Winners of short-film contest awarded prizes

Islamabad

Winners of a short-film contest that seeks to encourage students of Media and Film Sciences to develop films in genres such as drama, thriller, mystery, comedy and social issues to promote revival of the film industry in Pakistan and the region were awarded at a ceremony held here on Monday night.

The first prize for the 2016 contest went to Furqan Arshad Bhatti, a 2016 media sciences graduate from the University of Gujrat. Bhatti’s art film “’Bara Admi’ portrayed the struggles of an unemployed individual in a small town of Pakistan. “The film takes its viewers on an emotional journey of a man trying, unsuccessfully, to get a job. The situation is common to many towns in the region; you could feel the pain of the main character,” said Zia Khattak, Vice President of Channel 4 Media, which had organized the contest.

The second prize was awarded to art film ‘In the Rain’ – a lyrical story about a chance meeting of two young people. The movie was produced by Muhammad Ali, student of the University of Gujrat.

The third prize was split between Rehan Tariq of University of Faisalabad, whose movie focused on the impact of the social media in our lives, and the ‘Our Vines’ group of five young men from Peshawar. ‘Our Vines’ produced short comedy ‘Pathan and Naswar’ -- a relationship between a man and chewing tobacco.

The first two prizes of the contest, Rs150,000 and Rs100,000 respectively, were won by the University of Gujrat, while the third prize was won by Government College University of Faisalabad.

Submissions for the 2017 round of short-film contests are open from now through October 2017. Students are invited to receive entry information at content@channel4us.com.

Channel 4 is a new US-based international venture endeavouring to provide indigenous content for South Asian people living in the United States, where the channel will be launched later this spring.