Pakistani films win four awards at international festival in Canada

MISSISSAUGA, Canada (MNTV) — Pakistani cinema made a strong showing at the Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival 2026 in Mississauga, with four Pakistani productions receiving awards or honors.

Lali, director Sarmad Khoosat’s dark comedy, which debuted at the Berlinale earlier this year, opened the festival and won both the Special Jury Prize and the Best Sound Design Award.

The film follows Zeba, played by Mamya Shajaffar, a young woman who is labeled a “cursed bride” after three of her previous suitors die under mysterious circumstances.

Mohammed Ali Naqvi’s documentary Hanging by a Wire, which is also Pakistan’s entry for this year’s Academy Awards, won the Sabeen Mahmud Award for Courage in Cinema.

The film chronicles the 2023 Battagram cable car incident, in which eight people, including six children, became trapped in a cable car about 900 feet above a river. All eight were rescued after a daylong operation.

Kamran Faiq’s The Last Glance, a short film about a family trying to flee violence in their village, won the Best International Short Film award.

The documentary The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony, about a group of gymnasts from Karachi’s Macchar Colony, received an honorable mention in the Best Documentary category.

12th edition

MISAFF held its 12th edition from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, showcasing South Asian cinema, along with films from West Asia and North Africa, to Canadian audiences.

This year’s festival featured 16 feature-length films and 30 short films from Canada, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Iran and other countries.