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It’s that special time of year again. So much anticipation… so many parties… so much to consume and consider. If these phrases conjure up the holidays and all the stress that comes with them, think again.

It’s awards season— the period from late fall to early spring when movies and the people who make them get recognized for their efforts. Whether you’re a film goer, lover, maker, or all of the above, awards season is an opportunity to witness the exceptional craft of storytellers worldwide.

With the 97th Oscars just around the corner, we’re excited to highlight official submissions for Best International Feature, as well as a Best Live Action Short eligible film, made by Fellows and Participants from Film Independent’s programs. These stories underscore the universal value of human connection, while showcasing the importance of cultures and perspectives from around the world. Film Independent’s Global Media Makers,...

As the first Nepali-language picture was released in 1951, and the first produced one in Nepal was released only in 1964, the cinema of this country is relatively young and remains rather unknown around the world. Fortunately, certain films from Nepal gain recognition at festivals, as “Shambhala”, the second feature by Min Bahadur Bham, shows. It is not only the first movie made there that was included in the main competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, but it was also chosen as the official submission of Nepal for the Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.

Shambhala is screening at Five Flavours

The story starts when a young woman, Pema (Thinley Lhamo), prepares for marriage with three husbands, according to, as the local Rinpoche (Loten Namling) stated, the tradition and her karma. Pema’s peaceful life with the new family is disturbed when her main spouse, Tashi (Tenzing Dalha...

Georgian film April, directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili, has won both the Best Film and Best Performance prizes at the 17th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa), held in Australia.

The film tells the story of Nina, an obstetrician-gynecologist, who faces accusations after a newborn’s death. Ia Sukhitashvili won the Best Performance award for her portrayal of Nina.

The Best Director accolade went to Tato Kotetishvili for debut feature Holy Electricity, which is a Georgia-Netherlands co-production. The dark comedy follows two cousins selling neon crucifixes door to door in Tbilisi.

The Jury Grand Prize went to All We Imagine as Light, which is the second feature from India’s Payal Kapadia. The film follows two working-class nurses amid the nocturnal landscape of Mumbai.

Best Youth Film went to India’s Lakshmipriya Devi for Boong, alongside producers Alan McAlex, Vikesh Bhutani, Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar and Shujaat Saudagar.

Best Animated Film went...

Georgian drama film “April” took double honors on Saturday at the annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards, winning the best film prize and the best performance prize for Ia Sukhitashvili.

Directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili, the film portrays the determination of an obstetrics and gynaecology provider in the face of accusations about the death of a newborn child. The film premiered at the Venice and Toronto festivals in September, earning a special jury prize in Venice and the best film prize in the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera competition.

Sukhitashvili was present at the Apsa ceremony in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, to accept both awards.

Fellow Georgian filmmaker, Tato Kotetishvili was awarded the Apsa for best director for his debut feature, dark comedy “Holy Electricity,” which sees cousins selling neon crucifixes door to door in Tbilisi.

Women’s stories and films from India were also major themes among the awards winners.

Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light,...

Michael Gracey’s Robbie Williams biopic musical Better Man will open the 36th annual Palm Springs Film Festival on Thursday, January 2, while The Penguin Lessons, directed by Peter Cattaneo and starring Steve Coogan in the heartwarming story of a teacher who rescues and adopts an adorable penguin, closes it out January 13. Both films had premieres at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year, and Better Man first had its world premiere at Telluride.

As always a hallmark of Psiff are screenings of numerous entries into the Oscar International Feature Film race, this year with 35 scheduled to screen in the desert.

The festival has programmed 158 films from 71 countries including 68 premieres. The lineup also includes sections like Talking Pictures, a focus on Spanish films with a spotlight on Pedro Almodóvar, New Voices New Visions, Modern Masters, Queer Cinema, Cine Latino, True Stories,...

On Tuesday, the Palm Springs International Film Festival (Psiff) announced its official 2025 lineup for the nearly two-week event that’s being held from Jan. 2 to Jan. 13.

The opening night movie will be Paramount Pictures’ “Better Man,” starring Robbie Williams and directed by Michael Gracey, which chronicles the pop star’s meteoric rise and dramatic fall. And the festival will close with Sony Pictures Classics’ “The Penguin Lessons,” starring Steve Coogan and directed by Peter Cattaneo, in the dramedy about a teacher whose life changes when he adopts a penguin. In all, Psiff will screen 158 films from 71 countries, including 68 premieres.

Artistic director Lili Rodriguez said, “Our lineup this year is truly something special. In true Psiff fashion, it spans genres and crosses borders to bring an exciting mix of films to the Coachella Valley. Over the past year, our Palm Springs International Film Festival team has carefully crafted a program that celebrates the art of storytelling,...

