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Osaka Asian Film Festival (Oaff) has announced the rest of its programme with an additional 37 feature-length entries and 2 shorts. This includes 13 titles in the Competition section, 6 titles in the Spotlight section and 9 titles in the Indie Forum section. With the previously-announced 28 works, 67 features and shorts in total –19 World, 5 International, 4 Asian, 32 Japan Premieres – will be screened at the 20th edition of Oaff, which will be held from March 14 to 23, 2025.

Competition

There are 13 titles competing for Oaff 2025’s Grand Prix, many coming in hot with festival and awards buzz and many familiar names to Oaff audiences as filmmakers return with their latest works.

Amongst the filmmakers taking a bow once again are Hwang In-won with her feature film debut Journey to Face Them, a subtle portrait of the insidious effects of sexual assault as experienced by an aspiring writer, and Park Ri-woong with The Land of Morning Calm, a tale of a...

Sales and festival executive Tommaso Priante has launched Italy-based sales outfit Luminalia which will make its market debut this week at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

The company arrives at Rotterdam with several titles already on its slate including Dominic Bekaert’s debut feature An Errand, which screens in IFFR’s Bright Future section. Adapted from Filipino writer Angelo Lacuesta’s short story, the film is about a chauffeur working for a businessman whose mind drifts between reality and fantasy while on a long and pointless journey.

Also on the slate is Maksud Hossain’s Bangladeshi drama Saba which premiered...

Although Iran continues to hold the sceptres in the region as its largest movie industry, the cinema of other countries from the region finds an increasing numbers of way out, with Kazakhstan’s genre movies for example. At the same time, festivals all around the world continue to nurture movies from the region, whose approach is definitely of independent style, but not exactly arthouse, at least not all the time. “Songs of Adam” and “Seed of the Sacred Fig” definitely stood out this year due to their quality, just like “Sima’s Song” and “From Ground Zero” did for their significance

Without further ado, here are the best West-Central Asian (rest of Asia one could say) films of 2024, in random order. Some films may have premiered in 2023, but since they mostly circulated in 2024, we decided to include them.

15. Dastur

One of the reasons “Dastur” fared so well at the domestic...

Paparazzo — a script by Christian Nilsson that landed on the 2024 Black List of the year’s best unproduced screenplays — has landed at White Noise producer Passage Pictures, run by Uri Singer.

Set in the world of tabloid journalism, the Paparazzo follows an opportunistic outcast who needs fast cash to help his ailing mother and decides to partner with a wily paparazzo. But the pursuit for photos entangles the two in a homicide involving young celebutantes.

Nilsson, who recently completed the feature film Westhampton, said “I’ve always been fascinated by outsiders—people who hover on the edge of society, who do the things most of us don’t want to admit we need. This film is a love letter to that contradiction. It’s as much about the chase for truth as it is about the damage left in its wake. Uri immediately understood what this story could be, and...

Short Film Review: WAShhh (2024) by Mickie Lai

Lee Kah Giap’s black-and-white cinematography works quite well here, adding in a way, to the tension that is instigated by both the story and Wong Kai Yun’s sharp editing, in a film that scores quite high on production values overall. “WAShhh” is a great film, that manages to communicate a series of comments and a very entertaining story/event in just over 20 minutes. What becomes evident, is that Lai is more than ready to shoot a feature, perhaps even with the same theme.

Video Interviews: Mowaffaq Alobaid Short Film Review: Saint Rose (2024) by Zayn Alexandre

The cinematography is rather polished, in a way that mirrors the spotlessness of the house, making the aforementioned comment more intense, with the tension, however, coming more from the acting and the sound than the visuals. The editing results in a fast tempo that allows the...

After its world premiere and three sold-out screenings at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, Saba, a film by Maksud Hossain, has embarked on a prestigious global festival circuit, screening at the Busan International Film Festival and now in competition at the Red Sea International Film Festival. I recently reconnected with Maksud, my Global Media Makers Fellow, for an in-depth conversation about the creation of his film, reflecting on our shared experience in Los Angeles back in June 2023.

Film Independent’s Global Media Makers (Gmm) is a six-week residency in LA, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, supporting independent filmmakers worldwide. This is where I, a Lebanese screenwriter and director, met Maksud Hossain from Bangladesh while we were both in the screenwriting track. It was here that I first read the screenplay for Saba and later watched an early draft of his debut film.

