International
Samson & Delilah among Australia’s IF Awards
MUMBAI: Samson & Delilah annexed six of the ten Inside Film Awards given out last night to features.
Made by writer/director Warwick Thornton, and produced by Kath Shelper, the film won the best film, best director, best script and best music awards. The film‘s two teenage leads, Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson, won best actor and best actress awards respectively.
The ceremony, held at Luna Park overlooked by the Sydney Harbour Bridge, definitely belonged to Samson & Delilah, which grossed twice its $1.5m (A$1.6m) budget at the Australian box office. But it was another film with an indigenous story at its heart, Baz Lurhmann‘s Australia, that earned the box-office achievement award for producers Luhrmann, G Mac Brown and Catherine Knapman. Told on a much bigger scale, its final Australian gross was $34.8m (A$37.5m).
Lurhmann‘s body of work, which also includes Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge!, earned him the living legend award and the team behind Australia‘s first co-production with Iran My Tehran For Sale, produced by director Granaz Moussavi, Julie Ryan and Kate Croser, won the award for independent spirit.
The IF Awards came at the end of the first day of the annual conference of the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) which began with a stinging attack on the negative impact of direct government subsidy on Australian film.
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.