The Palm Springs International Film Festival is set to kick off on Jan. 2 with “Better Man,” directed by Michael Gracey, while the closing film on Jan. 12 will be “The Penguin Lessons,” directed by Peter Cattaneo.

The lineup will feature 35 of the international feature film Oscar submissions. Over 11 days, the festival will screen 158 films from 71 countries, including 68 premieres.

Also set are a focus on Spanish films including a spotlight on Pedro Almodóvar, and the return of sections such as New Voices New Visions, Modern Masters, Queer Cinema, Cine Latino, True Stories and World Cinema Now.

“Better Man” is based on the true story of the rise, fall and return of British musician Robbie Williams. Cattaneo will be in attendance for “The Penguin Lessons,” a dramedy about a schoolteacher in militaristic Argentina who rescues a penguin.

Several of the honorees from the Palm Springs International Film Awards are set to participate in the Talking Pictures screenings,...

Gold Coast, Australia: The Asia Pacific Screen Academy in strategic partnership with Aw Jewel welcomes its International Jury members, nominees and guests from across the globe to the Gold Coast for the 17th Asia Pacific Screen Awards. The prestigious international film event honours the cinematic excellence of 78 countries and areas of the Asia Pacific and films that best reflect their cultural origins and the diversity of the vast region.

Film industry guests from Australia, Cambodia, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Thailand, Türkiye, and the USA are confirmed to participate in the 6th Asia Pacific Screen Forum, to be held from 27 to 30 November.

Australian actress, writer and comedian Nina Oyama (Deadloch, Utopia) is set to host the Gala Awards Ceremony, on the evening of Saturday 30 November in the elegant Diamond Ballroom of The Langham, Gold Coast, on the traditional...

Amit Dutta’s hand-drawn animation “Rhythm of a Flower” (Phool Ka Chand) has won the Mami Mumbai Film Festival’s Golden Gateway Award, the event’s top accolade.

The film is a biopic chronicling the twilight years of Indian classical singer Kumar Gandharva. Dutta is an auteur whose works have been frequently shown at the Venice, Rotterdam, Berlin and Jeonju film festivals.

Anupama Srinivasan and Anirban Dutta’s documentary on Himalayan moths, “Nocturnes,” won the festival’s Silver Gateway Award. The film previously won awards at Sundance and Thessaloniki.

Raam Reddy’s “The Fable,” starring Manoj Bajpayee, which chronicles the unravelling of a family after a series of mysterious fires, won the festival’s Special Jury Prize. The film debuted at the Berlinale and is on a global festival run that also includes Valladolid’s Seminci.

Another Sundance winner, Shuchi Talati’s coming-of-age drama “Girls Will Be Girls,” headlined by Kani Kusruti,...

Mumbai Film Festival has announced the 11 titles selected for its South Asia competition, the main competitive section of the festival, which includes the UK’s Oscars submission, Sandhya Suri’s Santosh, making its South Asian premiere.

The line-up also includes Nepal’s Oscars submission, Min Bahadur Bham’s Shambhala, along with one other Nepali title – Deepak Rauniyar’s Pooja, Sir – and Bhutanese title Agent Of Happiness, directed by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbo.

Indian titles in the competition include Rima Das’ Village Rockstars 2, which recently won a Jiseok award at Busan International Film Festival; multiple award-winner Girls Will Be Girls, by Shuchi Talati; Raam Reddy’s The Fable and Midhun Murali’s Kiss Wagon (see full line-up below).

The non competitive Focus South Asia section is screening ten features and 13 shorts, including a title from Afghanistan – Roya Sadat’s The Sharp Edge Of Peace – and a short film from Myanmar,...

Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Prix winner “All We Imagine as Light” will kick off the Mami Mumbai Film Festival’s 2024 edition, while Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or recipient “Anora” will close the festival.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio is no longer the title sponsor and, consequently, this year’s edition is a shortened version running from Oct. 19-24. The festival is led this year by renowned archivist and filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.

The festival issued an open letter stating: “This year marks a period of transition for us, where Mami has no title sponsor. While we have had to adjust to the challenges that come with such a shift, we are proud to announce that we’ve put together an exciting edition of the festival.”

“Now more than ever, we need the goodwill and encouragement of our audience. We ask for your patience and understanding as we bring...

One of the most energetic action films of the past year, set in the Walled City – the now-demolished, infamous district of Hong Kong; a tale of a spiritual journey through Nepal, filmed in the austere landscapes of the Himalayas, that has captivated festivals worldwide; and a clever, nostalgic crowd-pleaser from Taiwan! The Cinerama films will charm audiences and offer a refreshing break from arthouse cinema.

