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Purin Pictures, a non-profit film fund supporting independent cinema in Southeast Asia, has unveiled $170,000 of grants in its autumn funding round.

Its reading committee chose three fiction and two documentary projects for production support and one fiction project for post-production support.

The fiction films are “Daughters of the Sea,” a story of three intertwined lives, to be directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar (“Leonor Will Never Die”) and produced by Monster Jimenez and Rajiv Idnani, through Philippines company Arkeo Films; writer-director and editor Daniel Hui’s “Other People’s Dreams,” about two runaways who become invisible thieves in Singapore, produced by Tan Si En at Momo Film; and “Sitora,” by Diffan Sina Norman, a drama about the oldest member of a village community which is about to be consumed by the urban sprawl. The project is to be produced by Tara Ansley, Armen Aghaeian, Zurina Ramli through Malaysian firm Rangka Pictures.

Thailand’s Purin Pictures is giving out a total of $170,000 to six projects from Southeast Asia for its autumn selection, including the latest projects by Daniel Hui and Martika Ramirez Escobar and two projects from Malaysia inspired by legendary filmmaker P Ramlee.

Daughters of the Sea by Filipino director Martika Ramirez Escobar and Other People’s Dreams by Daniel Hui from Singapore are both dramas with a touch of the surreal. Purin Pictures supported their previous works: Escobar’s 2022 feature debut Leonor Will Never Die, which won awards at Sundance, Toronto and Sitges; and Hui’s Small Hours Of The Night,...

International Film Festival Rotterdam has unveiled the first tranche of films selected for its 54th edition, which runs Jan. 30 – Feb. 9. These 13 titles, which will play in the Bright Future or Harbour sections, will each have their world premiere at IFFR.

Bright Future is dedicated to feature-length debuts, while Harbour offers a broad range of contemporary cinema.

The first wave of titles includes several IFFR alumni, including Daniel Hoesl, a former Tiger Award winner for micro-budget experimental feature “Soldate Jeannette,” with his new work “Un gran casino”; Hubert Bals Fund awardee Pelin Esmer, who returns to the festival with a world premiere of “And the Rest Will Follow”; Christina Friedrich presenting “The Night Is Dark and Brighter Than the Day,” which comes after her IFFR debut this year with “Zone”; and avant-garde trailblazer Alexander Kluge returns, after the world premiere of “Cosmic Miniatures” in the most recent edition of the festival,...

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled the first titles selected for its 54th edition unfolding in early 2025.

They comprise 13 titles that will world premiere in the Bright Future strand, aimed at first films by emerging talents, as well as its Harbour line-up, campioning work pushing cinematic boundaries, and this year, digging into themes of self-discovery, societal norms and the human condition.

Bright Future titles include Mateo Ybarra’s doc Camp d’Éte, exploring the Swiss Scout Movement, and Oskar Weimar’s Invisible Flame about a modern-day witch hunt in Kenyan fishing village.

The Harbour selections include Un Gran Casino by Daniel Hoesl, a former Tiger Award Winner for micro-budget experimental feature Soldate Jeannette, Hubert Bals Fund awardee Pelin Esmer’s And The Rest Will Follow and avant-garde trailblazer Alexander Kluge with Primitive Diversity.

Previous Bright Future breakouts include King Baby, 78 Days and Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust,...

International Film Festival Rotterdam has made the first programming selections for its 54th edition in the Bright Future and Harbour strands.

The festival has selected 13 titles, all world premieres – five in Bright Future and eight in Harbour.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

Titles in Bright Future, the section for feature debuts, include Oskar Weimar’s Kenyan filmInvisible Flame. Set in a fishing community, it sees an elderly woman face accusations of witchhood when fish begin vanish. Melbourne-based director Weimar previously made 2021 short Each Other which played at Slamdance in the US.

Also in Bright Future is Lilly Hu’s One Girl Infinite,...

Inspirational teachers and action cinema always seems to recall “The Substitute” series of American movies back in the 1990's. It is an odd mix to combine from a storyline perspective with a high probability of being either preachy or exploitative. It does however offer a mix of dramatic possibilities. Which leads us to “Walid”, a Malaysian feature that aims to deliver just that whilst promoting the Silat martial art to a wider international audience.

“Walid” Opens in U.S. Theaters, July 28 at Cinema Village in NYC and August 11 at the Laemmle Glendale in LA, courtesy of Outsider Pictures

Walid (Megat Sharizal) gives his time teaching the underprivileged children in the village, extolling the virtues of how to live life through giving them the chance to read and write. One day, he notices Aisha (Putri Qaseh) a young girl from a neighboring village watching his class from the outside and intrigued by this,...

When their younger brother brings a ruthless criminal gang to their door, a family must fight together against the threat in the action-packed martial arts epic Silat Warriors: Deed Of Death, which will debut exclusively on the martial arts streaming service Hi-yah! on June 4, before hitting Digital, Blu-ray and DVD July 6 from Well Go USA Entertainment.

In addition to actors Namron and Fad Anuar, first-time film director Areel Abu Bakar selected much of the talent from martial arts training facilities and competitions in order to give a sense of realism the exciting action sequences. His first-time actors include Khoharullah Majid, Feiyna Tajudin, Taiyuddin Bakar, Megat Shahrizal and Azlan Komeng.

In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Columbia University is hosting a Free Zoom Discussion of the film with Director Areel Abu Bakar (winner of Nyaff’s action cinema 2020) and Megat Sharizal! In discussing their film, Areel and Megat will...

Anton Shaw (Tony Eusoff) is an unlicensed private detective working under tutelage of his boss Dan Humsey (Megat Sharizal) who chides him for making careless decisions — mainly trusting people and things too much in their profession. So he’s still not happy when Anton accepts an astoundingly lucrative job to find missing college student Lamya Sheridan (Juria Hartmans) by her estranged wealthy foreign mother. The case is further complicated by several factors: the fact she seemed to have no real friends or close connections; the fact that people who did have some connection to her life didn’t seem to have very good ones; and worst of all the recurring visions of the nightmarish (perhaps literally so), vaguely demonic “Hidden Ones” including one known only as The Gaunt Man (Radhi Khalid). Then there’s ex-cop turned loner Shotgun Sheldon (Jay Sheldon), who may or may not be involved in the...