Pa. Ranjith Reveals Film Slate Featuring Kamal Haasan, Vikram at Cannes (EXCLUSIVE)

Naman Ramachandran Shailaja Padindala’s Kannada-language film “Naanu Ladies” won best narrative feature and Pedro Peira’s English and Spanish-language film “LA QueenCianera” best documentary feature at the 2022 Kashish LGBTQ+ film festival in Mumbai.Gujarati-language shorts “Muhafiz” by Pradipta Ray and “Dal Bhat” by Nemil Shah” won best Indian narrative short and the Riyad Wadia Award for best emerging Indian filmmaker respectively. “Muhafiz” also won best screenplay for Ray and Ashutosh Pathak.Padindala said: “ ‘Naanu Ladies’ is a film attempting to identify cis-het culture [as it] weaves itself into the queerness of everyday life.

S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR, a huge hit when it opened in March, is dipping back into the U.S. market in a novel and, so far, successful bid by distributors to expand the reach of the Telegu period drama beyond the traditional audience for Indian film.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorSlovak director Denis Dobrovoda’s feature debut “The Cathedral” took the best film prize in the International Documentary Competition section of the 62nd Krakow Film Festival, which runs May 29-June 12.The film focuses on Justo Gallego Martínez, who started building a cathedral in Spain’s Mejorada del Campo 60 years ago without any qualifications, architectural plans or official permission. He invested his own funds and built it almost entirely with his own hands, mostly out of waste and recycled materials.

EXCLUSIVE: In a highly competitive situation, Apple has landed Blitz, the sought-after new feature from Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen featuring the stories of Londoners during World War II’s Blitz, which he will write, direct and produce. The film is is set to begin filming later this year. 

Naman Ramachandran Amazon Prime Video India has set its first Tamil-language long-form scripted original series, “Suzhal – The Vortex,” written and created by Pushkar and Gayatri (“Vikram Vedha”).The eight-part crime thriller revolves around the investigation of a missing girl that wreaks havoc and disrupts the fabric of a small town in South India. It is produced by Wallwatcher Films and directed by Bramma and Anucharan M.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBrut, the digital media startup which became Cannes’ media partner this year, covered the festival with 1,200 video content that were watched by 220 million people around the world.The company hosted the Cannes Creators Connection, an initiative which brought a flurry of content creators and social media stars to the festival for the first time with the aim of building bridges with the film community. On top of the 220 million people who watched Cannes-related content on Brut’s different platforms, an estimated 150,000 people watched the videos of content creators attending the festival with Brut, for instance Adam Waheed and Liza Koshy from the U.S., Casey Neistat from the U.K., Ashish Chanchlani from India, as well as Lena Situation and Squeezie from France.

Naman Ramachandran Amazon Prime Video India has signed a worldwide exclusive multi-film licensing deal with Sajid Nadiadwala’s Bollywood production house Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment (NGE).NGE’s upcoming slate includes “Bawaal,” starring Varun Dhawan (“Coolie No. 1”) and Janhvi Kapoor (“Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl”), directed by Nitesh Tiwari (“Dangal”).

Cannes Film Festival enters its second week, the glamour and opulence of the red carpet doesn’t seem to be dwindling any time soon. One of the most important events in the celebrity fashion calendar, the famous red steps of the Palais des Festivals have already delivered show-stopping looks from actors and models from across the world. Anne Hathaway quickly went viral after she arrived in a white sequin column gown from Armani Privé.

Naman Ramachandran Indian filmmaker Shaunak Sen’s “All That Breathes” has won the Cannes Film Festival’s top documentary award, the Golden Eye.The film won the documentary grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and was acquired by HBO Documentary Films during Cannes, where it played as a special screening.Set in Indian capital Delhi, where, in an unbreathable atmosphere, the threat of inter-religious massacres floats in the air, the film follows two brothers, Nadeem and Saud, who along with their assistant, dedicate their lives to save the migratory black kites that are destroyed by human madness.The Golden Eye jury, composed of Agnieszka Holland, Iryna Tsilyk, Pierre Deladonchamps, Alex Vicente and Hicham Falah, said: “The Golden Eye goes to a film that, in a world of destruction, reminds us that every life matters, and every small action matters. You can grab your camera, you can save a bird, you can hunt for some moments of stealing beauty, it matters.

Naman Ramachandran India’s Kamal Haasan is a true multi-hyphenate. Beginning as a child actor in 1960, he is one of the country’s most consummate actors with films like “Pathinaru Vayathinile” (1977) “Moondram Pirai” (1982) “Nayakan” (1987), “Thevar Magan” (1992) and “Vishwaroopam” (2013) behind him.He also produces via his Raajkamal Films International (RKFI), writes, directs, and runs the  Makkal Needhi Maiam political party.The upcoming “Vikram,” directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj (“Master”) and costarring Fahadh Fasil (“Maalik”) Vijay Sethupathi (“Kadaisi Vivasayi”), will be Haasan’s first release since 2018’s “Vishwaroopam 2.” It is produced by RKFI.Haasan was at the Cannes Market to launch NFTs based on “Vikram” from Fantico, a digital licensed platform of Singapore’s Vistas Media Capital.

