LAHORE: Sarmad Khoosat’s film ‘Zindagi Tamasha’ has been submitted for Oscar consideration in the International Feature Film Award category for the 93rd Academy Awards.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will choose the final nominees for all award categories including International Feature Film in February 2021.
The complete and final list of Oscar nominees will be announced on 15th March 2021 while the final ceremony is scheduled to take place on 25th April 2021 in Los Angeles.
The film was directed and co-produced by Sarmad Khoosat, along with Kanwal Khoosat and written by Nirmal Bano. It features Arif Hassan, Eman Suleman, Samiya Mumtaz and Ali Kureshi.
The Pakistani Academy Selection Committee was chaired by two-time Academy Award and Emmy-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. The committee includes Faisal Kapadia, Asad-ul-Haq, Hamza Bangash, Syed Muhammad Ahmed, Mehwish Hayat, Hasan Shehreyar Yasin, Asim Abbasi, Arshad Mahmud and Jamal Shah.
This year’s deadline for submission of films for consideration of Pakistan Academy Selection Committee was October 20th 2020. This marks the eighth consecutive submission to represent the best of Pakistani cinema.
The film has stoked controversy when its trailer was released and was shunned by the censor board. The film was supposed to be released in cinemas on 24th January this year but the government stopped screening by protest from a religious party.
The government decided that the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) would be consulted to determine if the film was suitable for public exhibition. In July, the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights approved the long-awaited and dismissed the objections raised against the film.
