Pakistan wins first ever Oscar

Pakistani documentary Saving Face produced by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy has won the Oscar Award. It is the first time in Oscar s 84 years history that Pakistan has won the Oscar award. In her acceptance speech, Sharmeen dedicated the award to the women and those working for women rights in Pakistan. The Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy film follows British plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad, who returns to his homeland to help victims of acid burns. The film follows one woman as she fights to see that the perpetrators of the crime are imprisoned for life. The documentary competed against “God Is the Bigger Elvis,” a Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson film about a mid-century starlet who chose the church over Hollywood; “The Barber of Birmingham,” a Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday film that follows the life of 85-year-old barber James Armstrong and the legacy of the civil rights movement; James Spione’s war film “Incident in New Baghdad”; and “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom,” a film by Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen that follows survivors of Japan s 2011 earthquake and their struggle to recover from the wave that crushed their homes and lives. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is an internationally renowned Emmy and Oscar award winning Pakistani journalist and documentarian. She won Emmy for her documentary‚ Pakistan: Children of the Taliban in 2010. She is also the first non-American to win the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. She is the first Pakistani to win an Oscar for her documentary‚ Saving Face. Sharmeen was born in Karachi in 1978. She attended the Karachi Grammar School. She was the first woman in her family to receive a Western education. Sharmeen graduated from Smith College with a bachelor of arts in economics and government and then went to complete two master s degrees from Stanford University in International Policy Studies and Communication.Obaid's career in documentary filmmaking began when she examined the plight of Afghani refugee children in Pakistan for one of her articles. Their situation was so dire‚ and their stories so compelling‚ that Sharmeen decided to return to Pakistan and create a film about them. She petitioned Smith College and New York Times Television production division for the grants that would allow her to accomplish her goals. Intrigued by her story‚ both organizations gave her the funds as well as production equipment and training. She is currently a faculty member at media sciences department in SZABIST (Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and technology‚ Karachi). Known for documentaries dealing with life in the Muslim world‚ Sharmeen became the first non-American to win the Livingston Award. Her films have aired on such networks as Channel 4‚ CNN‚ PBS‚ and Al-Jazeera. She began her career with New York Times Television in 2002 where she produced Terror s Children‚ a film about Afghan refugee children‚ which won her the Overseas Press Club Award‚ the American Women and Radio and Television Award‚ and the South Asian Journalist Association Award. Since then‚ she has produced and reported on more than twelve films around the world. Sharmeen produced and reported on four multi-award winning documentary films for New York Times Television. In 2003‚ Reinventing the Taliban was awarded the Special Jury Award at the BANFF TV festival in Canada‚ the CINE Golden Eagle Award‚ the American Women in Radio and Television award‚ and the Livingston Award. In 2005‚ her film Women of the Holy Kingdom‚ which provided an inside look at the women s movement in Saudi Arabia‚ won the South Asian Journalist Association Award. In 2005‚ Obaid began working with Channel 4 in the United Kingdom reporting on four films for their Unreported World series. Pakistan s Double Game looked at sectarian violence in Pakistan‚ City of Guilt explored the Catholic Church s pro-life movement in the Philippines‚ The New Apartheid looked into growing xenophobia in South Africa‚ and Birth of a Nation delved into the politics of East Timor. In 2007‚ Obaid was named "journalist of the year" by the One World Media awards for her work in the series. In 2007‚ Sharmeen travelled to Afghanistan and reported for Channel 4 and CNN. Her film‚ Afghanistan Unveiled/Lifting the Veil‚ focuses on stalled reconstruction and the repression of women in the country. In 2010‚ she won an Emmy Award for her documentary‚ Pakistan: Children of the Taliban‚ which explores Taliban recruitment strategies‚ their effect on the youth and their methods to radicalize the country s young and often dejected populace.Children of the Taliban premiered FiLums (2011) - the largest film festival in Pakistan held annually at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. In 2012‚ Sharmeen became the first Pakistani to ever be nominated for and to have won an Oscar for her documentary Saving Face ‚ highlighting the plight of women in the Punjab province dealing with acid burns on faces that occur as a result of male domination.