Nigeria and Mexico are poised to strengthen cultural bilateral relations with the hosting of the maiden edition of the Mexican Film Festival. The film festival which took place at the Silverbird Galleria in Abuja on September 16, saw both countries exploring opportunities inherent in their motion picture industries for cultural diplomacy.

While U.S. military and economic hegemony may decline, it does not follow that American filmmakers -- or other agents of culture-making -- will lose global influence at the same time. America has... taken its advantages in money and power and linked them to the creation of cultural forms that have broad appeal to people worldwide.

A collection of rare vintage Bollywood showcards is taking top billing at one of Toronto’s biggest museums. “We think of Bollywood as such a localized phenomenon, but in fact it has been part of the global film industry from its inception..."

“The centenary celebrations would provide the country an excellent opportunity to exhibit India’s soft power on global scale and reinforce the idea of Cinemas of India along with the Incredible India campaign,” says Soni.

Extensive Googling has not revealed a single mention of North Korea as evil or awful, however when examining US-North Korean relations, I cannot help but think of a masterful piece of cultural diplomacy – one of my favourite films – Team America.

Cowboys and Aliens was the biggest, shiniest fruit yet to fall off the tree planted in July 2009 by Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks and India's Reliance Entertainment. What Reliance are attempting – to perform locally within India as a Bollywood production house, and step up to the international stage, too – is extremely difficult.

Heather Layton and Brian Bailey set off from Rochester, NY... arranged a contemporary painting show, attended the region's major cultural festival and mounted a screening of films by both emerging New York and Naga filmmakers.

DreamWorks Animation has become the second Hollywood studio to enter into a distribution agreement with China's top online video site, Youku.com. Youku said Monday that it had signed a deal with the Glendale-based animation studio to distribute the "Kung Fu Panda" movies in China, marking the first time that DreamWorks releases have been made available in that country through the Internet.