![\"Logo](\"http:\/\/vqt.nlm.mybluehost.me\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/VarietyLogo1-300x86.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
CAA has signed director Saim Sadiq, who helmed \u201cJoyland,\u201d Pakistan\u2019s official entry for the 95th Academy Awards, for representation.<\/p>\n
Sadiq was named one of Variety\u2019s \u201c10 Directors to Watch\u201d for 2023 in recognition of the film, which marks his debut feature. \u201cJoyland\u201d made its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival \u2014 becoming the first Pakistani film to debut at the fest \u2014 where it was awarded the Un Certain Regard jury prize and the Queer Palm. The film has also been nominated for best international film at the 2023 Independent Spirit Awards and made history as Pakistan\u2019s first film to be shortlisted for best international feature film at the Academy Awards.<\/p>\n
Written and directed by Sadiq, the film tells the story of Haider (Ali Junejo), who lives with his wife Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq), his father and his elder brother\u2019s family in Lahore, Pakistan. After a long spell of unemployment, Haider lands a job working as a background dancer at a Bollywood-style burlesque \u2014 though he tells his family he\u2019s the theater\u2019s manager \u2014 and falls in love with Biba (Alina Khan), a transgender woman who runs the show. Also starring in the project, which explores love and desire in a patriarchal society, are Sarwat Gilani, Sohail Sameer, Salmaan Peerzada and Sania Saeed.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, it was a bit overwhelming, because when the news came out about Cannes and then the award particularly, it was a bit jarring for me because I was like, \u2018I\u2019m not sure how this film\u2019s going to be received,\u2019\u201d Sadiq told Variety film critic Guy Lodge, recounting the Cannes win in a conversation about \u201cJoyland\u201d for Variety\u2019s Streaming Room series.<\/p>\n
Following Cannes, \u201cJoyland\u201d screened at dozens of film festivals, including last month\u2019s Sundance Film Festival, and won numerous awards, such as the young cinema award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards; best ensemble at the Bangkok World Film Festival; and named best indie film at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.<\/p>\n
A graduate of the University of Lahore and with an MFA in film directing from Columbia University, Sadiq got his start with a number of critically acclaimed short films.<\/p>\n
His 2019 short \u201cDarling\u201d won the best short film award at the Venice Film Festival, where it was the first Pakistani film entered into competition. It was also an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival and received a Special Jury Recognition Award at SXSW. His 2018 short film, \u201cNice Talking to You,\u201d won Vimeo\u2019s best director award at the Columbia University Film Festival and made the BAFTA shortlist for best student film.<\/p>\n
The filmmaker is also a recipient of the Kodak Student Scholarship Gold Award. Plus, his screenwriting was selected for the Open Doors Hub at the Locarno Film Festival and he received the Ezra Litwak Award for best screenplay in the Columbia University graduate film program.<\/p>\n
In addition to CAA, Sadiq continues to be managed by Modern Literary Arts.<\/p>\n
View this article at Variety<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CAA Signs \u2018Joyland\u2019 Director Saim Sadiq (EXCLUSIVE): CAA has signed director Saim Sadiq, who helmed \u201cJoyland,\u201d Pakistan\u2019s official entry for the 95th Academy Awards, for representation. Sadiq was named one of Variety\u2019s \u201c10 Directors to Watch\u201d for 2023 in recognition of the film, which marks his debut feature. \u201cJoyland\u201d made its world premiere at the
+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,33,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elsa-ramo","category-tiffany-boyle","category-variety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6675"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6677,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6675\/revisions\/6677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}