director Ingmar Bergman’s estate on the island of Faro for an undisclosed sum.   Together with Bergman’s daughter Linn Ullmann, he plans to create a foundation and centre for film, theatre and other media. [MORE] [ADD]

Ursula Meier’s Home wins Quartz trophies for Best Film, Best Screenplay (to Meier and co-writer Antoine Jaccoud) and Best Emerging Actor (Kacey Mottet Klein) at the Swiss Film Prizes in Lucerne. [MORE] [ADD]

Polish director Roman Polanski is arrested at Zurich airport after flying to Switzerland to attend the Zurich Film Festival.   He is wanted by US authorities for fleeing charges of unlawful sexual conduct with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. [MORE]

More than 70 members of the international film community, including Woody Allen, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese, sign a petition calling for the release of Roman Polanski from detention in Zurich. [MORE]

The Swiss Justice Ministry rejects Roman Polanski’s appeal to be immediately released from prison following his arrest in Zurich on 26^th September 2009 on 30-year-old charges of having sex with a minor. [MORE] [ADD]

The US files its formal request for the extradition of Roman Polanski from Switzerland.  The 76-year-old director has been in custody since his arrest in Zurich on 26^th September 2009.  He faces a prison sentence of up to two years if he returns to the States. [MORE] [ADD]

The Kaohsiung City Government announces that 10 Conditions of Love, the controversial documentary about exiled Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer, will be screened at the Kaohsiung Film Archive, separate from the events of the Kaohsiung International Film Festival. [MORE] [ADD]

Leon Dai’s Taiwanese drama No puedo vivir sin ti, the downbeat story of a single father fighting to keep custody of his daughter, wins the Best Film and Best Director Awards at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards.   The awards take into consideration Chinese-language films China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore. [MORE]

17/2 -

The government passes four draft rules to enable the introduction of the country’s first film rating system in May 2009. [MORE]

23/2 -

Wonderful Town, Aditya Assarat's love story set in a small town after the 2004 tsunami, wins five awards, including best film and best director, at the Subhanahongsa Awards. [MORE]   

4/6 - 

David Carradine’s naked body is discovered hanging by the neck in a closet in a Bangkok hotel room.   Contradictory reports suggest he either committed suicide or accidentally killed himself while attempting auto-erotic asphyxiation.   The 72-year-old actor recently enjoyed a resurgence in his career following a role in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill in 2004. [MORE]