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Body of Work Festival with Harvey Weinstein postponed as producer cancels trip

A film festival celebrating the work of producer and distributor Harvey Weinstein will not go ahead in Canberra this weekend as its honouree is unable to travel due to health reasons.

The renowned producer and distributor who founded Miramax and runs The Weinstein Company is the focus of the inaugural weekend-long event planned by the Canberra International Film Festival.

However Weinstein said in a statement that doctors would not allow him to travel because of his knee injury. Nicole Mitchell, director of the Body of Work, said the festival could not go ahead without him.

“We deeply regret that we must announce the postponement of the inaugural Body of Work event in Canberra due to Mr Weinstein being unable to travel to Australia due to health reasons – a factor entirely beyond our control,” Mitchell said in a statement.

The Weinstein Company’s statement:

TWC co-chairman Harvey Weinstein said: “It’s with great disappointment that doctors’ orders force me to cancel my plans to be in Australia due to a knee injury. I was incredibly excited to take part in the Canberra Body of Work weekend and humbled to accept the festival’s generous honor. I know a tremendous amount of hard work and man power has gone into the planning and orchestration of the event, and I cannot express my appreciation enough to all those who took part. My sincerest thanks to the Body of Work festival for their understanding and continued support.

Dr. Andrew Feldman, Mr. Weinstein’s physician and chief physician for the NHL hockey team the New York Rangers said “After Mr. Weinstein’s recent fall, he needs an immediate operation which, of course, he refuses as he still wants to go to Australia. Our fear is that the thirty hour flight can cause a blood cot – deep vein thrombosis – and we’re absolutely insisting in no uncertain terms that he does not take the trip and instead treats his knee. This is the second time this has happened in two years. Needless to say, without Mr Weinstein’s presence, the Festival could not proceed. As a gesture of his commitment to our event Harvey has made a very generous cash donation to the organisation to assist with lost revenue and ticket refunds.

I, and the CIFF Board of Directors, are obviously very disappointed not to be able to see this inaugural Body of Work Festival come to life as planned, with so many people working hard towards the event, but we are committed to ensuring a successful event in the new year.

We are pleased to confirm that the Australian premier screening of MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM will still take place at 4.45pm on Sunday November 24 at Palace Electric, as scheduled. The film was personally chosen by Mr Weinstein to premier in Canberra as part of the Body of Work event.

We offer our sincerest apologies to ticketholders for the remaining sessions and we are currently working to personally contact them as quickly as possible to organise a refund or deferment of their tickets until a new date for the Festival can be scheduled.

Full refunds will be offered to all ticket holders. Ticket refund enquiries should be directed to the organisers at 02 6195 0831 or katherine@bdwspecialevents.com.au

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