Cannes Film Festival enters its second week, the glamour and opulence of the red carpet doesn’t seem to be dwindling any time soon. One of the most important events in the celebrity fashion calendar, the famous red steps of the Palais des Festivals have already delivered show-stopping looks from actors and models from across the world. Anne Hathaway quickly went viral after she arrived in a white sequin column gown from Armani Privé.

Naman Ramachandran Rotem Shamir, whose credits include hit series “Fauda” and “Hostages” will make his Indian film debut as director of “Garud.”Inspired by real events, “Garud” will present a fictionalized depiction of the rescue mission in Afghanistan, based on the story of a police officer and his team of special forces.The film will be produced by Ajay Kapoor (“Attack”) for Ajay Kapoor Productions and Subhash Kale for Vikrant Studio. The cast is being finalized.Kapoor said: ” ‘Garud’ is a huge project for me, I’m emotionally driven to the film and want to give it the best treatment possible.

Cannes Film Festival simply refuses to quit when it comes to providing some of this year's most incredible red carpet style moments. The 75th annual event has already welcomed a whole host of glamourous global stars to the French Riviera and last night's fashion choices were some of the best that we've seen so far.

Cannes Film Festival enters its second week, the glamour and opulence of the red carpet doesn’t seem to be dwindling any time soon. One of the most important events in the celebrity fashion calendar, the famous red steps of the Palais des Festivals have already delivered show-stopping looks from actors and models from across the world. Anne Hathaway quickly went viral after she arrived in a white sequin column gown from Armani Privé.

fashion fabulousness to get you through your week? Look no further than the red carpets of Cannes Film Festival 2022, which kicked off on Tuesday 17 and will run until May 28. The event, which was cancelled in 2020 due to Covid and made a partially-masked return in 2021, is back with a bang this year as the red carpet is once again rolled out on the Croisette. Stars have been private jetting in to the coastal town from far and wide for the fortnight-long event that has showcased new work from Parasite director Song Kang-ho and Baz Luhrmann plus a premiere of the Tom Cruise blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick.

Naman Ramachandran The late Govindan Aravindan’s 1978 masterpiece “Thamp̄” (“The Circus Tent”) is one of two Indian films at this year’s Cannes Classics selection, alongside Satyajit Ray’s “Pratidwandi” (“The Adversary”) from 1970.“Thamp̄” was painstakingly restored by India’s Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), an organization founded by filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur (“Celluloid Man,” “CzechMate: In Search of Jirí Menzel”) in 2014. Dungarpur facilitated the restoration of Uday Shankar’s landmark film “Kalpana” (1948) by Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation, the restored version of which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012.

Naman Ramachandran Michel Fessler, co-writer of “Little Nicholas,” selected at Cannes this year as a special screening, has boarded Ravi K. Chandran’s “Tamara” as scriptwriter.Based on a story by Paris-based playwright and actor Vasanth Selvam (“Dheepan”), the film will follow 26-year-old Indian origin woman Tamara from Camargue in the south of France, who seeks her roots in the southern Indian territory Pondicherry, which was once a French colony.

Naman Ramachandran Indian actor Jackie Shroff (“Sooryavanshi”) will play the lead in Singapore-France-India co-production “Slow Joe,” it was revealed at the Cannes Film Market.Shroff will play the late Indian musician Joseph Manuel Da Rocha, known as Slow Joe, a former heroin addict and drug dealer who was born in Mumbai, was disowned by his family, heartbroken at 50 and who moved to Goa and cleaned up. On a trip to Goa in 2007, Lyon-based French musician Cédric de la Chapelle met Joe, now a frail 64-year-old who was making ends meet as a hotel room broker. Joe, also a poet and musician, sang for de la Chapelle, who was captivated by his voice and recorded some of his a cappella songs.Back in France, de la Chapelle played Joe’s songs for music producer Olivier Boccon-Gibod of Horizon Musiques, who was also entranced.

Naman Ramachandran Toronto-headquartered animation outfit Paperboat Animation Studios has revealed a new slate.The slate is led by “Kabuliwala: Man from Kabul,” a 3D animated feature based on the classic short story by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. The story, which has already been adapted several times as live-action features, tells the story of the bond between a 6-year-old girl from Kolkata, India, and an immigrant hawker from Kabul, Afghanistan.Paperboat co-founder and chief creative director Soumitra Ranade, whose credits include “Bombay Rose” and “The World of Goopy and Bagha,” adapted the story and will direct.

K.J. Yossman Rudyard Kipling’s “Kim” is set to get an animated feature adaptation by Indian filmmaker Ketan Mehta.Mehta’s animation studio, Cosmos-Maya, will co-develop the film alongside Irish animation studio Piranha Bar. Mehta (“Sardar,” “Mangal Pandey: The Rising”) will direct.“Kim” is a story about Kimball O’Hara, AKA Kim, a savvy street kid turned child spy in colonial-era India who becomes an apprentice to a Shaolin monk.