Filmmakers in Iran daring to overstep the mark can face censorship and harassment. Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof have challenged restrictions via their movies, telling bitter-sweet stories from a troubled society.

The China-proposed “Belt and Road” initiative has moved the first concrete steps in Italy, whose authorities and experts see a range of win-win opportunities for both countries. 

Pakistan has released a film which it hopes will enable it to step out of the shadow of India's world-famous Bollywood film industry. The film, called Bin Roye, has a budget to rival what its neighbour usually spends, and a plot that would not look out of place on Indian screens.

When the International Indian Film Academy awards, Bollywood's annual global extravaganza, opened in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, actor Anil Kapoor, filmmakers Ramesh Sippy and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and industry honchos shared the stage with an unlikely co-speaker - India's number two diplomat. Anil Wadhwa, secretary (east) in the ministry of external affairs, is in charge of India's relations with almost half the world, from Palestine to the Philippines and Syria to South Korea.

China-Japan tensions may still be high, thanks to unresolved wartime issues and a territorial dispute, but that didn’t stop Chinese fans from flocking to see the Japanese cartoon character Doraemon on the big screen this week. Stand By Me Doraemon, a 3-D animated film about the blue robotic cat, earned $33.47 million in its opening weekend and reached a four-day total of $38 million by Tuesday. 

Four multiple award-winning independent documentary features from the United States will hit select movie theaters in two Turkish cities later this month thanks to a new collaboration between Turkey's indie distribution system Başka Sinema and the American Film Showcase (AFS), a film diplomacy program organizing screenings and workshops with US filmmakers in more than 35 countries.