News

Indywood Distribution Network has picked up international sales rights to “The Wrestler” (“Boli”), Bangladesh’s submission for the 97th Academy Awards’ international feature film category and top prize winner at the Busan International Film Festival.

Indywood is set to launch sales at the European Film Market (EFM) that runs alongside the Berlin Film Festival. The company, which maintains a strong presence across major markets including Cannes, Mipcom, and Hong Kong’s FilMart, aims to leverage its global network to secure worldwide distribution for the acclaimed feature.

Iqbal H. Chowdhury’s debut feature focuses on the elderly wrestler/wrestling trainer Moju (Nasir Uddin Khan), an aging fisherman whose frustrations with his lack of recent catch lead him to challenge local champion Dofor (Akm Itmam). Moju’s son Shafu (Angel Noor) has recently married a woman named Rashu (Priyam Archi), and he takes his frustrations out on them as well, though they...

In Bangladesh, the sport of boli khela — or the wrestler game — is a meticulous, methodical affair, a tone Iqbal H. Chowdhury re-creates for his debut feature, “The Wrestler.” Straddling a line between observational and oblique, the film seems designed to fascinate and frustrate in equal measure, gesturing toward masculine boundaries in a rural, often overcast coastal setting without fully articulating them.

In leaving much of his story up to intuition — and taking a climactic turn toward the surreal — Chowdhury crafts a scrupulous slow-burn drama about a kind of obsession that, despite being opaque, comes off as entirely tragic. Its central focus is the elderly wrestler/wrestling trainer Moju (Nasir Uddin Khan), an aging fisherman whose frustrations with his lack of recent catch lead him to challenge local champion Dofor (Akm Itmam). Then again, this economic woe is just one of several possibilities pushing Moju toward certain self-destruction (it’s the...

Singapore: “La Luna”

“La Luna”, directed by M Raihan Halim, has been picked to represent Singapore in the best international feature film category at the Oscars. The Singapore-Malaysia co-production is a Malay-language comedy about a woman who opens a lingerie shop in a conservative Malaysian village.

The film had its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival last November in the Asian Future Section and participated at the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival. It was also the closing title at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and played in Shanghai earlier this year.

Produced by Singaporean firms Clover Films and Papahan Films, in association with Malaysia’s Act 2 Pictures and One Cool Film, the film stars Shaheizy Sam, Sharifah Amani, Wan Hanafi Su and Hisyam Hamid. It was released in Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian cinemas in November last year.

“La Luna” is M Raihan Halim’s second feature directing effort,...

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 2, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2, 2024.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 2, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2, 2024.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

Bangladesh has picked writer-director Iqbal Hossain Chowdhury’s award-winning feature debut Boli (The Wrestler) as its selection to the 2025 Oscars in the best international feature film category. The movie won the 2023 Busan International Film Festival’s New Currents prize, and it was warmly received by critics at the Shanghai International Film Festival in June.

The movie follows an eccentric fisherman who resolves to beat the current local champion at Boli Khela, a traditional form of wrestling from Chattogram, Bangladesh’s second-largest city. Set in the late 1990s in a remote coastal village, the story weaves together local myths about dervishes (Sufis), mahi sawars (fish riders) and mysterious creatures believed to be angels in disguise.

Said Chowdhury in his director’s statement: “One of the most significant elements of this movie is the mystic nature of the coastal area. Unlike popular wrestling, ‘Boli Khela’ is quite slow-paced and more about technique and patience.

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 2, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2, 2024.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

SonyLIV has acquired exclusive streaming rights to acclaimed Bangladeshi films “Hawa” and “Saturday Afternoon” from Reliance Entertainment and Continental Entertainment Pte Ltd (Cepl).

Directed by Mejbaur Rahman Sumon, “Hawa” follows the journey of an all-men team on a fishing trawler, whose routine is disrupted when they haul in a mysterious catch. The cast is led by hugely popular star Chanchal Chowdhury and includes Nazifa Tushi, Sariful Islam Razz, Sumon Anowar, Nasir Uddin Khan and Shohel Mondol. The film was Bangladesh’s entry to the Oscars and is one of the highest grossers from the country having also found distribution in India, Singapore and the Middle East. It will premiere July 7 on SonyLIV.

