Saturday, September 8, 2012

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy (Urdu:شرمین عبید چنائے; born 1978), is an Emmy and Oscar award-winning Pakistani-Canadian journalist and documentary filmmaker.She won an Academy Award for her documentary, Saving Face in 2012. She won an 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 has been lauded as Pakistan's first female Oscar winner by the press and government.The Pakistani President conferred the Hilal-e-Imtiaz on Obaid-Chinoy on 23rd March 2012, for bringing honor to Pakistan as a filmmaker. Time magazine has named Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy within their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world for 2012.


Obaid-Chinoy was born in Karachi to Urdu speaking parents, Sheikh Obaid and Saba Obaid, and attended the Karachi Grammar School. She graduated from Smith College in 2002 with a B.A. in Economics and Political Science. She received two Masters degrees from Stanford University in International Policy Studies and Communication.
Over a span of 10 years, Obaid-Chinoy produced 16 films in 11 countries. She launched her production house, SOC Films, in Karachi, Pakistan in November 2011.
Obaid-Chinoy resides in Karachi with her husband and daughter.


Obaid-Chinoy began writing investigative pieces at the age of fourteen as a way to contribute to critical conversation in Pakistan. She was always interested in telling stories of marginalized communities; people whose voices were never heard and whose compelling stories needed to be shared. She continued to pursue journalism while I was at Smith and wrote for a number of Canadian and American publications. In December 2001, Obaid-Chinoy returned to Pakistan and spent time in refugee camps and went back to the US with a documentary proposal in hand. At the age of twenty two, with no prior experience, she sent letters to eighty news companies and organizations in the US, and was declined by all of them. Eventually, Bill Abrams, the president of New York Times Television gave her her big break. She returned to Pakistan to produce Terror's Children.
Obaid-Chinoy was a faculty member in the media sciences department at SZABIST (Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and technology, Karachi). She started her film company, SOC Films, in Karachi in November 2011.Obaid-Chinoy is also the president of The Citizens Archive of Pakistan, a non profit organization dedicated to Cultural and Historic Preservation. (CAP).
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy is an Academy Award and Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker. Her recent films include SAVING FACE, TRANSGENDERS: PAKISTAN’S OPEN SECRET AND PAKISTAN’S TALIBAN GENERATION, which aired on PBS, Channel 4, CBC, SBS and Arte and was the recipient of the Alfred I Dupont Award as well as The Association for International Broadcasting award. Sharmeen has made over a dozen-multi award winning films in over 10 countries around the world and is the first non-American to be awarded the Livingston Award for best international reporting. In 2012 Time Magazine included her in the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
In 2007, Sharmeen was awarded the broadcast journalist of the year award in the UK by One World Media for her work in a series of documentary films for Channel 4, which included a film about xenophobia in South Africa THE NEW APARTHEID and AFGHANISTAN UNVEILED. Her other films have been awarded The Overseas Press Club Award, The American Women in Radio and Television Award, The Cine Golden Eagle award and the Banff Rockie Award.
Sharmeen’s work centers around human rights and women’s issues and she has worked with refugees and marginalized communities from Saudi Arabia to Syria and from Timor Leste to the Philippines.
In May 2012, From more than 4300 entries in 10 categories, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy's film, Transgenders - Pakistan's Open Secret won the Platinum Remi Award at the 45th WorldFest Film Festival.
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy was acknowledged with a Lux Style Achievement award on The 11th Lux Style Awards. Lux Style Awards Widely acknowledged to be the Oscars of Pakistan. She is the youngest-ever recipient for the Lux Style Achievement award. In Late July, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy got nominated as SAARC Goodwill Ambassador for HIV/AIDS. In August 2012, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy received a nominee for the Gucci Award for Women for documentary 'Saving Face' as a director.
Source:Wikipedia and assembled by me.

2012

Nominee- Gucci “Women in Film”: Saving Face Venice, Italy (July, 2012)
New York Indian Film Festival “Best Documentary Film”:
Saving Face New York, NY (May 2012)
SAARC Film Award “Best Documentary”:
Saving Face Colombo, Sri Lanka (May 2012)
Platinum Remi Award:
Transgenders: Pakistan’s Open Secret Houston, TX (April 2012)
Academy Award (Oscar):
Saving Face Los Angeles, CA (February 2012)

2010

International Emmy Award: Pakistan’s Taliban’s Generation New York, NY (September 2010)
Alfred DuPont Award: Children of the Taliban New York, NY (January 2010)

2009

AIB Award “Best current affairs documentary – television” for Pakistan’s Taliban Generation London, UK (November 2009)

2007

Best of Asia: International Museum of Women San Francisco, CA (December 2007)
One World Media Award Broadcast Journalist of the Year London, UK (June 2007)

2006

South Asian Journalist Association Award New York, NY (June 2006)

2005

Livingston Award New York, NY (June 2004) (Awarded the Livingston Award for Best International reporting under the age of 35 in any medium, print and broadcast)
Special Mention “One Future Prize” Munich International Film Festival Munich, Germany (June 2005)
American Women in Radio and Television Award, New York, NY (June 2005) (Received the Gracie award for Outstanding documentary film)

2004

Cine Golden Eagle Award Washington, DC (Fall 2004) (Received the award in the “Informational” category) FRONTLINE/World received the prestigious
Edward R. Murrow award from the Overseas Press Club for its 2004 TV season. One of the episodes honored was Sharmeen Obaid’s “On a Razor’s Edge”
American Women in Radio and Television Award, New York, NY (June 2004) (Gracie Award for “Individual Achievement, Reporter/Correspondent)
SAJA award, New York, NY (June 2004) (South Asian Journalist Association Award for Outstanding Broadcast)
Banff TV Rockie Awards, Banff, Canada (June 2004) (winner of the special Jury award)

2003

Overseas Press Club Award, New York, NY (April 2004)- (Awarded the “The Carl Spielvogel Award” for best international reporting in any medium showing a concern for the human condition.)

Other honors

Asia Society India-Pakistan Young Leader Fellow (2012)TIME: The 100 Most Influential People in the World (2012)  

Hilal-e-Imtiaz Islamabad, Pakistan (2012) – President of Pakistan awards civil decoration for bringing honor to Pakistan as a female filmmaker.  

TED Senior fellow (2011) 

Asia 21 Society fellow (2011) 

TED fellow (2010) 

Nesvita Women of Strength Award (Karachi, Pakistan) August 2009 

YWCA Toronto Women of Distinction, Toronto, ON (June 2008) – Awarded for services in the field of Communication (A journalist and documentary filmmaker, she is one of the first Muslim women to be broadcast on mainstream Western media. She has made documentaries that touch upon the lives of women in extraordinary situations, from the refugee camps of Afghanistan, to the plight of aboriginal women in Western Canada.) 

One of 10 people to look out for in 2007 (Toronto Star, December 2006) Toronto Star lists Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy as a rising star.

YOUR DIL leadership award for work done in the field of education New York, NY (November 2005)
Award list is taken from the official website http://sharmeenobaidfilms.com/awards/ .....


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