Some of the films that were released this year have opened up new dimension of film making in Tamil cinema. Vazhakku Enn 18/9 and Pizza are among them and these two movies have been selected to be screened at the 1st South Asian Film Festival, which will be happening in Paris from January 16 to 20 January. SAFF will screen movies from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The aim of the festival is to show that South Asian movies is not only about Bollywood.

Tamil movies have started to gain recognition and have been screened in various Internation film festivals. This opens up scope for showcase the talent of Kollywood.

Vazhakku Enn 18/9 is a teen crime thriller directed by Balaji Sathivel, starring newcomers Mithun, Sri, Urmila and Manisha in the lead. It was released simultaneously in Telugu as Premalo Padithe and is being remade in Malayalam and Kannada. It is one of the movies nominated by Tamil Cinema as India’s Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language film.

Pizza is directed by debutant Karthik  Subbaraj featuring Vijay Sethupathy and Ramya Nambeesan in the lead roles. The film is about a pizza delivery boy who lands himself in a mysterious circumstance which changes his life forever. The film opened to positive reviews and went on to become a huge success. The remake rights of the film were sold for record prices in Hindi, Telugu and Kannada.

AR Murugadoss’s 7am Arivu will also be screened under special sections.