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A truly International collaboration, The Extraordinary Journey Of The Fakir, directed by Ken Scott and starring Indian actor Dhanush, rolled in Mumbai this week. The Extraordinary Journey Of The Fakir is produced by Brio Films, Vamonos Films, M! Capital Ventures, Little Red Car Films, Impact Films, Aurora Global Media Capital, Scope Pictures, TF1 Studio and Aleph Motion Pictures.

The film is based on “The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir who got trapped in an Ikea wardrobe” by Romain Puertolas. The screen play of the film is by Puertolas and Luc Bossi (Brio films) and has a conglomeration of production houses from 3 different continents. The shooting has commenced earlier this month and is expected to be shot in Mumbai (India), Brussels (Belgium), Rome (Italy) and Paris (France).

Starring the inimitable Dhanush in the titular role of the Fakir, the film, as the name suggests, marks an extraordinary journey in the life...

International Film Festival Rotterdam 2014

Bright Future

World Premieres

Above: The Pinkie

About Sarah (Elisa Miller, Mexico, United Kingdom)

Bella Vista (Vera Brunner-Sung, USA)

Creator of the Jungle (Jordi Morató (Spain)

La distancia (Sergio Caballero, Spain)

Dzma/Brother (Téona Mghvdeladze & Thierry Grenade, France, Georgia)

L’éclat furtif de l'ombre (Alain-Pascal Housiaux & Patrick Dechesne, Belgium, Germany)

Edén (Elise DuRant, USA, Mexico)

Helium (Eché Janga, Netherlands)

History of Eternity (Camilo Cavalcante, Brazil)

Hotel Nueva Isla (Irene Gutiérrez & Javier Labrador, Cuba, Spain)

The Iranian Film (Yassine el Idrissi, Morocco, Netherlands, Egypt)

Jacky au royaume des filles (Riad Sattouf, France)

L for Leisure (Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn, USA, Mexico, France, Iceland)

Little Crushes (Aleksandra Gowin & Ireneusz Grzyb, Poland)

Masked Monkey - The Evolution of Darwin’s Theory (Ismail Fahmi Lubish, Indonesia)

Oilfields Mines Hurricanes (Fabian Altenried, Germany, Iceland)

The Pinkie (Lisa Takeba, Japan)

The Quiet Roar (Henrik Hellström, Sweden, Norway)

Sitzfleisch (Lisa Weber, Austria)

The Songs of Rice (Uruphong Raksasad,...

Picks include the latest documentary from Ai Weiwei [pictured].

The International Film Festival Rotterdam has unveiled the selections for its Bright Future and Spectrum programmes (list of premiere titles below).

Across both sections there are 37 world premieres.

Bright Future is comprised of 63 films, all first and second features. Bright Future includes five films supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, including Carlos Armella’s Las voces.

Five films from Bright Future will compete in the Big Screen Award Competition, including telepathic dwarf thriller La distancia by Sergio Caballero; and Riad Sattouf’s Jacky au royaume des filles starring Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Other notable seelctions include Burrowing director Henrik Helstrom’s second feature The Quiet Roar, about a dying woman who reconnects with her past through an acid trip.

Spectrum, focusing on artistic and experimental cinema, includes 69 films, including three supported by the Hubert Bals Fund. Five Spectrum Films, including Jos de Putter’s See No Evil and Oxana Bychkova’s Another...

Mother Wins Top Asian Film Award The Asian Film Awards’ first Best Costume Designer prize was presented by Donatella Versace to Christian Lacroix, Anne Dunsford and Wang Chia-Hui for Tsai Ming-liang’s French-Taiwanese Face (above). Another Face victory: the movie was much praised for its look (though not for its storyline): was in the Best Production Designer category: the winners were Alain-Pascal Housiaux, Patrick Dechesne and Lee Tian-Jue. The award for Outstanding Contribution to Asian Cinema went to Chinese veteran Zhang Yimou, among whose credits are Raise the Red Lantern, To Live, and Hero, while Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. "In a world that is fast disintegrating," Bachchan declared, "I believe cinema is one medium [...]...