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Auteur Mostofa Sarwar Farooki is spearheading “Ministry of Love,” a 12-film anthology by the leading lights of the Bangladesh film industry for streamer Chorki.

The broad theme of the films will be love. Farooki, a celebrated filmmaker whose work including “Television,” “Saturday Afternoon” and “No Land’s Man,” has travelled to festivals worldwide, will co-produce the project on behalf of Chorki. He will also direct two of the 12 films.

“Something Like an Autobiography,” which Variety understands is heavily inspired from Farooki and his actor wife Nusrat Imrose Tisha’s personal life, is co-written by Tisha and Farooki and is co-produced by Anna Katchko, former Film Bazaar chief Nina Lath and Tisha. Farooki will also direct a project titled “Last Defenders of Monogamy.”

Couple Raka Noshin Nower (“Laugh Lines”) and Shangkha Dasgupta (“Guti”) will direct “50/50.” Redoan Rony (“Behind the Puppy”), filmmaker and CEO of Chorki, directs “Uki.” Abu Shahed Emon (Busan...

India’s Film Bazaar, South Asia’s largest film market, has selected a range of projects from around the world for its annual co-production market, which will be held in-person this year after two years of being online due to Covid-19.

Though the 20 selected projects are from 11 countries, and most are already structured as co-productions, they are all South Asian-themed. Michael Radford, best known for BAFTA and Oscar-winning film “Il Postino,” has Spanish-language Spain-India project “The Princess of Kapurthala,” which he will co-direct with Manuel Estudillo (“Caso Urquijo”). Juan Antonio Casado and Davide Cottarelli of Pok Production are producing.

Gautam Arora’s Hindi and English-language film “The Last Lane” (India) is being produced by Kite Rabbit Films, the production company of Shaunak Sen, whose “All That Breathes” won best documentary at both Sundance and Cannes this year.

Gogularaajan Rajendran’s Tamil and Malay-language project “Depth of Darkness” is being produced...

Moving Bangladesh wins $20,000 Sloan Fast Track Grant.

Projects from the UK, Bangladesh, Greece and Trinidad & Tobago were among 15 selected for Film Independent’s 19th Fast Track Film Finance Market that took place online from November 15-18, the organisation said on Friday.

The four-day programme connected participating filmmakers with financiers, production companies, agents, managers and other film industry professionals from, among others, A24, Decal, Maven Screen Media, Searchlight Pictures, Venice Film Festival, and Hollywood agencies.

Recent Fast Track projects completed include Bing Liu’s 2019 Oscar-nominated documentary Minding The Gap; Hikari’s 2019 Berlinale jury prize and audience award-winning debut 37 Seconds; Kirill Mikhanovsky...

Bangladeshi filmmaker Nuhash Humayun’s “Moving Bangladesh” has received Nt$2.5 million from the Taipei Film Fund. With this, the Tiffcom selected project has achieved 60% of its $659,000 budget and aims to raise the rest in Tokyo.

In “Moving Bangladesh,” sick of being stuck in traffic — and in life — a struggling middle-class Bangladeshi entrepreneur creates a motorcycle-based ride sharing app that may change transport in developing cities such as Dhaka. But first he must overcome his family’s skepticism and a hostile political environment.

Humayun’s credits include a segment of anthology film “Sincerely Yours, Dhaka,” which premiered at Busan in 2018 and was Bangladesh’s entry to the Oscars. He is is also a fellow of the Asian Film Academy 2019, where he directed the LGBTQ drama “Lipstick” in 2019.

Prior to Tokyo, “Moving Bangladesh” participated in India’s Film Bazaar co-production market and was selected as one of seven top projects from there...

Producers of the Spirit Awards, and non-profit arts organization, Film Independent, announced the five filmmakers and projects selected for their 21st annual producing Lab. The fellows will participate in a program set up to help develop their skills and further their careers by pairing them with a creative advisor who will advise on both the craft and business of independent producing.

The 2021 Producing Lab is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Sloan Producers Grant, a $30,000 grant to further develop a project that explores science and technology themes or characters in engaging and innovative ways, was awarded to Cecilia Otero with her project, Upstreamers. Additional support comes from the National Endowment for the Arts.

“We are thrilled to support this year’s talented cohort of Producers who are championing global stories that speak to the universal human experiences of ambition, redemption and connection.” said Angela C. Lee, Associate Director of Artist Development.

Indian auteur Anurag Kashyap’s Good Bad Films (“Choked”) has boarded debutant Indian filmmaker Suman Sen’s “Eka” (“Solo”) as a producer.

The project was selected as one of the participant’s at this year’s La Fabrique Cinéma de l’Institut Français, a tailored program helping talented young directors from emerging countries increase their international exposure.

France’s Dominique Welinski (“House of my Fathers”) is already on board as a producer via outfit Dw, as are Bangladesh’s Arifur Rahman and Bijon Imtiaz through their company Goopy Bagha Productions (“Kingdom of Clay Subjects”).

The film follows Biplab, a 56-year-old long-term diabetic insurance agent. Every morning, on his way to his office in a crowded bus, he witnesses a huge human toe of a massive under-construction statue in the middle of the main city square. Fully covered in blue tarpaulin, the statue is supposed to represent the Common Man. The...