The Red Sea International Film Festival is now a Spike Lee joint.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker will preside over the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia film festival’s features-competition jury this year, Red Sea announced on Thursday via Instagram. Lee’s impressive filmography includes “Do the Right Thing” (1989), “Malcolm X” (1992), and “BlacKkKlansman” (2019), for which he won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. “BlacKkKlansman” was also nominated for Lee’s directing and for Best Picture.

The 2024 Red Sea Film Festival will take place in Jeddah’s Old Town of Al Balad from December 5-14.

Not in competition but newly announced to play at Red Sea 2024 is Thierry Frémaux’s “Lumière: Le Cinema,” the sequel to “Lumière: The Adventure Begins,” which debuted at the inaugural Red Sea festival. “Le Cinema” is a cinephile’s dream, described as “an unparalleled journey through the early days of celluloid,” it features 100 newly restored films. Frémaux is the director of...

“Saba” is a powerful movie about life, duty, and how strong people are against the busy and complicated landscape of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The movie, directed by Maksud Hossain for the first time, is about Saba, a 25-year-old woman who is taking care of her paralyzed mother, Shirin while living an unbelievably hard life.

The story is mostly about Saba’s desperate efforts to get money for her mom’s heart surgery, which will save her life. She faces societal judgments and personal sacrifices while working at a seedy hookah bar, which reflects the struggles of Bangladesh’s young people who are on the outside. Her life is too stifling; her tiny apartment is both a safe place for her and a jail since she has to lock her mother inside while she works.

The first book by Hossain is not just a personal story; it’s also a complex political...

Viola Davis will be honored by Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival, where the Oscar winner and four-time nominee will also be holding a master class highlighting her career.

On Monday, the festival — which will run Dec. 6 to 14 in Jeddah, on the Red Sea’s eastern shore — announced the main lineup of its fourth edition, which will open with the world premiere of Egyptian director Karim Shenawy’s musical drama “The Tale of Daye’s Family.” The film follows an 11-year-old Nubian albino with a beautiful voice “who faces adversity due to his unique appearance,” as the provided synopsis puts it.

“For us, this a perfect representation of where this region is headed and what’s happening here,” said the fest’s managing director Shivani Pandya Malhotra at a press conference, noting that the inspirational film is a co-production between Egypt and Saudi.

The Red Sea fest – which is...

The fourth editon of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival (December 5-14) has unveiled the line-up for its Competition strand and has selected Egypt-Saudi co-productionThe Tale Of Daye’s Family as its opening film.

The Tale Of Daye’s Family by Egyptian filmmaker Karim Shenawi tells the story of an 11-year-old Nubian albino boy who faces adversity due to his unique appearance and who gets a chance to audition for an Egyptian version of talent show The Voice.

Scroll down for full Competition line-up

Speaking at a Red Sea press conference this morning, the festival’s managing director...

The Red Sea Film Festival has unveiled the bulk of the line-up for its fourth edition, which will showcase 120 films from 81 territories from December 5 to 14 in the port city of Jeddah.

The festival will open with Egyptian director Karim Shenawy’s The Tale Of Daye’s Family (aka Light) about an 11-year-old Nubian albino boy with a beautiful voice, who faces adversity due to his unique appearance.

Abandoned by his father and bullied by his peers, he dreams of following in the footsteps of his idol, singer and actor Mohamed Mounir. When he gets a chance to audition for The Voice, Daye and his family embark on a perilous 1,000-mile journey from Southern Egypt to Cairo.

Michael Gracey’s semi-biographical feature Better Man, inspired by Robbie Williams and portraying the pop icon as a chimpanzee, will close the festival.

Johnny Depp’s Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness...

Honors for and onstage appearances by Viola Davis and Egyptian star Mona Zaki (Perfect Strangers, Flight 404, Aserb: The Squadron, The Spider), Johnny Depp’s new movie as a director and a biopic about Robbie Williams will be part of this year’s Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, organizers said Monday.

They also unveiled the competition lineup for the fest’s fourth edition. Organizers said that the overall lineup features 49 world and international premieres, also highlighting that six female filmmakers will be featured in the competition program.

Among the 15 competition titles announced are Reema Kagti’s Superboys of Malegaon, which bowed at the Toronto Film Festival, and Kurdwin Ayub’s Moon, which had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival where it won the special jury prize.

The Rsiff on Monday also added several galas to its lineup, plus unveiled its International Spectacular and its Families & Children programs.

Exclusive: The Alternativa Film Project, a global non-profit film initiative founded by technology company inDrive, has unveiled its shortlisted films and jury for the upcoming Alternativa Film Awards.

