Hatrick: Emmy-winning Pakistani filmmaker bags another nomination this year

‘As Far As They Can Run’ showcases the journey of special children turn athletes

Academy and two-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Haya Fatima Iqbal is on a roll! Her film, As Far They Can Run, is nominated for the Outstanding Short Documentary category of the 44th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards. The film documents the journey of three young adults from rural Pakistan with intellectual disabilities being recruited for Pakistan’s Special Olympics Program.

Haya took to her Instagram to announce the news. “Our film got nominated for an Emmy!” she wrote excitedly in a Story. Talking about her film, she added, “The film follows the lives of children in and around Mirpurkhas who have intellectual disabilities and eventually receive training to become athletes. It was a joy and honour for me to witness the care and love that the coaches put into this work to ensure that these children can fly high.”

Haya proudly added that one of the kids in the film, Sana Kapri, also lit the torch at the Special Olympics in Berlin last month. As Far As They Can Run also features the stories of Ghulam and Sajawal, who were unaccepted by their own family, and lived under dire circumstances with little chances in life. 

Posting a picture with Nadir Siddiqui, the cinematographer behind the film, from 2018, she hopes to recreate a “red carpet” moment again. “Let's see if Nadir Siddiqui and I can recreate this red carpet moment from 2018 again this year. Nadir is the cinematographer of this beautiful film,” she wrote.

Other documentaries and news films in the same category include Sharon Liese and Cynthia Wade’s The Flagmakers, Beirut Dreams in Color by Michael Collins, The Sentence of Michael Thompson by Kyle Thrash and Haley Elizabeth Anderson and Ben Proudfoot’s MINK! as part of The New York Times’ Op-Docs.

Last year, As Far As They Can, directed by Tanaz Eshaghian and produced by Christoph Jörg, was shortlisted for the Oscars 2022 in the Documentary Short Film category. Haya was the co-producer for A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, the film that won Pakistan an Oscar for Best Documentary Short at the 88th Academy Awards in 2018.