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Pakistani filmmakers, this is your time to shine! The Pakistani Academy Selection Committee is inviting filmmakers to submit their films for Oscar consideration in the International Feature Film Award category for the 95th Academy Awards by September 2, 5pm PST.

The Oscar Committee this year is chaired by two-time Academy Award and Emmy winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and includes musician Ali Sethi, author and scriptwriter Omar Shahid Hamid, film critic Rafay Mahmood, actor, producer and director Samina Ahmad, TV and film producer Jerjees Seja, screenwriter and director Bee Gul, fashion designer Rizwan Beyg, cinematographer Mo Azmi and actor Zeba Bakhtiar.

This will mark the ninth submission by the Pakistani Academy Selection Committee having previously submitted Zinda Bhaag in 2013, Dukhtar in 2014, MOOR in 2015, Mah-e-Mir in 2016, Saawan in 2017, Cake in 2018, Lal Kabootar in 2019 and Zindagi Tamasha in 2020 to represent the best of Pakistani cinema for award consideration in the International Feature Film category.

The committee will choose one film as Pakistan’s official submission for the award. An international film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the United States of America and its territories with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track. Animated and documentary feature films are permitted.

The criteria for eligibility is as follows:

The country-selected film must be first released in the country of origin no earlier than January 1, 2022, and no later than November 30, 2022, and be first publicly exhibited for at least seven consecutive days in a commercial motion picture theatre for the profit of the producer and exhibitor.

Submissions must be in 35mm or 70mm film, or in a 24 or 48-frame progressive scan Digital Cinema format with a minimum projector resolution of 2048 by 1080 pixels, source image format conforming to ST 428-1:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Image Characteristics; image compression (if used) conforming to ISO/IEC 15444-1 (JPEG 2000); and image and sound files packaged as Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs) in the “SMPTE DCP” format. SMPTE DCP refers to SMPTE ST 429- 2:2020 D-Cinema Packaging – DCP Operational Constraints and related specifications. (Blu-ray format does not meet Digital Cinema requirements.)

The audio in a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) is typically 5.1 or 7.1 channels of discrete audio. The minimum for a non-mono configuration of the audio shall be three channels as Left, Centre, Right (a Left/Right configuration is not acceptable in a theatrical environment). In addition to channel-based audio, object-based audio may also be present as an immersive audio bitstream. The discrete audio data shall be formatted in conformance with SMPTE ST 429-3:2007 D-Cinema Packaging – Sound and Picture Track File, SMPTE ST 428-2:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Audio Characteristics and SMPTE ST 428-12:2013 D-Cinema Distribution Master Common Audio Channels and Soundfield Groups. Immersive audio, if present, shall be formatted in conformance with SMPTE ST 2098-2:2019 Immersive Audio Bitstream Specification and SMPTE 429-18:2019 DCinema Packaging – Immersive Audio Track File and packaged in conformance with SMPTE 429- 19:2019 D-Cinema Packaging – DCP Operational Constraints for Immersive Audio.

The film must be advertised and exploited during its qualifying theatrical release in a manner considered normal and customary to theatrical feature distribution practices. The film need not have been released in the United States.

Films that, in any version, receive a nontheatrical public exhibition or distribution before their qualifying theatrical release will not be eligible for Academy Awards consideration. Nontheatrical public exhibition or distribution includes but is not limited to broadcast and cable television, PPV/VOD/DVD distribution, inflight airline distribution and internet transmission.

The recording of the original dialogue track as well as the completed picture must be predominantly (more than 50%) in a language or languages other than English. Accurate and legible English subtitles must be included.

The Pakistani Academy Selection Committee will announce its nomination for award consideration on September 30. For entry forms, submission details and queries, please write to: pakistancommittee@gmail.com