KARACHI: After missing the nomination in the International Feature Film category for the 95th Academy Awards, the makers of Joyland promised to follow the “unprecedented” success of the film on Wednesday by coming up with more creative productions to dominate the global entertainment industry.
Joyland won the Cannes “Queer Palm” prize for best feminist-themed movie last year as well as the Jury Prize in the “Un Certain Regard” competition, a segment focusing on young, innovative cinema talent. It also made it to the ongoing Sundance Film Festival 2023 in the United States.
Last month, the Pakistani film also featured in the list of 15 outstanding international productions that advanced to the final nomination stage ahead of the award ceremony scheduled to take place in March. However, it could not make the cut in the list of final five.
“What Joyland has been able to achieve so far is unprecedented and gives us hope for many more films to come out of Pakistan and take the global stage,” the film’s co-producer and casting director Sana Jafri told Arab News. “Being selected in the top 15 films out of over a hundred films at the Academy Awards is a testimony of the talent and hard work that went into creating the film and shows the potential of the creatives in Pakistan, especially keeping in mind the limited resources and support we have.”
Despite receiving critical acclaim abroad, Joyland has had a tough run in Pakistan that banned its screening at movie theaters last November by reversing a previous all-clear for release order. The film, which celebrates “transgender culture” in Pakistan, was later allowed to be released in some parts of the country, though it remains banned in the most populous Punjab province.
“While we are still fighting a legal battle to get the film released in Punjab for over two months, every day our inbox is filled with messages of people asking us about the release and it is heartbreaking to know that our own people have been deprived of what is theirs,” Jafri continued.
She added Pakistan had seldom celebrated its own creatives and hoped to witness a change soon.
The Joyland producer maintained there were many important voices and stories in the country that needed to be heard while pointing out that everyone should have the freedom to talk about what is important to them.
“We, as a nation, need to stop policing artists,” Jafri said. “This isn’t something new for us. We did this to [the 18th century Punjabi poet] Bulleh Shah and [Urdu short story writer] Saadat Hassan Manto. I hope we learn our lesson before it is too late.”
Joyland stars an ensemble cast including Ali Junejo, Rasti Farooq, Alina Khan, Sarwat Gilani, Sania Saeed, Sohail Sameer and Salman Peer.
Reacting to the film missing the final nomination for the Oscars, veteran Pakistani actress Sania Saeed said: “It didn’t make it, it didn’t make it. It has come this far and is still going strong despite everything. Also, a first to have been shown and won so many awards around the world at the most prestigious festivals, made some money too. We all worked so hard. We had so much fun working on it and with each other. I am so grateful.”
What Joyland achieved ‘unprecedented,’ producer says as film misses Oscar nominations
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What Joyland achieved ‘unprecedented,’ producer says as film misses Oscar nominations
- Joyland continues to fight legal battles for its release in Punjab province where it has been banned
- The film celebrates ‘transgender culture’ in Pakistan, won the Cannes ‘Queer Palm’ prize last year
Incoming: The biggest movies due out before summer 2026
- From Baby Yoda’s big-screen debut to the return of Miranda Priestly, here are some of the biggest films heading our way in the next few months
‘Project Hail Mary’
Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Huller, Lionel Boyce
Due out: March
MGM paid a reported $3 million to acquire the rights to this 2021 sci-fi novel by Andy Weir (author of “The Martian”), which has now been adapted for this blockbuster starring Gosling as Dr. Ryland Grace. Grace wakes up on a spacecraft with no memory of who he is or why he’s there. He gradually works out that he’s the sole survivor of a crew sent to the Tau Ceti solar system hoping to find a way to fix the results of a “catastrophic event” on Earth. Fortunately, it turns out Grace is kind of a science genius. Equally fortunately, it turns out he may not have to save the world all on his own.
‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’
Director: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Pena
Due out: January
After its premiere at Fantastic Fest last year, Variety described Verbinski’s sci-fi action comedy as “an unapologetically irreverent, wildly inventive, end-is-nigh take on the time-loop movie” with a “hyper-referential script … full of inside jokes for gamers.” The guy stuck in that time loop is Rockwell’s man from the future, who’s on his 118th attempt to save the world from a rogue artificial intelligence. To do so, he needs to convince just the right mix of misfits from the late-night patrons of a diner in Los Angeles to undertake what could well be a suicide mission.
‘Wuthering Heights’
Director: Emerald Fennell
Starring: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau
Due out: February
Fennell’s latest feature is billed as a “loose adaptation” of Emily Bronte’s 1847 Gothic classic —the story of the ill-fated passion shared between the well-to-do Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a young man of low social standing and uncertain ethnic origins, in the moorlands of Yorkshire in northern England. Warner Bros. are playing up the love-story side of Bronte’s layered and often troubling novel, setting a Valentine’s week release.
‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’
Director: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic
Voice cast: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day
Due out: April
Critics were not especially kind to 2023’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” but that certainly didn’t dissuade audiences, who made it the second-highest grossing film of that year, behind only “Barbie.” With the same team returning to helm and voice the movie (with the additions of Benny Safdie and Brie Larson to the cast), chances are that “Galaxy” will have much the same reaction from the two groups as the eponymous Brooklyn plumber and his brother Luigi head into outer space with Princess Peach and Toad to take on Bowser’s son, Bowser Jr (Safdie).
‘Michael’
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Jaafar Jackson, Nia Long, Miles Teller
Due out: April
The biggest biopic of the year will likely be this feature about one of the most culturally significant music stars in history, Michael Jackson — aka The King of Pop. It depicts his journey from child star in the Jackson 5 to global superstar in the Eighties, and reportedly does not whitewash the allegations of child sexual abuse that dogged the singer for years (with producer Graham King saying he wanted to “humanize but not sanitize” Jackson’s story) — although Michael’s own daughter, Paris, has described the script as “sugar-coated” and “dishonest.”
‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’
Director: David Frankel
Starring: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt
Due out: May
With all the original stars returning (despite the reported initial reluctance of Streep and Hathaway to do so) along with the director and main producer, this sequel to the acclaimed 2006 comedy drama about aspiring journalist Andrea “Andy” Sachs (Hathaway), who lands a job as PA to an absolute nightmare of a fashion-magazine editor — Miranda Priestly (Streep) should be a guaranteed hit. If it sticks to the story of Lauren Weisberger’s “Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns,” then we’ll find that Andy, a decade on, is now herself the editor of a bridal magazine and planning her own wedding. But she’s still haunted by her experiences with Miranda.
‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, Jeremy Allen White
Due out: May
The latest feature from the “Star Wars” franchise builds on one of its most successful TV spinoffs, “The Mandalorian.” It sees bounty hunter Din Djarin (aka The Mandalorian) and his one-time target-turned-adoptive son Grogu — the Force-sensitive infant from the same species as the Jedi master Yoda — enlisted by the New Republic to help them combat the remaining Imperial warlords threatening the galaxy after the collapse of the Galactic Empire.
