The first London Pakistani Film Festival (LPFF), an annual event specifically conceived to celebrate Pakistani films and dramas, is set to inaugurate from the 1st of October, in London, UK. The festival is a four-day event, scheduled at the HMS Wellington Ship, Barbican Cinema, Rich Mix Cinema, Garden Cinema and the Queen Mary University.
Official feature film selections include the Humanyun Saeed, Mehwish Hayat starrer “London Nahi Jaunga”, Sarmad Sultan Khoosat’s extended director’s cut of “Zindgai Tamasha”, Yamna Zaidi starrer “Nayab”, Sheheryar Munawar, Mehwish Hayat, Wahaj Ali, Ramasha Khan, Zahid Ahmed starrer romance-drama anthology “Teri Meri Kahaniyaan”, and the Fawad Khan, Hamza Ali Abbasi, Mahira Khan starrer “The Legend of Maula Jatt”.
Official drama selections include upcoming Zindagi Originals “Farrar”, directed by Mehreen Jabbar, starring Sarwat Gilani, Mariam Saleem and Maha Hasan, and the Kashif Nisar directed “The Pink Shirt”, starring Sajal Aly, Wahaj Ali and Sania Saeed. Submissions for films and dramas are now open via LPFF’s website and FilmFreeway.
LPFF, a project of Positive Action Through Creativity (PAC) — a UK registered charity, is the brain-child of Founder Assad Khan and co-founders Mansur Ali and Shoaib Qureshi.
LPFF’s jury includes veteran actor Hameed Sheikh, director Mehreen Jabbar, film critic and filmmaker Kamran Jawaid, cinematographer and director Farhan Alam, filmmaker Raaj Rahhi, Max Shaukat, Kay Ram, Mehnaz Alavi Diwan, Qais Quraishi.
The advisory board includes Satish Anand (veteran producer and distributor, Eveready Group of Companies), celebrated actor and producer Humayun Saeed, Nadeem Manadviwalla (distributor, exhibitor and producer, ME Entertainment), Joe Mirza (Managing Director, Bollywood Films Distribution, UK), Hassan Zuberi (Director, House of Advertising) and London-based journalist E. Nina Rothe.
Mr. Jawaid (through his film production and distribution company, Anthem Films) also serves as the festival’s Director, while Geo Television Network is the official media partner.
According to the joint statement made by Assad Khan, Mansur Ali and Shoaib Qureshi, “The Pakistani community in the UK contributes immensely, both economically and socially. LPFF is a great way to share their stories, struggles and celebrations to the people of London and beyond. LPFF, therefore, aims to reinvigorate the people’s interest in Pakistani films and dramas, but it is not limited to the South Asian or Middle Eastern diaspora who are intimately aware of the two mediums, its actors — who are celebrated globally — and their unique approach to storytelling”.
“Since Pakistan makes few new films every year, the festival gives viewers the opportunity to revisit select films that have already been released, as well as give new films and filmmakers the platform to reach new audiences”, Mr. Khan, Mr. Ali and Mr. Qureshi’s statement noted.
Mr. Jawaid, in his statement, calls Pakistani cinema “the little industry that could — an impossibly small marketplace that produces fewer movies than it used to since Covid, yet continues to throw one curveball after the other, achieving incredible feats, such as producing a hand-drawn animated film in this day and age, making the world’s first animated film that is entirely rendered in Unreal Engine, achieving unfathomable box-office milestones, or winning international recognition by telling unique and touching stories. LPFF is proud to honour a few of these incredible moments of cinema in its first year”.
Mr. Assad Khan is a veteran producer and industry executive who has worked for ARY Digital, Voice of America, and served as the President and CEO of Zaks Global Media LLC, a Los Angeles based film and television production company, and Black Satellite Entertainment in Burbank, California. Prior to LPFF, Mr. Khan had been instrumental in realising the first Pakistan Film Festival at Katara Cultural Village in Doha, Qatar, in 2019.
Mr. Ali is a film producer and Deputy Chair for Culture, Heritage and Libraries at the City of London Corporation. Mr. Ali also co-founded the Digital Arts Collective (DAC), and founded the Limelight Film Awards, a platform to identify Bengali experiences on the big screen that, at its peak, were identified as eminent independent short-film awards in the UK.
Mr. Queshi (aka. Nicky Q), an independent director, writer and producer whose production credits include the Showtime Networks production “Dirt”, and “Looking for Palladin”, is also the Chair of the Department of Media and Communications at The City College, CUNY, a senior producer for City University Television, CUNY-TV.
LPFF’s screenings are scheduled at the HMS Wellington Ship on the 1st of October, Rich Mix Cinema and Queen Mary University on the 2nd of October, Rich Mix Cinema and Garden Cinema on the 3rd of October, and closes at the Barbican Cinema on the 4th of October, 2024.
Submissions and inquiries can be made at:
https://www.lpff.co.uk/about/
https://filmfreeway.com/LondonPakistanFilmFestival-1