At the 18th Five Flavours, as always, there will be no shortage of eye-catching titles, whether they come from the hands of master filmmakers or serve as a ticket to fame for emerging directors. Films representing the commercial side of Asian cinema—currently in its golden age—are rarely shown in Poland. This is a great loss, as they astonish with their power and innovation. It’s safe to say that today the heart of entertainment cinema is in Asia. The Asian Cinerama screenings are,...

France has picked Jacques Audiard’s Mexico-set musical Emilia Perez to represent the country in the best international feature category at the 2025 Academy Awards as it attempts to sing its way to a victory in the category for the first time in more than 30 years.

The primarily Spanish-language song-filled film is about cartel leader Emilia, who enlists an unappreciated lawyer to help fake her death so Emilia can live authentically as her true self.

It won both the Cannes Jury prize for director Audiard and a shared best actress award for its female cast Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana...

Canada’s Oscar entry “Universal Language,” a critically acclaimed movie directed by Matthew Rankin, has been acquired by distributors in most major territories ahead of its North American premieres at Toronto and New York Film Festival.

Represented worldwide by Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever, the movie world premiered at this Cannes Directors’ Fortnight where it won the inaugural People’s Choice Award. Following Toronto and New York, the movie will go on to play at Fantastic Fest and Festival du Nouveau Cinema as the festival opener. “Universal Language” also won the Bright Horizons Best Film Award at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

“Universal Language” has been bought for France (Météore Films), Scandinavia (Njutafilms), Germany & Austria (Rapid Eye Movies), Switzerland (Outside The Box), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nitrato Filmes), Cei (Universal Distribution), Japan (The Klockworx), China (DDDream), Taiwan (Hooray Films), Brazil (Belas Artes Grupo), Indonesia (Falcon Pictures) and India (Big Tree Entertainment). Benelux,...

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has boarded international sales for Marie Losier’s documentary feature “Peaches Goes Bananas” ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Days sidebar running alongside the film festival.

For “Peaches Goes Bananas,” Losier followed Merrill Nisker — the trailblazing feminist queer icon, musician and producer known as Peaches — off and on stage. An intimate portrait, the documentary showcases Peaches’ concerts, her bond with her sister Suri and her creative process.

Losier is best known for directing critically lauded documentaries including “The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye,” which won the Teddy Award at the Berlinale in 2011; “Cassandro El Exotico!,” winner of the Cannes Acid section in 2018; and “Felix in Wonderland,” which had its world premiere in Locarno in 2019. Losier’s work has also been celebrated with a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2018, where all her films were acquired for the...

Taking place August 7-17, the official selection for the 77th Locarno Film Festival has been unveiled, featuring a stellar-looking slate of highly anticipated films. Highlights include Hong Sangsoo’s second feature of the year, By the Stream, starring Kim Minhee, Kwon Haehyo, and Cho Yunhee; Ramon Zürcher’s The Sparrow in the Chimney, Wang Bing’s second part of his Youth trilogy, Youth (Hard Times), as well as new films by Radu Jude, Bertrand Mandico, Courtney Stephens, Ben Rivers, Gürcan Keltek, Denis Côté, Kevin Jerome Everson, Fabrice Du Welz (featuring Abel Ferrara!), and many more. Also of particular note is the world premiere of Tarsem Singh’s restored cut of The Fall, which features a slightly different edit as he recently noted.

Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival said, “We are very excited and happy with our selection for Locarno’s 77th edition, which we believe...

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival will debut 17 world premieres, including new works by Hong Sang-soo and Wang Bing, as part of its 2024 competition program. This year’s event runs from August 7 – 17.

The festival announced its competition lineups this morning. The Hong Sang-soo feature is titled Suyoocheon (By The Stream) and stars Kim Minhee, Kwon Haehyo, and Cho Yunhee. The Wang Bing feature is a France, Luxembourg, and Netherlands co-production titled Hard Times. Scroll down to see the full Locarno competition lineup, which also includes new titles from Ben Rivers, Mar Coll, and Christoph Hochhäusler.

The festival today also announced that French acting veterans Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet will receive the event’s honorary Excellence Award Davide Campari at the opening ceremony on August 7. Previous recipients of the award include Riz Ahmed and Aaron Taylor Johnson.

Locarno’s separate Piazza Grande lineup features 18 titles, including Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig,...

The Mediterrane Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its second edition (June 22-30), with Cannes premiere The Count Of Monte Cristo set to open the event.

