International
33 Postcards to open in 8,000 screens in China
MUMBAI: 33 Postcards, an official Chinese-Australian co-production, will release in China in as many as 8,000 screens next month. A Mandarin version of the film that stars Guy Pearce, Claudia Karvan, Shu Lin and Lincoln Lewis will be released on 2 September.
33 Postcards is the story of 16-year-old Chinese orphan Mei Mei (Zhu Lin) who comes to Australia to meet her sponsor, Dean Randall (Guy Pearce) whose life turns out to be less postcard-perfect than she had imagined. Initially mismatched and disconnected, the two begin a journey in search of belonging and family.
Shot in New South Wales and at the Hengdian World Studios in China, 33 Postcards, has been produced by Portal Pictures and Zhejiang Hengdian Film Productions in association with IFS Capital Limited and Screen NSW and directed by Pauline Chan and .
33 Postcards had its world premiered at the Sydney Film Festival last June, followed by its international premiere at the Shanghai International Film Festival the same month where actress Zhu Lin received the Shanghai International Film Festival Asian New Talent Award for her debut performance.
While Titan View will release the film in Australia and New Zealand later this year, Arclight will distribute the film globally.
As an official coproduction 33 Postcards gets an automatic release in China, although such wide releases are not always guaranteed.
CGI live action kids feature The Dragon Pearl, another Australian-Chinese co-pro, premi?red in China earlier this year.
News of 33 Postcards‘ Chinese release comes as producers guild, the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA), officially launches the Australia-China Screen Alliance, this week. It will assist both Australian and Chinese film and television producers navigate co-productions between the countries.
International
Utopai Studios unveils 4K three-minute video generation for PAI platform
New Story Agent and editing tools aim to streamline AI-led filmmaking workflows
MUMBAI: Utopai Studios has announced a major upgrade to its PAI storytelling AI platform, introducing what it claims is an industry-first capability to generate three-minute videos in 4K resolution, alongside enhancements to its Story Agent feature.
The update, rolling out from April 15, expands the platform’s capabilities across the filmmaking process, from early concept development to post-production. The company said the new features are designed to help filmmakers maintain continuity across characters, scenes and visual styles, a key challenge in AI-driven storytelling.
At the heart of the release is a next-generation model that enables more structured narrative development, allowing creators to move more seamlessly from idea to execution. With tools such as multi-shot sequencing and multi-turn editing, the platform aims to give both studios and independent creators greater control over complex storytelling workflows.
Commenting on the launch, Utopai Studios co-founder and CTO Jie Yang said, “The next phase of AI in media will not be defined by isolated tools, but by systems that can carry story, continuity and collaboration across the full creative process.” He added that the update is a step towards enabling more practical, end-to-end narrative development at a professional level.
Echoing this, Utopai Studios co-founder and chief scientific officer Zijian He said, “Generative video is opening the door to a new production model, where creative ambition is less constrained by traditional cost and complexity.” He noted that the platform combines multimodal models with iterative editing to give creators more speed, control and consistency.
The company said PAI is already being used in professional film and television productions, particularly in Hollywood, for tasks such as pre-visualisation, scene design and post-production refinements. The latest update adds features including improved voice options, character consistency, unlimited editing and more flexible asset management.
Utopai also emphasised that its models are not trained on copyrighted material, positioning the platform as a cleaner alternative for creators and rights holders navigating the evolving AI landscape.
As AI continues to reshape content creation, Utopai’s latest push signals a shift from standalone tools to integrated systems, aiming to make high-quality filmmaking faster, more flexible and increasingly accessible.
