Pakistan’s Oscars Selection Committee shortlisted Joyland as the country’s submission to the 95th Academy Awards for the ‘International Feature Film Award’ category. The film made even more headlines when Pakistan’s youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai, joined the project as its executive producer.
“My goal was to bring attention to the stories that are often put aside, to give an opportunity to more voices from different corners of the world and focusing especially on women, people of color, and young artists,” Yousafzai told Variety in a recent interaction.
“Starting with Joyland is such a moment of joy, because this is a Pakistani film produced by Pakistani directors, writers and actors, and I’m a Pakistani executive producer. This was such an incredible opportunity for me to begin with this. I always imagined a world where I could support more Pakistani content, more Pakistani artists.”
The activist added: “The themes that are touched upon in this movie resonate with people all around the world. We hear about family dynamics, we hear about the relationship between parents and children, between husband and wife, between the work that you are expected to do inside your house compared to the role you want to play outside in society. And these are the things that we hear about in every corner of the world.”
Written and directed by Saim Sadiq, and produced by Apoorva Guru Charan, Sarmad Sultan Khoosat and Lauren Mann, Joyland features Ali Junejo, Rasti Farooq, Alina Khan, Sarwat Gillani, Salman Peerzada, Sohail Sameer and Sania Saeed. The film, which is all set to release in Pakistan on November 18.