Scroll down for the full line-up

Directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, the film is among seven titles in the out of competition strand, which also includes Jane Schoenbrun’s Sundance title I Saw The TV Glow and Tarsem Singh’s Dear Jassi.

The 15-strong competition section features Cannes competition titles Kinds Of Kindness and The Substance, and Berlin premiere The Strangers case starring Omar Sy,

Seven films compete in the environment-themed Mare Nostrum section,...

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired international rights of Alireza Khatami’s “The Things You Kill.” The film is in post-production.

Khatami is already known for Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard title “Terrestrial Verses” and “Oblivion Verses,” which was awarded best screenplay in Venice Horizons competition 2017 and won the Fipresci Prize.

Le Pacte will release “The Things You Kill” in France.

In the film, Ali, a university professor, is haunted by the suspicious death of his ailing mother, and coerces his enigmatic gardener to execute a cold-blooded act of vengeance. As long-buried family secrets resurface, the police tighten their noose, and doubts begin eroding his conscience, Ali has no choice but to look into the abyss of his own soul.

The star-studded Turkish cast includes Ekin Koç (“Burning Days”), Erkan Kolçakköstendil, Hazar Ergüçlü (“The Wild Pear Tree”) and Ercan Kesal (“Once Upon a Time in Anatolia”).

Khatami said: “‘The Things...

Hong Kong’s Eye Catcher Global (Ecg) will expand into industry screenings and add Asian new director awards for its 2024 edition, following last year’s inaugural event that focused on international pitching.

The second edition is scheduled to run June 20-23 at Soho House in Hong Kong. The new Industry Screening programme will curate up to eight independent film projects from Asia. All will be works-in-progress, with at least a first-cut available for international and local industry delegates to view.

Julien Rejl, artistic director of Cannes’ Directors Fortnight, will attend the event as jury president of two new awards created...

Global Media Makers is proud of all of our Fellows who had an outstanding presence at this year’s Berlinale. Filmmakers arrived with projects in development, like Angolan Fellow Fradique Bastos, whose Gmm-supported project, Hold Time for Me, won the World Cinema Fund Audience Strategies Award at the Co-Production Market, and Nepali Fellow Rajan Katet, participated in the Berlinale Talents program after a successful festival run for his documentary No Winter Holidays.

After his film Goodbye Julia was selected as Sudan’s submission to the Oscars, Amjad Abu Alala served on the jury of the program’s Generation section. His Executive Producer, Lupita N’yongo, was the jury president of the festival’s main slate. Lebanese Fellow Myriam Sassine produced Diaries from Lebanon by director Myriam El Hajj, which premiered in the Panorama section.

One of the most memorable moments was on closing night in the main competition, which...

Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s The Devil’s Bath and Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s My Favourite Cake have jointly topped Screen’s 2024 Berlin jury grid with an average score of 3.1.

See the final 2024 grid below.

The last three titles to land, Meryam Joobeur’s Who Do I Belong To?; Gustav Möller’s Sons; and Min Bahadur Bham’s Shambhala, could not unseat the duo after scoring 2.8, 2.1 and 2.4 respectively.

Who Do I Belong To? follows a Tunisian mother struggling to cope when her jihadist son returns from Syria. It earned two fours (excellent) from Die Zeit’s Katja Nicodemus and Meduza’s Anton Dolin,...

"I must tell Tashi the truth and bring him home." Screen Daily has revealed the festival promo trailer for a Nepalese indie drama titled Shambhala...

Little delights abound in “Shambhala,” Min Bahadur Bham’s Berlinale competition entry, in which a vibrant young Nepali woman, Pema (Thinley Lhamo), enters into a polyandrous marriage with her lover, Tashi (Tenzin Dalha), and his two younger brothers. Bham’s tale, a physical and spiritual journey, is catalyzed by Tashi’s disappearance and Pema’s subsequent search to find him. However, at two-and-a-half hours in length, the film’s meticulous unfurling ends up spread across alternating peaks and valleys of interest and emotional allure, rendering its careful compositions only semi-affecting.

Bham paints Pema’s rural Himalayan village with whimsical brush strokes, framing the rural perspectives and traditions with a sense of mischievous intimacy. Pema’s parents joke about her marrying three brothers — a nominal arrangement, since she’s in love with one of them — and they hope, against local expectations, that she’ll be treated well. However, they don’t seem to really worry,...

The main title card for Shambhala, the new drama from Nepalese director Min Bahadur Bham (The Black Hen), appears about an hour into the movie. That’s more or less the same time it takes for the story to truly come alive, in a languishing 150-minute narrative that could prove a real patience-tester for many viewers.

And yet, this exquisitely crafted second feature does provide a certain payoff for those willing to accept its leisurely, Zen-like pacing — beginning with some of the more breathtaking scenery recently captured on screen.