This year’s edition will be hosted in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on November 29. Last year’s edition was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Organizers said that the Alternativa Film Awards aims to recognize films that address important social and cultural topics, and which also have an ambition to positively affect the lives of people and local communities.

This year’s edition received 670 submissions for the awards, twice as many as last year’s, with 25 films selected, including 13 feature-length films and 12 shorts, from 14 Asian countries and across 20 different languages.

Female-directed films make up nearly half of the selection and of the feature-length films, nine are debut works.

Jury members for this year’s edition include Indian filmmaker Anand Gandhi, Indonesian director Kamila Andini, German filmmaker and author Steffi Niederzoll,...

The progress of Bangladeshi cinema during the last few years is rather evident even if sporadic. Although the presence of Mostofa Sarwar Farooki remains the most dominant one, Maksud Hossain, in his feature debut, comes to add his name in a list including Rubaiyat Hossain, Abdullah Mohammad Saad and Mohammad Rabby Mridha among others, who highlight the fact quite eloquently. The script is based on personal experience, as Hossain’s wife and co-writer of the movie Trilora Khan, has been the primary caregiver for her paraplegic mother for 25 years following a car accident.

Saba is screening at Toronto International Film Festival

The story revolves around 25-year-old Saba, who lives and takes care of her rather demanding mother, Shirin, who has been paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident 20 years ago. As Shirin’s need for medical treatment increases, with the complications with her heart causing significant issues, Saba...

A sense of financial and personal stagnation permeates “Saba,” the Bangladeshi social drama from first-time director Maksud Hossain. A strong (if stylistically straightforward) debut, it follows 25-year-old Saba (Mehazabien Chowdhury), who struggles to make ends meet while looking after her ailing, paraplegic single mother Shirin (Rokeya Prachy), whose own frustrations often explode in Saba’s direction.

To pay for Shirin’s life-saving surgery, Saba finds a waitressing job at a seedy hookah lounge in Dhaka — a position in which, she’s told, women tend not to last — with long hours that only complicate her caregiving duties. It’s one indignity after the next, both for Saba, who has to beg for the job to begin with, and for Shirin, who has no choice but to wait in bed until Saba can bathe her and change her diaper.

Tales of such misfortune run the risk of veering into pity porn, but...

Bangladeshi filmmaker Maksud Hossain is set to unveil his feature directorial debut “Saba” at the Toronto Film Festival. The film tells the story of a young woman who is the sole caregiver for her paraplegic mother in Dhaka.

The project emerged from personal experience. Hossain’s wife Trilora Khan has been the primary caregiver for her paraplegic mother for 25 years following a car accident. After his father-in-law passed away suddenly from Covid-19, Hossain and Khan, who co-wrote the script, began developing a story about a lower-middle class woman in Dhaka facing caregiving challenges without family support or financial resources.

“We started thinking about what if we tell a story of a young woman, Saba, who lives in lower-middle class Dhaka, and she is taking care of her paraplegic mother by herself, without any family, without money. What would Saba do in a situation like this to make sure that her mother lives at any cost?...

Twenty-four films comprise Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Discovery section this year, featuring 20 world premieres and representing more than 35 countries.

The first- and second-time filmmaker showcase of international cinema will open with Bonjour Tristesse, Durga Chew-Bose’s adaptation of the 1954 coming-of-age novel by the late Françoise Sagan starring Chloe Sevigny.

Selections include Afolabi Olalekan’s Freedom Way, Egil Pedersen’s My Fathers’ Daughter, Laura Carreira’s On Falling, and Pavlo Ostrikov’s U Are The Universe.

Filmmakers who have premiered features in this section include Alfonso Cuarón, Yorgos Lanthimos, Maren Ade, Barry Jenkins, Emma Seligman, and Christopher Nolan.

Dorota Lech,...

The Toronto Film Festival’s Discovery sidebar will debut 24 titles with 20 world premieres as part of its 2024 edition, running from September 5 to 15.

The Discovery programme features titles from more than 25 countries, including Argentina, Bangladesh, Colombia, Denmark, and Greece. Scroll down for the full list.

World premieres set for the fest include On Falling, the debut film from Edinburgh-based, Portuguese filmmaker Laura Carreira. The film is produced by Jack Thomas-o’Brien of Sixteen Films and Mário Patrocínio of Bro Cinema. Financial backers include BFI, BBC Films, Screen Scotland, and Ica. Vincent Maraval’s Goodfellas is handling sales. The film’s story follows Aurora, a Portuguese worker in a Scottish warehouse.

