Jami wins top award at Locarno Film Festival

‘Moor’ director bagged Open Doors trophy for 2015 hit

In an evolving industry, with people experimenting with diverse genres, from commercial flicks to more artistic pieces, the efforts of Pakistani filmmakers aren't going unnoticed. Moor director Jamshed Mehmood Raza – more fondly known as Jami – for instance, is earning recognition at both the local and international level. The filmmaker recently bagged the Open Doors – TFL (TorinoFilmLab) Award at the The Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors Co-Production Lab.



"Well that's very interesting because I was making the video for someone else," Jami exclaimed, as he was taken by surprise at the announcement. "Again, thank you so much. This is very surprising because I really wanted to be part of the next session somehow, somewhere, with these people, so this is very interesting. Thank you so much!"

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The Open Doors initiative aims at promoting filmmaking in regions where technological inadequacies render the art a tough process. Under this year’s agenda were eight South Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Jami was selected along with another producer Mehnaz Alavi Diwan of Studio Rail Films to represent Pakistan.

The event may prove an opportunity for the director to forge networks and promote Azad Films to an international audience, alongside his upcoming projects Hit and Run and Jugnu, which are due to release in 2019. Also, Jami’s 92 Cricket World Cup is slated for release in 2020.

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