International
Attack the Block wins Fantasia fest award
MUMBAI: The Fantasia International Film Festival wrapped up on Sunday, with British writer-director Joe Cornish‘s Attack the Block taking away the top audience award for best European or American feature.
Cornish had earlier won the 2011 SXSW Film Festival audience award.
Other Fantasia audience award winners include a tie for the best Asian feature that was shared by two Japanese films, Takashi Miike‘s The 13 Assassins and Sion Sono‘s Cold Fish. Both the films were screened at the 2010 Toronto and Venice Film Festivals.
The Guru Prize for the most energetic feature went to Thai film Bangkok Knockout where friends that are part of an informal fight club come together to save a kidnapped member. And finally, the Fantasia audiences voted Evan Kelly‘s The Corridor the best Canadian feature at the festival.
The festival jury also named Japan‘s Yoshimasa Ishibashi as the best director at Fantasia for his film Milocrorze: A Love Story.
And the best screenplay trophy went to Korean director Park Hoon-jung for The Unjust.
The best actress crown went to Norie Yasui for her film Love & Loathing & Lulu & Ayano.
In all, 130 films screened at Fantasia from 14 July to 7 August. The festival ended with the Canadian premiere of Don‘t Be Afraid of the Dark.
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.