At once intimate and epic, and often more ethnographic than dramatic, Shambhala takes us to the Himalayas to follow a young bride, Pema (Thinely Lhamo), whose husband, Tashi (Tenzin Dalha), leaves her behind for several months and then winds up disappearing altogether. The hitch is that Tashi is actually one of three husbands in a polyandrous marriage that also includes his...

Psychological thriller The Devil’s Bath has scored an average of 3.1 from critics on Screen’s Berlin jury grid, meaning it is now the joint leader alongside My Favourite Cake.

The latest from Austrian Goodnight Mommy duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala received two four stars (excellent) from Barbara Hollender (Poland’s Rzeczpospolita) and Paolo Bertolin cinematografo.it while five critics gave it three (good). Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) was less in favour of the film, following a newly married woman in 1750 who commits a shocking act of violence, awarding it just one star (poor).

Click on the...

Psychological thriller The Devil’s Bath has snapped up second place on Screen’s Berlin jury grid after scoring an average of 3.0 from the critics.

The latest from Austrian Goodnight Mommy duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala received one four (excellent) from Barbara Hollender (Poland’s Rzeczpospolita), followed by six threes (good) while Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) gave it a one (poor). Set in 1750, the thriller follows a newly married woman who commits a shocking act of violence.

Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.

Receiving a 1.9 average was Black Tea from Mauritania-­born filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako.

Psychological thriller The Devil’s Bath has snapped up second place on Screen’s Berlin jury grid after scoring an average of 3.0 from the critics.

The latest from Austrian Goodnight Mommy duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala received one four (excellent) from Barbara Hollender (Poland’s Rzeczpospolita), followed by six threes (good) while Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) gave it a one (poor). Set in 1750, the thriller follows a newly married woman who commits a shocking act of violence.

Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.

Receiving a 1.9 average was Black Tea from Mauritania-­born filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako.

Nepali filmmaker Min Bahadur Bham’s journey to make Berlin competition title “Shambhala” was arduous but an ultimately rewarding one.

Bham’s 2012 short “Bhansulli” debuted at Venice. His debut feature “Kalo Pothi” won the Fedeora best film award at Venice Critics’ Week and became Nepal’s official Oscar entry. It has been a nine-year process to bring “Shambhala” to fruition since then.

The filmmaker says that after “Kalo Pothi,” it took him a long time to write the script of “Shambhala,” which went through 45 drafts. He also wanted to experience the global labs, markets and residencies that he hadn’t on his first feature. These included Busan’s Asian Film Market, Cannes Cinefondation Residence and Locarno’s Open Doors. When those were done, finding the right cast and locations took a while and once those were finalized, Covid-19 struck.

“Shambhala” – a mystic, sacred realm in Tibetan Buddhism, also an area of significance in Hinduism,...

Best Friend Forever has acquired international rights to emerging director Dania Reymond-Boughenou’s debut feature “Silent Storms,” a supernatural film set in a fictional Arab city.

Currently in post production, the movie follows Nacer, a 45-year-old journalist who is observing the appearance of strange yellow sandstorms looming over Algiers and its surroundings. While covering the phenomenon for his newspaper, he starts witnessing more and more supernatural events, until his late wife Fajar returns to life. Faced with increasingly threatening storms, Samir has to face a dark past that haunts him.

“Silent Storms” stars Khaled Benaïssa (“Papicha”), singer-turned-director Camélia Jordana, Shirine Boutella (“Lupin”) and Mehdi Ramdani. The movie is scored by Dan Levy (“I Lost my Body”).

Reymond-Boughenou previously directed the short film “Constellation de la Rouguiere,” which was selected for Fid Marseille and Clermont Ferrand film festivals.

The helmer said she wanted the film to depict the reappearing of a traumatic memory.

Screen can reveal the first trailer for Shambhala, the first Nepalese film to play in Competition at the Berlinale.

Shambhala has its world premiere at the Berlinale Palast on Friday, February 23.

It is also the first South Asian film to play in Berlinale Competition in over three decades.

Set in the Nepalese Himalayas, Shambhala follows a woman in a polyandrous marriage with a man and his two younger brothers; when the man fails to return from a trading trip, the woman sets off to find him to give legitimacy to her unborn child.

The film is directed by Min Bahadur Bham,...

Best Friend Forever has picked up international rights to Milano, the debut feature from Belgian director Christina Vandekerckhove, and is kicking off sales at the EFM.

The film is about a 12 year-old boy who is able to hear, yet only expresses himself in sign language. As his single father tries to make ends meet he often leaves his son alone with his neighbour. But everything changes when his mother suddenly returns.