“Saturday Afternoon,” Bengali-and-English-language film directed by Bangladeshi auteur Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, takes its cue from the brutal terrorist attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka in 2016, which took place on a quiet Saturday and left more than 20 people dead.

Bhojpuri singer Nisha Upadhyay sustained a gunshot injury in leg due to celebratory firing in an event in Bihar’s Chapra, police said on Thursday. The incident occurred during a private event when she was performing on the stage in Sendhuar village under Janata Bazar police station in the district. Nisha was taken to Max hospital in Patna and her condition is stable. Her family members also reached the hospital.

Nisha Upadhyay was invited by a person named Virendra Singh in Sendhuar village. During the event, some people started firing in the air and one of the bullets hit her leg. Following the incident chaos took place at the venue and those who were involved in celebratory firing fled from the spot.

“As soon as we received information about celebratory firing in the event, we reached there. Bhojpuri singer Nisha Upadhyay sustained a gunshot injury in her leg. We are...

“Hawa” (Wind), the film that came like a new breeze to the Bangladeshi film industry, will be released on December 16 in Kolkata and the rest of West Bengal, and across India on December 30. The film, which is also Bangladesh’s top grosser, has been directed by Mejbaur Rahman Sumon.

Sun Music and Motion Pictures Ltd, the film’s production company, has said it will be distributed across India by the Singapore-based entity, Continental Entertainment Private Ltd (Cepl) via Reliance Entertainment.

“Hawa”, the myth, fantasy and mystery-thriller film, received a huge response from its fans in Bangladesh soon after its release in theatres in that country on July 29. Even after four months of release, it is still running in theatres and raking in business and getting love.

The film has received widespread critical acclaim and has been shown at numerous cross-border festivals and diaspora events. It has been nominated for the...

‘Hawa’ the film which brought a new breeze to the Bangladeshi film industry, is now being distributed throughout India. The film is directed by Mejbaur Rahman Sumon and will be released on December 16, 2022, in Kolkata and West Bengal, and December 30, 2022, in the rest of India.

‘Hawa,’ the myth, fantasy, and mystery-thriller film, received a huge response from the country’s film fans soon after its release in Bangladesh theatres on July 29, 2022. Even after four months of release it is still in theatres and raking in business and love.

The film has received widespread critical acclaim and has been shown at numerous cross-border festivals and diaspora events. This film has been nominated for the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category at the 95th Academy Awards (Oscars), which will be held next year. Following a very successful run in Singapore under Cepl, the film will now have a wide release in India through Reliance Entertainment.

Mejbaur Rahman Sumon’s “Hawa,” Bangladesh’s submission to the Oscars’ international feature category, is getting distribution in India.

The film follows the journey of an all-men team on a fishing trawler, whose routine is disrupted when they haul in a mysterious catch. The cast is led by hugely popular star Chanchal Chowdhury and includes Nazifa Tushi, Sariful Islam Razz, Sumon Anowar, Nasir Uddin Khan and Shohel Mondol. It is produced by Sun Music & Motion Pictures Limited and Facecard Productions.

“Hawa” released in Bangladesh in July and proved to be one of the biggest hits of the year. It will be released in India by Singapore entity Continental Entertainment Private Limited (Cepl) via Reliance Entertainment. Cepl released the film in Singapore successfully and holds distribution rights for China, Europe and also the Middle East, where it is set for a Jan. 2023, release.

The Bengali-language film will release on Dec. 16, 2022 in Bengali-speaking Kolkata and West Bengal,...

India’s Reliance Entertainment and Singapore-based Continental Entertainment Private Limited (Cepl) are releasing Bangladesh’s Oscars submission Hawa (Wind) across India, marking the first time ever that a purely Bangladeshi film has received a wide pan-India release.

The fantasy thriller, directed by Mejbaur Rahman Sumon, will be released in Kolkata and the state of West Bengal on December 16, coinciding with Bangladesh’s Victory Day national holiday, followed by a release in several cities across India from December 30.

Produced by Sun Music and Motion Pictures, the film was released in Bangladesh theatres on July 29, where it is still playing in theatres more than four months later. Filmed at sea during the pandemic, it tells the story of a group of fishermen who find a beautiful creature under the sea.

Cepl acquired rights to the film for India, Singapore, Middle East and Europe, and has so far also released it theatrically in Singapore.