Film Bazaar, South Asia’s largest co-production market, has revealed 21 eclectic projects from several countries and in a welter of languages, for its 2021 online edition.

The selected filmmakers will pitch their projects virtually to a curated audience of Indian and international producers, distributors, festival programmers, financiers and sales agents at an open pitch session. This year, Film Bazaar has also collaborated with the French Embassy in India which will be sponsoring the French Institute Award for one market project.

As is the usual case, the projects are a mix of festival favorites and debutants.

From India, Berlinale title “Eeb Allay Ooo!” editor Tanushree Das and Rotterdam title “Nasir” cinematographer Saumyananda Sahi make their directorial debuts with Bengali-language “Baksho Bondi” (aka “How Long Is Tomorrow?”), produced by Naren Chandavarkar (Rotterdam Fipresci winner “The Bangle Seller”); Tamil-language “Bommainayagi” (aka “Queen Doll”) by debutant Shanawaz Nizamudeen, produced by Pa. Ranjith, director of Rajinikanth...

Line-up includes new projects from Onir, Anjali Menon, Shyam Bora and Haobam Paban Kumar.

Film Bazaar, organised by India’s National Film Development Corp (Nfdc), has announced the 21 projects selected for the Co-production Market (Cpm) of its 2020 edition, which will take place online next month after being postponed from its usual November slot.

The line-up includes projects in 17 South Asian languages originating in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, as well as co-productions with Canada, China, Netherlands and France.

International collaborations include Onir’s We Are, co-produced by India’s Anticlock Films and Canada’s Fae Pictures; India-Netherlands collaboration Dengue,...

Kolkata– January 7, 2020 – In its fourth edition, Arthouse Asia Film Festival is establishing a reputation as a relaxed, boutique event, with strong focus on independent cinema and a productive industry programme partnered with prestigious ‘Produire Au Sud’ for screenwriters and producers from South Asia.

“Weihai”

The day began with the screening of Chinese film ‘Weihai‘ directed by Liang Huan. The film has been shot beautifully in black and white and tells the story of a film screenwriter who went to a seaside town for ten days.

The day progressed with an insightful discussion about the landscape of independent film production in South Asia. Renowned Bangladeshi producer Arifur Rahman(Live from Dhaka, Kingdom of Clay Subjects) and Chennai based producer Mathivanan Rajendran (Nirvana Inn) have taken part in the session and shared their experience in the film circuit.

The session turned out extremely important and valuable to the film school students and...

The Arthouse Asia Film Festival, presented by Arthouse Film Foundation and Doab Uncut Motion will continue its tradition of celebrating and encouraging Arthouse cinema in 2020. This is the 4th edition of A2FF and the event has gone global in true sense in recent past. More than 50 films will be screened during the festival which include acclaimed shorts and full-length feature films. Out of these 12 films are premiering first time in Asia and 4 are Kolkata premiere. For the first time in India, a screenwriting and producers’ workshop has been arranged collaborating with internationally renowned Produire au Sud. 7 projects from South Asia have been selected for this workshop on 11th January.

Masterclass by eminent filmmakers, film talks, panel discussions and industry meet will also be organized during the event. For example a Masterclass by Buddhadeb Dasgupta in conversation with Aseem Chabra, festival director of New York Indian Film Festival, a Masterclass by Sanal Kumar Sashidharan,...

Diverse selection will present projects from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, France, Nepal, Singapore and the Us.

Film Bazaar, organised by India’s National Film Development Corporation (Nfdc), has announced the 14 projects that will take part in the Co-production Market at this year’s edition of the annual Goa-based event (November 20-24).

The diverse selection will present projects from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, France, Nepal, Singapore and the Us. Languages involved in the projects include Hindi, English, Bengali, Malayalam, Assamese, Nepali, Dzongkha (Bhutanese) and Gujarati.

The line-up also includes projects from newcomers and more established talents, such as Indian director Alka Raghuram (Burqa...

India’s Film Bazaar, South Asia’s leading film project market, has revealed a 14-strong slate spanning Asia, Europe and the U.S. for its annual co-production jamboree in Goa. It is a diverse mix of festival favorites and debutants.

From India, producer Shaji Mathew’s Niv Art Movies, whose credits include 2017 Rotterdam winner “Sexy Durga”, returns with the Malayalam-language “The Deathplace” by Jiju Antory (“The Forsaken”). Also in Malayalam is “All Our Loves” by Mehdi Jahan, whose short “Jyoti and Joymoti” has won numerous awards. Heer Ganjwala will produce for Human Trail Pictures. Saurav Rai, winner of Mumbai’s 2019 grand jury prize for “Invitation,” reunites with Sanjay Gulati’s Crawling Angel Films for Nepali-language “Eternity.”

The international projects are also robust. Alka Raghuram (“Burqa Boxers”) will co-produce Hindi-language “The Mirror” via her U.S. outfit Junoon Pictures, alongside Celine Loop’s Traveling Light Productions.

Rubaiyat Hossain, whose directorial venture...