Now in post-production, Milano is produced by Jan De Clercq and Annemie Degryse ‘s Lumiere which will also release the film in Benelux. The film stars Flemish star Matteo Simoni,...

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever (“Banel & Adama”) has acquired international rights to “Shambhala,” the first Nepalese film to premiere in competition at the Berlinale or any other top film festival.

Directed by Min Bahadur Bham, “Shambhala” is also the first South Asian film to be selected in Berlinale’s competition lineup after three decades. Bham is best known for his feature debut, “Kalo Pothi,” which won a prize at Venice Critics’ Week in 2015. The helmer previously directed “Bansulli,” which was Nepal’s first selection at the Venice Film Festival in 2012.

“Shambhala” is set in a Himalayan polyandrous village in Nepal, where a newly married and pregnant woman, Pema, tries to make the best of her new life. But soon, her husband Tashi vanishes, prompting her to embark on a journey into the wilderness to find him, accompanied by her monk.

The film shot in the world’s highest settlement, located...

A Different Man.The Berlinale have begun to announce the first few titles selected for the 74th edition of their festival, set to take place from February 15 through 21, 2024. This page will be updated as further sections are announced.COMPETITIONAnother End (Piero Messina)Architecton (Victor Kossakovsky)Black Tea (Abderrahmane Sissako)La Cocina (Alonso Ruiz Palacios) Dahomey (Mati Diop)A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)The Empire (Bruno Dumont)Gloria! (Margherita Vicario)Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas)From Hilde, With Love (Andreas Dresen)My Favourite CakeLangue Etrangère (Claire Berger)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)Who Do I Belong To (Meryam Joobeur)Pepe (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias)Shambhala (Min Bahadur Bham)Sterben (Matthias Glasner)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)A Traveler’s Needs (Hong Sang-soo)Sleep With Your Eyes Open. ENCOUNTERSArcadia (Yorgos Zois)Cidade; Campo (Juliana Rojas)Demba (Mamadou Dia)Direct ActionSleep With Your Eyes Open (Nele Wohlatz)The Fable (Raam Reddy...

More than 100 Taiwanese filmmakers have issued a joint statement, expressing their concerns about recent proposed changes to an international funding scheme by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca).

Headlined ‘Worried about Taicca tarnishing the international image of Taiwan’, local film and TV professionals who have signed the statement include actor Lee Kang-Sheng, producer-editor Liao Ching-Sung, producer Patrick Mao Huang, sound designer Tu Duu-Chih and music composer Lim Giong.

Earlier this month, it was announced that the Taiwan International Co-funding Program (Ticp), which has backed award-winning titles such as Tiger Stripes, would shift its focus to more mainstream projects as part...

Berlinale co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek are going out with a bang in their final year, with a lineup unveiled today featuring the latest works by Olivier Assayas, Bruno Dumont, Mati Diop, Hong Sang-soo, Abderrahmane Sissako, Jane Schoenbrun, Alonso Ruizpalacios, Matias Pineiro, Travis Wilkerson, Kazik Radwanski, Annie Baker, and more.

When the co-directors were asked by Screen Daily about their departure, Chatrian said, “It’s quite simple. Mariette and I had a mandate of five years. It is true that at the beginning I said that I was willing to go on because there was a shared will with the [German] Ministry [of Culture] to go on. But then the people who have the responsibility to see the future of the Berlinale thought this structure of two leaders was not the right one and I don’t consider myself able to run the festival alone. And that was the decision of the Ministry.

The Berlin Film Festival on Monday unveiled the titles selected for its official competition and its sidebar Encounters competitive section.

A total of 20 films have been selected for the international competition, with highlights including La Cocina, directed by Alonso Ruiz Palacios and starring Rooney Mara. The pic is described as a “kinetic and cinematic love story” set over a single day in a Times Square kitchen. French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop returns with Dahomey, a 60-minute doc about art repatriation and Hong Sangsoo plays in competition with A Traveler’s Needs, starring Isabelle Huppert. Scroll down for the full lineup.

The Berlin Film Festival takes place February 15-25.

Organizers have already announced more than 100 titles across sidebars spanning Panorama, Forum, and Berlinale Special. Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, a feature documentary about influential British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger narrated by Killers of the Flower Moon...

A total of 44 film projects, including one executive produced by the Oscar-winning Cate Blanchett, have been selected shortlisted for this year’s Golden Horse Film Project Promotion, organizers announced on Monday. The Chinese-language project market takes place on the sidelines of the prestigious Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan.

