Joyland: Malala Yousafzai joins Pakistan’s Oscar submission film as executive producer

Malala Yousafzai, who heads her own production company, Extracurricular Productions, has come onboard as an executive producer for Pakistan’s film Joyland. Pakistan’s Oscar Selection Committee has selected Joyland as its submission for the 95th Academy Awards in the International Feature Film Award category.

Joyland is an Urdu-language film that revolves around the extended patriarchal family of the Ranas that yearn for the birth of another boy. Set in a middle-class family living in Lahore, it deals with a wheelchair-bound yet severe patriarch who wants two sons and their wives to produce grandchildren. Things change suddenly when his youngest son falls in love with a transgender player.

Joyland prides itself on being the first film from Pakistan to have its world premiere at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival where it won the Cannes Queer Palm prize for best LGBT, “queer” or feminist-themed film. It also won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard segment. The film later made its way to the Toronto Film Festival.

Joyland is currently playing at both the BFI London Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival. At BFI London Film Festival, it is competing for the Sutherland Award, which is given for the most original and imaginative directorial debut. At the Busan International Film Festival, it is in the A Window on Asian Cinema strand.

Talking about her association with Joyland, Malala said, “I am incredibly proud to support a film that proves Pakistani artists are among the best in global cinema. Joyland invites us to open our eyes to the people closest to us — to see our family members and friends as they are, not coloured by our own expectations or societal bias.”

Headlined by Ali Junejo, Rasti Farooq, Alina Khan, Sarwat Gilani, Sohail Sameer, Salman Peerzada, and Sania Saeed, Joyland is written and directed by Saim Sadiq and produced by Apoorva Guru Charan, Sarmad Sultan Khoosat, and Lauren Mann.

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