International
Two more Israeli titles make Toronto Film Festival’s cut
MUMBAI: The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has accepted two additional Israeli films ahead of its annual event, bringing the number of Israeli productions featured in it to four.
The nine-day Toronto Film Festival set to begin on 10 September and feature over 32 titles from all over the world is considered one of the industry‘s most prestigious events.
The first of the two new films to be included in the festival‘s Discovery sidebar is director Leon Prudovsky‘s Five Hours from Paris which tells the story of an Israeli cab driver who longs to fly, and a Russian music teacher who is soon to board a plane, find out that romance is only a cab ride away.
The second film, to be screened as part of TIFF‘s Real to Reel sidebar, is director Zippi Brand Frank‘s Google Baby – about a surrogate baby producer in India.
The two productions join Haim Tabakman‘s Eyes Wide Open a gay love story set in a religious Jewish community, and Elia Suleiman‘s The Time that Remains which is a semi-biographic film depicting the daily life of Palestinians in 1948, which were selected by the festival at an earlier date.
Tabakman and Suleiman‘s films will be screened as part of the festival‘s Contemporary World Cinema
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.
