International
Busan fest to honour director Tsui Hark
MUMBAI: The 16th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) will honour director Tsui Hark as Asian Filmmaker of the Year for his contribution to the advancement of Asian cinema.
BIFF will celebrate the director‘s career of over three decades and will praise his achievement for bringing Hong Kong films to the international market. It was Tsui whp rewrote the history of Hong Kong films and contributed to the Golden Age of Hong Kong cinema.
Tsui came into prominence in the 1980s after establishing his name as one of the pioneers of the Hong Kong New Wave with films like The Butterfly Murders (1979) and Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (1980).
He brought about the special effects era in Hong Kong cinema with Warriors From the Magic Mountain (1982) and revived the martial arts genre with A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) and Once Upon a Time in China (1990).
Tsui‘s next foray into 3D filmmaking with The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, is scheduled for release in December.
Directors who were earlier honoured by the BIFF were Hou Hsiao-hsien, the late Edward Yang and Tsai Ming-liang of Taiwan, Andy Lau of Hong Kong and Yash Chopra of India.
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.
