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Indian filmmaker Dr. Bijukumar Damodaran‘s next film “Papa Buka” will commence principal photography in Papua New Guinea in July. The film will follow Indian historians Romila and Anand who go to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, to write a book about the Indian soldiers who fought with the British and Australian armies against the Japanese during WWII in the country. They find 80-year-old war veteran Papa Buka who serves as a guide to take them to remote jungle villages to meet his compatriots and record their reminiscences of the war. The journey throws up some unexpected events.

The cast includes Ritabari Chakraborty (“Fatafati”) and Prakash Bare (“Pendulum”). The score is by Grammy winner Ricky Kej. The film is a rare India-Papua New Guinea production. Indian companies, Pa. Ranjith and Aditi Anand’s Neelam Productions along with Bare’s Silicon Media are producing the film alongside Native Arts And...

MollywoodThe film, directed by Dr Biju with Indrans in the lead, had won a lot of appreciation and the Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award at the Shanghai Film Festival last year. Digital NativeCritically acclaimed Malayalam film Veyil Marangal is finally releasing in theatres on February 28. Director of the film Dr Bijukumar Damodaran wrote a Facebook post confirming this. "Bijukumar Damodaran's much awaited Malayalam feature #Veyilmarangal (Trees Under The Sun) will be theatrically released by Platoon One Films on 28.02.2020." The film had won a lot of appreciation at the Shanghai Film Festival last year, when it won the Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award. The film’s cast and crew, including director Dr Bijukumar Damodaran, producer Baby Mathew Somatheeram, and actors Prakash Bare and Indrans were in fact given a red carpet welcome at the festival. This is the tenth film made by Dr Biju, whose many projects have won international recognition, national and state awards before.

The film, directed by Dr Biju, tells the story of a Dalit family from Kerala that moves to Himachal Pradesh but faces harsh conditions in both the places.CrisVeyil Marangal, directed by Dr Biju, has received the Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival, one of the largest fests in East Asia. A photo of the director with his actors Prakash Bare and Indrans and producer Baby Mathew Somatheeram, being given the red carpet welcome at the festival, has been circulating online. “Yes we got that and ours was the only Indian film in the main competition for the Golden Goblet Award,” says Prakash Bare who has come back to India before the others. All of them will reach the international airport in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday night where they will be given a reception. This is the tenth film made by Dr Biju, whose movies have won...

Film FestivalArchana Padmini, the curator of the festival, explains why she chose these nine short films by women, and the space they have in Kerala today.CrisIndira Zen, who had for two decades nursed a dream to make a feature film, died without making one. But the short fiction she made, Catharsis, about the victim of a political attack meeting his assaulter, got picked up at festivals and won awards. She would be the absent filmmaker among eight others, at a curiously titled film festival called ‘9 Pen Cinemakal’, which has been touring many cities since last August. Archana Padmini, the curator of the festival that’s just had a hosting in Bengaluru, with the help of actor-producer Prakash Bare, quietly picked nine Malayalam short films made by women and had a screening in Kozhikode on August 15 last year. “I have been working with film societies for years. And through that work,...

The New York Indian Film Festival (Nyiff) announced the full lineup last night for their 16th year of celebrating independent, art house, alternate, and diaspora films from/about/connected to the Indian subcontinent (May 7 – May 14). Dedicated to bringing these films to a New York audience, the festival will feature 40 screenings (35 narrative, 5 documentary) –all seen for the first time in New York City. In addition, the festival will also feature five programs of short films.

The festival highlights various cinemas of India’s different regions. All the films are subtitled in English and some of the languages this year include Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telegu, Assamese, Haryanavi and Urdu. This year’s festival will feature a couple of sidebars –Nfdc restored first films of filmmakers and a three-generations sidebar, films of Bimal Roy, Basu Bhattacharya and Aditya Bhattacharya.

The festival’s film lineup includes 2016 National Award winners A Far Afternoon,...

John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary and new films by Michel Gondry, Kutlug Ataman and Robert Lepage are to feature in the Berlinale’s Panorama strand, which will open with Jalil Lespert’s Yves Saint Laurent.Scroll down for first batch of titles

A total of 50 features will be chosen for the Panorama section of the 2014 Berlinale (Feb 6-16), films that “provide insight on new directions in art house cinema”, and the first 19 have been announced. A total of 11 of those selected are world premieres.

The opening film will mark the international premiere of Jalil Lespert’s Yves Saint Laurent, a look at the life of the French designer from the beginning of his career in 1958 when he met his lover and business partner, Pierre Berge.

The opening screening on Feb 7 will see Berlin’s flagship cinema, the Zoo Palast, re-inaugurated as a Berlinale venue after extensive renovations.

Also in the line-up are new films from Michel Gondry, Kutluğ...