Also set to debut is Bonjour Tristesse, the feature adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s novel directed by Durga Chew-Bose and starring Chloe Sevigny. Film Constellation is handling the film, which follows Cécile, a young woman spending the summer in a villa in...

Twenty-four films comprise Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Discovery section this year, featuring 20 world premieres and representing more than 35 countries.

The first- and second-time filmmaker showcase of international cinema will open with Bonjour Tristesse, Durga Chew-Bose’s adaptation of the 1954 coming-of-age novel by the late Françoise Sagan.

Selections include Afolabi Olalekan’s Freedom Way, Egil Pedersen’s My Fathers’ Daughter, Laura Carreira’s On Falling, and Pavlo Ostrikov’s U Are The Universe.

Filmmakers who have premiered features in this section include Alfonso Cuarón, Yorgos Lanthimos, Maren Ade, Barry Jenkins, Emma Seligman, and Christopher Nolan.

Dorota Lech, Jason Anderson,...

The projects will be pitched at South Asia’s largest film market.

India’s Film Bazaar market has revealed the 20 projects selected for this year’s Co-Production Market.

The invited titles originate from 11 countries and will be pitched to producers, distributors, festival programmers, financiers and sales agents at Goa’s Marriott Resort from November 20-24.

The line-up includes projects from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the US, UK, Singapore, Germany, France, Poland, Luxembourg and Israel.

Scroll down for full list of projects

Titles include The Distant Near, directed by UK-based Polish director Rafael Kapelinski who won a Crystal Bear at the...

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.

The 20 selected projects are from 11 countries, most are already structured as co-productions, and they are all South Asian-themed. From Israel, the Hebrew-language “Raju” by Dror Sabo (“Dead End”), will be produced by Lee Yardeni for My TV Productions (“Nevelot”). Rafael Kapelinski, director of Berlinale winner “Butterfly Kisses,” is at the market with English, German and Hindi-language Germany-India-France-Poland-u.K. co-production “The Distant Near,” produced by Katharina Suckale for Bombay Berlin Film Production (“Loev”).

Hindi-language Germany-Luxembourg-France co-production “Kohinoor,” by Udita Bhargava (Berlinale selection “Dust”), will be produced by Martin Lehwald for Schiwago Film (Berlinale winner “Styx”). Fresh off Busan’s Asian Project Market, feature debutant Aakash Chhabra’s Hindi-language “I’ll Smile in September” will be produced by Sanjay Gulati for India’s Crawling Angel Films and...

Projects selected from 15 countries.

South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has unveiled the 29 titles selected for the 2022 Asian Project Market (Apm).

The film financing event that runs as part of Biff’s Asian Contents and Film Market will return in-person from October 9-11, after taking place as a hybrid event last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

From this year, Apm has excluded non-Asian projects to provide more focused support for Asian projects, which must be submitted by directors who have made at least one short or full-length feature as well as producers who have been involved with at least one feature.

Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has announced the 29 projects selected for this year’s Asian Project Market (Apm), a core strand of the festival’s industry activities, including new works from Thailand’s Aditya Assarat, China’s Wang Qi, Vietnam’s Le Bao and Myanmar’s Maung Sun, whose producer Ma Aeint is currently in prison in Yangon.

Ma Aeint, who previously produced Maung Sun’s award-winning Money Has Four Legs, was recently sentenced to three years in jail with hard labor by Myanmar’s military junta, which took over the country in a brutal coup in early 2021. She was accused of “causing fear, spreading fake news or agitating against government employees”. She is attached as a producer to Maung Sun’s new project, Future Laobans, described as a drama about the “international dimension of organized crime.”

Assarat, an award-winning Thai director, is returning to feature-length directing after focusing on producing,...

“The Forgotten History,” by celebrated Afghanistan filmmaker Roya Sadat (“A Letter to the President”), is one of 20 projects from 11 countries chosen for India’s Film Bazaar virtual co-production market.

Being produced by Sadat’s women-centric collective Roya Film House and Spain’s Alba Sotorra Cinema Productions, the project previously participated at the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum and the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market.

The market line-up of stories will be told in the Assamese, Bengali, Dari, English, German, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Portuguese, Sinhala, Tamil, and Telugu. The selected projects will be pitched virtually to international and Indian producers, distributors, festival programmers, financiers and sales agents.

Projects include “Ashwamedh” (The Sacrifice) (India-u.K.) by Ridham Janve, whose debut feature film, “The Gold-Laden Sheep and The Sacred Mountain,” won the Young Cinema Award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards and the Silver Gateway Award at the Jio Mami International Film Festival.