ISLAMABAD: Pakistani filmmaker Iram Parveen Bilal, who made history last week as the first director of a feature film from the South Asia nation to be invited to the glamorous Cannes Film Festival, said she wished to “keep the hope alive” for other Pakistanis wanting to make their mark at international cinema events.
Last year, Pakistan’s best known film actress Mahira Khan made her debut at Cannes. Before her, the only other Pakistani artist to attend the festival was Adnan Siddiqui who took the film ‘A Mighty Heart’ to the event in 2008 with Hollywood bigwigs Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Now Bilal has made it to the festival as part of the prestigious Cinefondation L’Atelier program that picks 15 directors with “particularly promising projects” for a seven-day intensive fast track finance program. The program has a 93 percent financing and distribution success rate.
“It is surreal, it is the world’s biggest stage for cinema,” Bilal told Arab News in an interview, answering a question about what it felt like to attend Cannes. “I’m humbled and really honored to be included in a prestigious official selection of the festival. To be honest, I’m still a bit numb and processing it.”
But then she added: “If you’re honest and rooted as an artist, the magic will come. That’s the magic we all strive to create.”
Bilal’s project ‘Wakhri,’ the Urdu word for ‘different,’ is about an accidental social media star “who learns the harsh cost of wearing masks in the real world.”
“The film deals with themes like hypocrisy, trolling and the ultimate empowerment of self,” Bilal said.
Bilal has been directing films for over 10 years. Her first feature film ‘Josh’ was the very first Pakistani film to land on streaming giant Netflix and is also part of the permanent selection in the US Library of Congress.
Born to academic parents, and an environmental sciences engineer herself, she is the first in her family to deviate from the scientific path into the “wild west of the entertainment industry.”
The Cinefondation L’Atelier program, of which Bilal’s Wakhri is a part, has a 93 percent financing and distribution success rate, the filmmaker said.
“The general manager of the program watched my work at the Locarno Film Festival’s film library and had been tracking me,” Bilal said. The GM then met Abid Merchant, Wakhri’s producer, and the pair were invited to apply to the program.
In addition to being a part of the Cinefondation L’Atelier group, Bilal also spoke at Cannes on a ‘Storytellers and the Creative Process’ panel where she got to engage with early career filmmakers and students and spoke about her approach to filmmaking.
Cannes has recently come under fire for its under-representation of women filmmakers and directors, but Bilal said she tried to ignore the “depressing” statistics.
“I just focus on possibilities and on realizing that I have been fortunate enough to be a trail blazer and perhaps, even in this case, we can somehow go against the odds and achieve something very unexpected,” the Pakistani director said.
“It is humbling and I hope my participation will open doors for many more to come from our country.”
Bilal said Pakistan had so much filmmaking talent but little to no access.
“It has taken me years of building my work and a network to get to this point. I hope this leverages for people coming up the ranks right behind me,” the filmmaker said. “I take representing Pakistan very seriously. If we are as professional and committed as we can be, we keep the hope alive for others coming behind us as well.”
‘The magic will come’: First Pakistani filmmaker at Cannes hopes to light the way for others
‘The magic will come’: First Pakistani filmmaker at Cannes hopes to light the way for others
- Iram Parveen Bilal is part of the Cinefondation’s Atelier program which picks 15 directors with “particularly promising” projects
- ‘Wakhri’ is about the accidental social media star “who learns the harsh cost of wearing masks in the real world,” Bilal says
Pakistan launches first skills impact bond to fund training with private capital
- New $3.57 million pilot ties investor returns to job placement and retention outcomes
- The program aims to upskill youth at scale, with 40 percent of trainees targeted to be women
KARACHI: Pakistan on Tuesday launched its first-ever Pakistan Skills Impact Bond (PSIB), a private-capital-funded instrument aimed at financing technical training by linking investor repayments to measurable employment outcomes, as the government seeks new ways to upskill its rapidly growing workforce without relying solely on public spending.
The Rs 1 billion ($3.57 million) pilot tranche, backed by a government guarantee, is part of a three-year program designed to fund skills training through an outcome-based model, under which investors are repaid only if trainees achieve results such as certification, job placement and at least six months of employment retention.
Social impact bonds are a form of results-based financing in which private investors provide upfront capital for social programs, while governments or donors repay them only if agreed performance targets are met. Pakistan’s skills bond is intended to shift training finance away from traditional input-based budgets toward a market-oriented approach that rewards verified outcomes and crowds in private investment.
“Speaking at the event, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, underscored the transformational importance of the PSIB in Pakistan’s broader economic reform agenda and human capital strategy,” the finance division said in a statement. “He described the day as ‘an important moment focused on education and training,’ reiterating that Pakistan’s demographic dividend can only be realized if the country succeeds in upskilling and reskilling its youth at scale.”
The program is anchored in collaboration with the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) and is expected to evolve over time, with later tranches potentially linking repayments to a small share of trainees’ future earnings, a move officials say could help make the model financially self-sustaining.
The bond forms part of a broader government push to adopt social impact financing across priority areas including education, gender equality, health, climate resilience and poverty reduction, the statement said.
“Highlighting gender inclusion as central to the program design, the Finance Minister welcomed the recommendation led by the British Asian Trust that 40 percent of trainees under the PSIB be women, acknowledging that women’s participation and leadership in the workforce will play a decisive role in shaping Pakistan’s economic trajectory,” it added.
The Ministry of Finance has provided the initial guarantee to help establish credibility and attract investors, but has stressed the support is limited to the pilot phase.
The government has noted the model is intended to support Pakistan’s large youth population by aligning training with labor market demand, including high-value digital skills, while reducing long-term pressure on public finances.
The launch ceremony was attended by senior government officials, development partners, private sector representatives and international organizations involved in structuring and financing the bond.
