Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy (Pakistan)


 

FOR-BIO-Sharmeen-Obaid-Chinoy-director

 

Originally published on  Sharmeen Obaid Films

Photo by Sharmeen Obaid Films

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy is an Academy and Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker. Her work centers on human rights and women’s issues. She has worked with refugees and marginalized communities from Saudi Arabia to Syria and from Timor Leste to the Philippines. By bringing their voices to the forefront, she has often helped them bring about a critical change in their community.

In 2012, Sharmeen set up an independent production house SOC FILMS (www.socfilms.com) in Karachi which specializes in producing investigative and socially motivated content. She also spearheads Pakistan’s first film animation production house Waadi Animations (www.waadianimations.com) which is producing Pakistan’s first feature length animated film 3 Bahadur.

Sharmeen has made over a dozen multi-award winning films in over 10 countries around the world. In 2012, Time Magazine included Sharmeen in their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. That same year, the Pakistani government awarded her a Hilal-e-Imtiaz, a state honor, for her services to Arts and Culture. In 2013, the Canadian government awarded Sharmeen a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work in the field of documentary films and the World Economic Forum honored her with a Crystal Award at their annual summit in Davos. In 2014, the Asia Society in New York honored her with an Asia Game Changer Award which recognized 12 individuals making a positive difference for the future of Asia and the world.

“Brilliant, brave, comprehensively infuriating survey of the Taliban’s ominous resurgence in Pakistan, viewed through the prism of the largest, most vulnerable sector of the country’s population – its children.

— The Guardian Guide, 14.03.09 ”
“I don’t know what Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy wanted to be when she was a 10-year-old girl growing up in Karachi, but she ended up as a journalist, and bloody good she is at it too.
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian, 17.03.09”