The filmmaker, journalist and activist has won the prestigious award while her recent documentary film, Freedom Fighters, will have its world premiere at the London International Documentary Festival (LIDF) next month.
Two-time Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist/activist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has been bestowed with another honor yet again. This time around, she has won the 2018 Eliasson Global Leadership Prize of The Tallberg Foundation. The honour has come in appreciation of her extraordinary leadership, world-class storytelling skills and work that is not only courageous but is also optimistic, rooted in universal values and fundamentally global in reach, conception and impact. This makes Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy the first Pakistani to receive this prestigious award.
Sharmeen took to social media to share the good news. “I am honored to receive the Eliasson Global Leadership Prize at a time when holding up a mirror to society comes with a heavy price,” she wrote on her official Instagram handle.
“With colleagues being jailed and killed around the world for simply speaking the truth, we need to have the courage to persevere. I remain committed to telling difficult stories in the hope that the conversations they spark will change the way we all see the world,” she added.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was chosen from among 825 nominees from 130 countries and dozens of different occupations, positions and causes. According to the press statement, the jury selected the filmmaker for her increasingly insistent and effective leadership not only in changing minds through her filmmaking, but also in working to change realities that should be unacceptable in the 21st century.
Winners of the Eliasson Global Leadership Prize are nominated at large through an open, online process and are ultimately selected by a jury of people who themselves are accomplished leaders from a range of countries and disciplines.
The Eliasson Prize is named in honor of Jan Eliasson, one of the most accomplished global diplomats, and is given annually to outstanding leaders from any country and any discipline whose work is innovative and has global implication. The prizes are supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Apart from Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the 2018 laureates include Rafael Yuste and Imam Omar Kobine Layama.
Apart from the prize, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy recently took to her official Facebook page to announce that her latest documentary film Freedom Fighters has made it to the London International Documentary Festival (LIDF) where it will have its world premiere on November 29, 2018. London International Documentary Festival celebrates and acknowledges the best work in the genre from global participants.
“Proud to announce that our film Freedom Fighters has also been officially selected as an entry for the London International Documentary Festival,” stated Sharmeen Obaid.
Freedom Fighters follows the story of three female freedom fighters, who are speaking out against inequality and pushing for equal rights. The documentary features 2D animation to tell the stories of these powerful women and the victims they have helped in their journey to challenge the status quo.
