The idea was envisioned during a session of a class of a course offered at the Ziauddin Media School, Institute of Communication (ICMS), and little did anyone know; what a hype it would create!
Ziauddin Media School (ICMS), part of the renowned Ziauddin University Best Medical University in karachi organized the “1st Ziauddin Film Festival” at its Clifton campus on May 21st, 2016. Universities such as Iqra, KU, Habib and CBM associated to the media or visual department were invited to participate by submitting short films and documentaries in the festival competition, which made its unique selling point; as there was cash prize money to be awarded to the winners.
The scope of the media industry and its growth is self-spoken for, but little did we know the talent that grows amongst the filmmakers in the universities are ought to be the bright future of the rising media film fraternity.
The main objective of the film festival was to give student filmmakers the opportunity to display and promote their work, in order for them to know that their efforts are not only being acknowledged but, this looked-down upon field chosen amongst out tunnel-vision society is going to achieve bigger things in life.
An event without sponsors is nothing than an occasion, The CEO and Chief Trainer of FIT in 5-Mustafa Totana, who not only provides the best fitness program in town but, also believes in helping promote the growth of amateur filmmakers in terms of motivation as well as being fit to work all those long hours that are required to make Oscar winning films. The CEO of Nueplex Cinemas-Mr Jamil Baig, who wishes to see some of these filmmakers screen their work in his Cinema House. A special thank you to Coca Cola for having faith in us doing it for the first time, as well as our media partners FM 91 and HTV for helping us reach to the masses. The CEO of HTV-Mr Faizan S. Syed was more proud than ever to be able to provide a platform for the work of these ambitious filmmakers to display their work.
“This event is first of its kind and I am astonished that the students of Ziauddin Media School (ICMS) have not only pulled it off but made it successful. They make me feel proud standing here as the Director of Ziauddin Media School (ICMS). I see not only their future to be bright but of the students who put their dedicated work to display at today’s event. This film festival opens doors for many opportunities to media students out there. I hope to see another one film festival or organized at a bigger scale by ICMS students next year”, said, Faizan S. Syed CEO of HTV.
Famous actors from the media fraternity such as, Atiqa Odho, Behroze Sabzwari, Bilal Ashraf, Na-Maloom Afraad movie famed Irfan Motiwala and others such as Hassan Soomro, famous social media comedians 3 Idiotz (Hammad, Kashan & Faisal) were invited as the Chief Guests for the day and distributed awards among winners who also wished the very best to all the participants and look forward to more of such work in the media industry.
The competition couldn’t possibly happen without our esteemed judge panel including, Hishaam Masood, Faraz Iqbal, Mehwish Zaidi and Zeeshan Haider. We would not only like to thank them for helping us reach to a neutral ground through cumulative marking assessment for fair judging to the awards that were given to the well-deserved winners.
The awards were broken down to 4 technical awards; best direction, best cinematography, best editing and best screenplay. (All based upon Short Films) All worth of Cash Prize Award PKR 10,000 each. The big winners, Best Short Film and Best Documentary were worth for PKR 15,000.
The Winners:
- Syed Arbab Hussain of Karachi University grabbed three awards this year Best short film, Best Direction & Best Edit award with his short film, ‘THE IDIOT BOX’.
- Short film ‘The Light and The Little Girl’ by Ahsan Mannan of Iqra University got the Best Cinematography award.
- Short film ‘Naira’ by Shanum Sohail of Karachi University was awarded the ‘Best Screenplay’ award.
- Haseeb Halai of IoBM won for Best Documentary award for ‘LYARI SUCCESSORS’
On the occasion, Raza Abbas, Director Students Affairs, Ms. Tooba Bukhari Head of Marketing and Amir Shehzad, Head of PR also graced us with their presence along with other faculty members of Ziauddin. Last but not least, a big shout out to the man who helped not craft but, made this event happen till the very end, Mr. Hussain Talib along with his colleague Wahaj Hashmi.
We look forward to having the 2nd ZFF, bigger, better and much more than ever!