Bhutan: Last News

It’s a weekend of well-reviewed indie openings with Bleecker Street’s Out Of Darkness, The Monk And The Gun (from the directors of Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom) and limited openings for The Taste Of Things, Perfect Days (Best International Feature nominated), Anthony Chen’s Drift, Bas Devos’ Here and Ennio by Giuseppe Tornatore, which premiered in Venice in 2021 and is finally getting a U.S. release.

Siddhant Adlakha By reputation, the Kingdom of Bhutan is the happiest country on Earth, but the “Agent of Happiness” seeks to explore that assertion. The documentary by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó follows the routine of 40-year-old Amber, one of 75 government workers hired to survey people’s happiness on a mathematical scale, and it details not only the lives of his interviewees, but also that of the agent himself.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Tel Aviv-based sales company Cinephil has acquired world rights for feature documentary “Agent of Happiness,” which delves into the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, ahead of its upcoming Sundance Film Festival debut in the World Cinema Documentary competition. Co-directed by Arun Bhattarai, who is Bhutanese, in tandem with Hungary’s Dorottya Zurbó, “Agent of Happiness” revolves around a 40-year-old man named Amber, who is one of the agents employed by the Bhutanese government to measure its so-called Gross National Happiness level.

The shortlist of 15 films set to vie for a Best International Feature FiOscar nomination has now been revealed, with only a few surprises in the mix. 

Naman Ramachandran A range of subjects, ranging from hot button to mystical, await Academy voters considering the contenders from South Asia in the international feature category. The most visible film from the region is certainly Bhutan’s “The Monk and the Gun,” Pawo Choyning Dorji‘s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom.” In the film, Dorji uses the first elections in one of the world’s youngest democracies to comment on what is lost as his country modernizes. The Variety critics pick, following its festival premieres at Telluride, Toronto, Rome and Busan, sold to a raft of major territories worldwide, including Roadside Attractions in the U.S.

Deadline’s Contenders Film: International award-season event launches Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. PT, the latest in our series of showcases that this time turns the focus toward global cinema via discussions with the casts and creatives of 12 movies submitted by their countries for the 2024 Academy Awards’ International Feature race.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Bhutan’s official Oscar entry “The Monk And The Gun,” Pawo Choyning Dorji‘s follow-up to “Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom,” has been bought by a raft of well-established international theatrical distributors. Following its festival premieres at Telluride, Toronto, Rome and Busan, “The Monk and the Gun” has been sold by Films Boutique to Pyramide Distribution (France), September Films (Benelux), Rialto Distribution (Australia), Future Films (Scandinavia), A Contracorriente (Spain), Lev Films (Israel), Aurora Films (Poland), Trigon (Switzerland), Alambique Films (Portugal) and Impact Films (India and Indian Subcontinent). Earlier this week, the crowdpleaser was also acquired by Roadside Attraction for the U.S.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor SAG-AFTRA may still be on strike, but studios are, nevertheless, pushing their Oscar contenders to garner the adequate (and allowed) attention they need to land nominations. One of the main methods is getting industry voters out to screenings and making films available on the Academy Screening Room and BAFTA screening platforms.

Mumbai Film Festival has announced a packed line-up of 250 films, including the 14 titles selected for its inaugural South Asia Competition, part of an expansion of the festival’s vision to become a hub for works from South Asia and South Asian diaspora talent. 

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic What would a monk want with a gun? Bringing wisdom and a streak of wry humor to his Bhutan-set sophomore feature, “The Monk and the Gun” director Pawo Choyning Dorji teases any number of possible answers to that question over the course of a droll, shrewdly satirical fable, in which Western values crash against a seemingly intransigent (but potentially more enlightened) South Asian culture. A gifted storyteller who keeps audiences guessing about his characters’ motives until the surprising moment everything comes together, Dorji was born in Bhutan, but attended university in Wisconsin.

