Bilal Qureshi

One of India's biggest movie stars, Deepika Padukone, is making her Hollywood debut in xXx: Return of Xander Cage. She's hoping to replicate her massive Bollywood success on American movie screens.

Bilal Qureshi writes that The Battle Of Algiers, currently in movie theaters for a 50th anniversary rerelease, influenced many films that followed it and has striking relevance to the present.

French director Jacques Audiard won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his story of a Tamil Tiger who gives up the fight to try and find a better life in France.

As an art student, Shahzia Sikander used her region's miniature painting tradition to tell the story of a modern Pakistani woman. Now her work has moved beyond the page into animation and video.

Navina Haidar, an Islamic art curator at the Met, says she isn't interested in ideology: "The only place where we allow ourselves any passion is in the artistic joy ... of something that's beautiful."

Filmmaker Satyajit Ray earned a lifetime achivement Oscar for his beloved Apu Trilogy, released between 1955 and 1959. Badly damaged by fire, the original negatives have now been restored.

With its flashy swagger and quotable one-liners, Empire, the Fox series about a black music label, has become a cultural phenomenon. A watch party in D.C., had just as much.

Abderrahmane Sissako's film was inspired by the seizure of the Malian city by Islamist fighters in 2012. It has won international accolades with its lyrical beauty and critique of religious extremism.

David Oyelowo talks about playing Martin Luther King Jr. in the Oscar-nominated film Selma — as well as the LBJ controversy, slavery and how he learned about what it's like to be black in America.

Study after study reveals that women remain underrepresented in film, both on screen and off. But film festivals can play a role in closing the gap.