Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy launches grants, mentorship programme for women filmmakers in Pakistan

Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is looking to empower women storytellers and filmmakers in Pakistan through her newly formed grants and mentorship programme called Patakha Pictures

The two-time Oscar winner took to social media to announce the launch of the new platform. "Telling stories that matter is important to me and I also know how hard it is to find the finances and mentorship to do so. At SOC Films we routinely get emails, calls and visits from young women across Pakistan who want to be able to tell their stories," Obaid-Chinoy wrote on Instagram.

"Today I'm launching a platform that I hope will help them do so. A small grants and mentorship programme for female filmmakers across Pakistan who want to work in short form storytelling. I hope in a few years from now this platform will enable a filmmaker to represent our country at The Academy," she wrote.

Obaid-Chinoy heads SOC Films, a film house that produced Oscar-winning documentary A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, helping the filmmaker bag her second Academy award. She won her first Oscar with the documentary Saving Face released in 2012. The filmmaker also launched White In The Flag — a multi-year project aimed at highlighting the minorities in Pakistan and uplifting their stories.