Sharareh Drury Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival GEMS has announced the full lineup for its 2023 festival, which will run from Nov. 2-5. The 10th edition of the fest will feature 26 films from 14 countries, all taking place at MDC’s Koubek Center and Silverspot Cinema.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief EST N8, a recently-established finance, production and film sales company, has appointed Chen ; Tata’ Xinrui as its sales and distribution manager. Chen will serve under Tenten Wei, head of studios for EST N8 and will be based in Los Angeles. EST N8 is a partnership between EST Studios and Bangkok-based N8 Studios that was officially launched at Cannes this year and operates under the combined moniker.

King Jigme and Queen Jetsun have just welcomed their third baby into the world!

It’s hard to make much sense of what’s unfolding as the first few minutes of Pawo Choyning Dorji‘s “The Monk and the Gun” pass by. However, what is clear is that this immediately comes out of the gate with a slice-of-life feeling in stark contrast to what one might expect from a film with this particular brand of odd title.

Bhutan has submitted Pawo Choyning Dorji’s The Monk and the Gun for the Best International Feature Film race at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Naman Ramachandran “The Red Suitcase,” which world premieres in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons strand, is a rare Nepal-Sri Lanka co-production. The producers have released a first clip from the film. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Fidel Devkota, who previously directed the short “The Last Yak Herder of Dhe” (2014) and documentary short “Wind of Change in Lo Mustang” (2016).

With no film industry to speak of, and limited funds to make a movie in one of the most remote places on earth, young Bhutanese director/writer Pawo Choyning Dorji pulled off a miracle with his first feature, Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom which came out of nowhere to get an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature (formerly Best Foreign Language Film) in 2019. It was a charmer of a movie set in a village in Bhutan with no connection to the outside world and where a young teacher must decide whether he wants to stay and teach the kids or follow his dreams to Australia.

The Telluride Film Festival, a key part of the fall festival circuit launching awards season and perhaps some major Academy Award contenders, announced the wide-ranging lineup of films for its landmark 50th edition. The fest kicks off Thursday and runs through Labor Day and will feature world premieres of Oscar winners Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers (Focus Features), Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (Amazon) and Free Solo filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s narrative feature Nyad (Netflix).

This year’s Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival will open with a double bill of Snow In Midsummer, directed by Malaysia’s Chong Keat-aun, and Be With Me, from Taiwanese filmmaker Hwarng Wern-ying.

, and his wife, Jetsun Pema, 33, the Dragon Queen (dubbed the Kate Middleton of the Himalayas), recently attended the . The queen for the royal wedding of Crown Prince Hussein and Princess Rajwa.

As royals and diplomats from around the world descend upon the Zahran Palace in Amman, Jordan, for the royal wedding of the summer, they make up a very exclusive guestlist. Heads of state and representatives from royal families from the UK to Bhutan arrived to celebrate the union of Crown Prince Hussein, 28, and Saudi Arabian architect Rajwa Al-Saif, 28, this afternoon. Rajwa was dazzling in a white gown for the occasion, which featured a lengthy train embroidered with flowers, and a sparkling diamond tiara. She was given away by Crown Prince Hussein's brother Prince Hashem, who walked arm-in-arm with her through the gardens of the palace. Later this evening, an event will be thrown for 4,000 guests to celebrate Jordan’s 'diverse social fabric' and demonstrate the royal family’s 'profound respect for each segment of Jordanian society. 'The celebration will take place in the Royal Hashemite Court's ‘Madareb Bani Hashem’. The 4,000 guests include members of the Royal Hashemite Family and representatives of the nation’s tribes and Circassian and Chechen communities. Meanwhile, members of civil society organizations, business leaders, youth figures, former and current government officials and army and security agency personnel have also been invited. But the ceremony itself was more intimate with 140 guests, including members of the Royal Hashemite family, invited royals and heads of state, sat in the pews as they watched the couple tie the knot in the palace garden.  Here, FEMAIL breaks down the exclusive guest list at the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein and Rajwa Al-Saif. . . 1.