50 years on, Pakistan part of the Oscars once more

Although the committee has not yet chosen the film, Pakistan will be submitting an entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Each country is allowed one submission and can decide how that film can be chosen. The deadline for submitting foreign-language film submissions to the Academy this year is Oct. 1.

The committee to choose the film is independent from the government even though will be approving the selection.

Chairing the committee is Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who became the country’s first Oscar winner for co-directing the 2011 documentary short subject “Saving Face.” Also on the panel are writer Mohsin Hamid, Mehreen Jabbar, actor Rahat Kazmi, filmmaker Akifa Mian, Samina Peerzada and arts academic Framji Minwalla.

With 21 releases in the year so far, Pakistani cinema is having a revival of sorts, giving selectors a wide variety of movies to choose from.

Historically, Pakistan has sent only two films to the Academy since the category was created in 1956, Akhtar J. Kardar’s “Jago hua savera” in 1959 and Khawaja Khurshid Anwar’s “Ghunghat” in 1963.

British-Pakistani Hammad Khan, known for his debut feature “Slackistan” was banned in Pakistan spoke to the Variety, a weekly entertainment-trade magazine.

“Pakistan has not officially submitted any films for the Academy Awards consideration in 50 years because the state has never taken film seriously, neither as a cultural art form nor as a valuable communal experience,” he said. “In all those years, Pakistan has been so preoccupied with coups, wars and religion that cinema has only been reduced to low entertainment by the powers-that-be. It is, of course, monumentally idiotic to ignore the power of cinema in the development of any nation’s narrative.”