International
Glenn Close to receive PSIFF honour
MUMBAI: The Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will bestow its career achievement award to actress Glenn Close at its Awards function on 7 January, next year. Close‘s latest film Albert Nobbs, in which she stars as a woman portraying a man in 19th-century Ireland, is set to release this fall.
PSIFF chairman Harold Matzner in a statement “Glenn Close has the gift of mesmerizing an audience whenever she performs. Since her film debut in 1982, Close‘s ability to capture the essence of a character is unparalleled, be it a femme fatale, a notorious stalker or the trusted aide to a president.”
Close made her feature film debut in George Roy Hill‘s The World According to Garp. Her performance earned her awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review as well as her first Academy Award nomination. She was subsequently Oscar-nominated for her performances in Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill, Barry Levinson’s The Natural, Adrian Lyne’s smash Fatal Attraction and Stephen Frears‘ Dangerous Liaisons for which she was awarded a BAFTA award.
Past career achievement award recipients include actors Cate Blanchett, Robert Duvall, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson and Helen Mirren.
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.
