Pakistan’s debut feature film at Cannes, Saim Sadiq’s ‘Joyland’ wins the top ‘jury’ prize in ‘Un Certain Regard’ as the prestigious film festival heads towards a wrap.
With the prestigious Cannes Film Festival 2022 coming to an end, the main awards and top prizes including the coveted ‘Palm d’Or’ are awaited to be handed over tomorrow. However, the winners in the category of ‘Un Certain Regard’ – which focuses on more art-house features and runs parallel to the main competition – have been announced.
In a one of its kind glorious moment, Pakistan’s debut feature at the film festival, ‘Joyland’ – a transgender love story – triumphed over 13 other nominees to pick up the ‘Jury Prize’ in the category.
Moreover, ‘Joyland’ won the special ‘Queer Palm’ award as well at the event.
Other than ‘Joyland’, Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret’s French movie ‘The Worst Ones’ was awarded ‘Prix Un Certain Regard. Other winners included Alexandru Belt (Metronom) for ‘Best Director’, while Vicky Krieps(Corsage) and Adam Bessa(Harka) shared ‘Best Performance’.
Maha Haj (Mediterranean Fever) won ‘Best Screenplay’ whereas Lola Quivoron’s ‘Rodeo’ received the Coup de Coeur award.
Pakistan’s debut film at the prestigious Cannes, ‘Joyland’, premiered at the event last week, blowing away the global audience. Teary-eyed Saim Sadiq and the team proudly received a prolonged standing ovation from the audience at the French Riviera for the impressive debut.
It is pertinent to mention that the maiden Pakistani title had made to the list of 14 features in the ‘UnCertain Regard’ category for the year 2022.
Celebrating the ‘transgender culture’ of the country, Sadiq’s ‘Joyland’ tells the “tale of the sexual revolution that sees a patriarchal family yearn for the birth of a baby boy to continue the family line, while their youngest son secretly joins an erotic dance theater and falls for an ambitious transsexual starlet.”