Among the selections, 37 are works in development. Seven are works-in-progress that are still searching for finishing funds or partners for co-production. Together with the 19 TV series projects announced earlier, this year’s Golden Horse Fpp boasts a total of 63 projects. Last year, the Fpp counted 40. In pre-covid 2019, it counted 39 development projects and 8 works in progress.

The majority of the projects originate from Taiwan and there are plenty of big names attached. Drama “I Feel You” directed by Hsiao Ya-chuan is executive produced by Hou Hsiao-hsien and Osaka Fumiko. “The Ancient Tree” is the latest narrative feature offering from multiple Golden Horse Award nominee Singing Chen,...

Acclaimed French producer Catherine Dussart has a full production slate including new works from veterans Amos Gitai, Rithy Panh and Peter Greenaway.

Dussart is currently at the Venice Film Festival where Indian filmmaker Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s “Once Upon a Time in Calcutta,” co-produced by her Catherine Dussart Productions, is playing in the Horizons strand. Dussart is also on board Sengupta’s next, “Birthmark,” about two women who become part of a catastrophic plan hatched by a patriarchal family, which is at the Venice gap financing market.

Gitai started a Dussart-produced trilogy about Israelis and Palestinians engaging with each other harmoniously with “A Tramway in Jerusalem,” which won the Unimed Award at Venice in 2018. The second, “Laila in Haifa” was in the reckoning for a Venice Golden Lion in 2020. “Shikun,” which completes the trilogy, is set in a massive social housing project in Beersheba, in the Negev desert. The film,...

Projects include Toei Animation’s The Lost Titan (working title) in collaboration with John A. Davis.

Tiffcom, the film and TV market accompanying Tokyo International Film Festival, has announced the 20 projects selected for the first edition of its Tokyo Gap Financing Market (Tgfm), which is scheduled to run online November 4-6.

The selection includes 14 feature-length projects, four of which are animations, and six TV series projects, including three animations. Female producers are involved in 11 of the projects, which have a total budget volume of around $3m, with an average 66% of financing secured.

Projects include Toei Animation’s The Lost Titan...

Nepal has chosen a debut feature as its candidate for the Oscars’ international feature film category.

Nepal’s academy award selection committee chose Binod Paudel’s “Bulbul.” Starring Swastima Khadka and Mukun Bhusal, the film follows the travails of a woman who drives a tempo truck in Kathmandu. “Bulbul” was released in Nepal in February.

At the country’s annual National Awards Khadka won best actress while Paudel won best director. “Bulbul” is Paudel’s feature debut. He previously wrote 2013’s “Saanghuro” that won best screenplay and best director at Nepal’s National Awards.

Nepal has been submitting to the category formerly known as the foreign film award since 1999. The country scored a nomination for its first entry, Eric Valli’s “Himalaya,” but has not been nominated since. Globally acclaimed films submitted to the category from Nepal include Min Bahadur Bham’s “The Black Hen” and Deepak Rauniyar’s “White...

Line-up includes new titles from Yosep Anggi Noen, Hussein Hassan, Ash Mayfair and Hu Jia.

Busan International Film Festival (Biff)’s Asian Project Market has unveiled the 29 projects selected for this year’s edition of the financing and co-production event (October 6-8).

The line-up includes Silah And The Man With Two Names, the new project from Indonesian director Yosep Anggi Noen, whose latest film The Science Of Fictions will premiere in competition at this year’s Locarno.

Other projects of note include Black And White Photo, from Nepali filmmaker Rajesh Prasad Khatri, which received development funding from Biff’s Asian Cinema Fund...

Seven of the selected projects are debut films this year, with four directed by women.

The TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has revealed the 11 new projects selected for the 2019 FeatureLab training programme.

Seven of the projects are debut films this year, with four directed by women and nine women producing.

For the first time a documentary project is in the line-up: Cristina Picchi’s About The End.

Focusing on first and second feature films, the lab selects projects at an advanced stage of production and helps a team of directors, scriptwriters and producers get their ideas on screen.

This year’s line-up has...

15 directors due to present their projects at the co-production market, including Mikko Myllylahti and Soudade Kaadan.

Finnish director and screenwriter Mikko Myllylahti and Syrian filmmaker Soudade Kaadan will be among 15 directors presenting their projects at the Cannes L’Atelier co-production meeting in May.

The event, organised by the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinéfondation, will run May 16-23.

Myllylahti, who co-wrote Un Certain Regard winner The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Mäki, will present his debut project The Woodcutter Story.

The project, which took part in the 2018 edition of the TorinoFilmLab, revolves around a man who loses everything when...

One project from Sri Lanka –Sanjeewa Pushpakumara’s “Mother”– and another from Myanmar –The Maw Naing’s “The Women”– won ex-aequo, the main kudos at the Locarno Festival’s Open Doors co-production forum.

