Jami wins top award at Switzerland’s Locarno Festival

Pakistan’s producer and filmmaker Jamshed Mehmood Raza, fondly known as ‘Jami’, recently won the Open Doors – TFL (TorinoFilmLab) award at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, adding another acclaim to his local and international achievements.

"Well that's very interesting because I was making the video for someone else," Jami said, all smiles as he received the award. "Again, thank you so much, and this is very surprising, because I really wanted to be part of the next session somehow, somewhere with these people, so this is very interesting. Thank you so much."

Jami was one of the two Pakistani producers selected to be part of Open Doors Lab, the other producer being Mehnaz Alavi Diwan of Studio Rail Films.

The Open Doors – TFL Award aims at developing the winner’s contacts at an international level and helping initiate commercial negotiations on the projects currently being developed.

This year, the Open Doors Lab is focusing on emerging producers/filmmakers from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, who are active in developing the local independent film scene and wish to built fruitful international collaborations, states the film festival’s website.

After being founded in 1946, Locarno Film Festival is held every year in Locarno, Switzerland.