Two-time Academy and three-time Emmy Award-winning director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy hosted the premiere of her latest animation short film, SITARA: LET GIRLS DREAM at Nueplex Cinemas in Karachi on 9^th March 2020. SITARA was released on International Women’s Day [8^th March 2020] on Netflix, the world’s leading internet entertainment service, in over 190 countries. Indeed, SITARA is the first Pakistani Animated Film to be released and distributed by NETFLIX USA.

 

Written and directed Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, SITARA: LET GIRLS DREAM takes the audience on a journey through the old city of Lahore, where a fourteen-year-old girl named Pari, dreams of becoming a pilot. Her story is told from the perspective of her younger sister, Mehr, and portrays the impact of a culture and the burdens of a family where girls still struggle to fully realize their dreams. SITARA is a silent film [no dialogues] which embodies this conflict.

 

The premiere was attended by personalities such as Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan Reza Baqir, President & CEO HBL Muhammad Aurangzeb, Founder & President ARY Digital Network Salman Iqbal, CEO ARY Digital Network Jerjees Seja, actors Ayesha Omar, Sanam Saeed, Adeel Hussain, Ushna Shah and Zahid Ahmed, musician Jimmy Khan, film director Saqib Malik, fashion designers Safinaz Muneer, Feeha Jamshed and Maheen Khan, to name a few. Public relations for the premiere was done by Lotus PR.

SITARA had earlier won three awards at the Los Angeles Animation Festival 2019 in North Hollywood in December 2019 in the categories of Best Produced Screenplay, Best Music Score and the Humanitarian Award.

 

Chinoy had also earlier launched a campaign with GUCCI’s social impact initiative Chime for Change to #LetGirlsDream by encouraging girls around the world to share their dreams and gain inspiration from one another. A robust school outreach program is already underway across the world, to inspire and encourage girls to hold meaningful conversations about their dreams and how to best achieve them. The website for the campaign is www.LetGirlsDream.org

 

The music for SITARA has been composed by Grammy and Emmy Award-Winning composer Laura Karpman. Produced by VICE Studios, the film’s Executive Producers include Gloria Steinem, the iconic women’s rights activist, Darla Anderson, the Academy Award-winning producer of Coco and Toy Story 3, VICE Media Group’s CEO Nancy Dubuc, and Emmy-nominated Ariel Wengroff as well as Chinoy’s own animation production studio, Waadi Animations with Imke Fehrmann as the producer of SITARA: LET GIRLS DREAM.

 

In Pakistan, the Waadi Animations Team is spearheaded by Art Director Salman Nasir, Animation Director Kamran Khan, CG Lighting Supervisor Adnan Saeed, Director of Photography Faizan Ali, Editor Husain Qaizer, Sound Editor Sameer Khan, co-producer Eleyna Sara Haroun and Associate Producer Syed Ayub – with Salman Iqbal, Jerjees Seja, Imke Fehrmann and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy as the producers.