The winning projects share a high sensitivity towards female-related issues, a trend among many of the participants this year. The $50,000 award was split between the two.

Produced by Youngjeong Oh at Yangon-based One Point Zero, “The Women,” the third feature of The Maw Naing (Karlovy Vary-premiered “The Monk”) turns on the struggles of four women who have moved from remote villages to the city of Yangon, Myanmar to work and get a better life. The four women share a bedroom near the city factory area.

“Despite working hard and keeping their hopes high, they can’t escape from poverty. Their lives are not strongly connected, but from their present, we can see their past and future. I...

‘The Women’ by Myanmar’s The Maw Naing wins the top prize of €30,300.

Filmmakers from Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal were among the winners of this year’s edition of the Locarno Festival’s Open Doors project showcase.

Myanmar-based poet, artist and filmmaker The Maw Naing won the Open Doors production grant of €30,300 for his second narrative feature film project The Women.

The drama about four women from remote villages who travel to the city in search of work is being produced by the Berlin-based Yangon Film School and the director’s own production company One Point Zero. The...

The second feature from Nepal’s Min Bahadur Bham, “A Year of Cold,” has been offered up for co-production at Locarno’s Open Doors Hub. The director’s coming-of-age debut, “The Black Hen,” hit Venice Critics Week in 2015, taking the Fedora Award. It became the first Nepali film to premiere at that festival– and was Nepal’s entry in the 2016 Oscars race.

Nepal-based Shooney Films, who produced Bahadur Bham’s debut as well as Rajesh Prasad Khatri’s “A Curious Girl,” a Grand Prix winner at this year’s Berlinale Generation KPlus, is back to produce “A Year of Cold.” The company is also developing Abinash Bikram Shah’s “Season of Dragonflies,” which scored the Cnc Prize at Locarno’s Open Doors Hub in 2016.

A female-driven survival road movie, “A Year of Cold” evolves against the backdrop of the world’s Himalaya roof and a strong patriarchal, rural environment. The...

Min Bahadur Bham’s female survival road movie “A Year of Cold” and Siddiq Barmak’s family drama “The Postman” are among the eight projects selected from South Asia selected by Locarno’s Open Doors Hub co-production forum to be offered for international partnerships.

This year five of the projects are closely tied to gender-related issues, marking an emerging trend in a patriarchal-dominant region. Pakistan heads the selection with two projects.

“A Year of Cold” is the sophomore directorial effort of Min Bahadur Bham, whose coming-of-age debut “The Black Hen” hit Venice Critics Week in 2015 taking the Fedeora award, and was Nepal’s 2016 Oscar submission.

Nepal-based Shooney Films (“The Black Hen”) is behind “A Year of Cold.” Set against the background of the Himalayas, and a strongly patriarchal rural society, the feature turns on a Tibetan woman refugee forced for legal reasons to find her missing husband, accompanied by her now de facto husband,...

Selection includes films from Siddiq Barmak, Yoon Gaeun and Min Bahadur Bham.

In South Korea, the Busan International Film Festival (Biff)’s Asian Project Market (Apm) has announced 28 titles from 17 countries for this year.

The 20th Apm’s selection includes projects from Golden Globe best foreign language film award winner Siddiq Barmak (Osama) and Berlinale Generation director Yoon Gaeun (The World Of Us).

Afghan filmmaker Barmak’s Georgia-France co-production The Pass is a wartime drama about two soldiers from opposite sides who are forced to cooperate in order to cross a dangerous mountain pass alongside refugees.

Korean director Yoon’s Sora is a drama about a middle school girl who finds out a secret about the new kid in the neighborhood.

According to organizers, the number of projects submitted to Apm this year went up “almost 25%” from the previous year to reach 317. In the 19 previous years, “a total of 499 projects have been selected with more than 220 of...

Maoist guerrillas inflict brutal violence on a village in this engaging debut, marked by dream sequences reminiscent of Buñuel

A gentle, humane and beautifully photographed movie from Nepalese director Min Bahadur Bham, whose short film The Flute and then this debut feature were hits at the Venice film festival. It is set during the Nepalese civil war of 1996-2006. Two village boys try to recover their hen, which had been sold without their knowledge to an old man (called Tenzing – a name with great resonance for the British and for climbers of any nationality). Eventually they steal it back and try painting it black to disguise it. And all this happens while fanatical Maoist guerrillas make incursions, kidnapping villagers. Scenes of bucolic calm are interspersed with brutality and violence. There is an all-but-unwatchable moment when the boys smear blood over their faces and pretend to be dead bodies so that...