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The first Muslim International Film Festival (Miff) ended this weekend in London with Amjad Al Rasheed’s debut feature Inshallah A Boy taking the best feature gong while veteran documentarian Asif Kapadia picked up the festival’s honorary Trailblazer Award.

The festival ran from May 30 to June 2 in London. The festival was launched by producer Sajid Varda with a focus on highlighting international Muslim culture and faith through filmmakers of all backgrounds.

This year’s competition jury featured Claudia Yusef (Head of Development at BBC Films), Leon Oteng (Production Inclusion Manager at BFI Filmmaking Fund), Neila Butt, Tas Brooker, actor Youssef Kerkour (Channel 4’s Home).

Accepting the best feature award, Rasheed said: “I’m honored to be competing with these great films and winning Best Feature at the Muslim International Film Festival. Thank you Miff, thank you jury.

Sajid Varda

The first ever Muslim International Film Festival opens its doors in London on Thursday 30 May, and its director, Sajid Varda, has been speaking to Eye For Film about his hope that it can begin to break down prejudice and show other people that Muslims are not so different from them.

Having started out as an actor, Varda reflected that the sort of roles he was offered changed drastically after 9/11, and that suddenly there were negative portrayals of Muslims everywhere. "That became a real frustration for our community, not just in this country, but around the world," he said. "When we see ourselves portrayed on screen, it's never ever in a complimentary manner, it's never authentic and it's never really from our perspective. It's always from somebody else's lens. It has been a real frustration for us, those eye rolling moments. There's four key tropes: Muslims are terrorists,...

The spooky comedy franchise may seem an unlikely place to find an ethnicity and faith adviser, but productions are increasingly aware of a duty to make sure communities are truthfully represented

The “sensitivity reader” is a well-established, if controversial, figure in the publishing world, offering advice on whether a book’s content might cause offence. The film and TV industry has also been forced to confront similar issues, with “intimacy coordinators” now widely employed to ensure that filmed sex scenes neither harm the actors nor outrage audiences. Perhaps less well-known, but now gaining ground in film and TV, is the role of a “cultural consultant” – advisers taken on by productions to help them navigate the choppy waters of sensitivities around ethnicity and faith.

Sajid Varda, founder and CEO of media charity UK Muslim Film and director of the UK’s inaugural Muslim international film festival, recently completed an assignment on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,...

Hounds

Running from 30 May to 2 June, the Muslim International Film Festival is a new event which aims to champion the narratives of international Muslim filmmakers and screen them alongside productions inspired by Muslim culture and faith by filmmakers from all backgrounds. it will be held in London's Leicester Square and will open with Kamal Lazaraq's Hounds (aka Les Meutes) which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes 2023.

"We’re absolutely thrilled to bring this festival to London, where we’re on a mission to weave together cultures through the magic of cinema," said festival director Sajid Varda. "Miff is not just a festival; it’s a vibrant celebration of cultures and stories from across the Muslim world, providing a spotlight on talented emerging and seasoned filmmakers from all corners of the globe. As we bring together the film industry and filmmakers alike, our line-up features some of...

Bangladeshi filmmaker Nuhash Humayun’s “Pett Kata Shaw” won best international feature at the 31st Raindance Film Festival’s jury awards. British documentary filmmaker Kit Vincent won best U.K. feature for his debut feature “Red Herring.”

Some 75% of this year’s features are debuts and debut features swept the board at the jury awards with all eight award-winning films being debuts.

Michael Pitt won best performance for British actor Jack Huston‘s directorial debut “Day of the Fight.” Fisnik Maxville was named best director for his debut feature “The Land Within,” which previously won awards at Tallinn Black Nights, Galway Film Fleadh and PriFest. Catalan directors Alejandro Rojas and Sebastián Vasquez won the discovery award for their debut feature “Upon Entry.”

Chelsea Greene, Rob Grobman and Edivan Guajajara’s “We Are Guardians” won best documentary while David Wyte won best cinematography for “All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White.

The 31st edition of London’s Raindance Film Festival will open with the U.K. premiere of British actor Jack Huston’s directorial debut “Day of the Fight.”

The film comes to Raindance fresh off its Venice debut, where Huston was honored by Variety as a breakthrough director.

The story of a once-renowned boxer who takes a redemptive journey through his past and present on the day of his first fight since he left prison stars Michael Pitt alongside a cast including Ron Perlman, Joe Pesci, and a cameo from Steve Buscemi.

The U.K. premiere of Isabel Coixet’s “Un Amor” will close the festival after it bows at San Sebastian. Based on Sara Mesa’s bestselling novel, Laia Costa plays a young woman who escapes her stressful life in the city and relocates to rural Spain. When she accepts a disturbing sexual proposal, it gives rise to an all-consuming and obsessive passion.

Actor and campaigner Mehwish Hayat (“Ms. Marvel”) and writer-director Lena Khan (“Never Have I Ever”) have been revealed as the first patrons for charity U.K. Muslim Film (Ukmf).

Ukmf works to change perspectives through championing underrepresented talent and voices, both on-screen and behind the camera and also advises the entertainment industry on how to authentically represent Muslims on-screen.

Hayat, whose hit films in Pakistan include “Actor in Law,” “Punjab Nahi Jaungi,” “Load Wedding” and “Chhalawa,” has widely spoken out about human rights abuses on the global stage and has been particularly vocal about the representation of Muslims in mainstream media.

Hayat said: “Representation of Muslims on-screen is something that I have been tirelessly working to highlight for the past few years. Misrepresentation has done untold damage to us and I sincerely believe has fuelled the rise of Islamophobia. With Ukmf, I look forward to working with the industry to...

The Kindness In Film Summit’s debut online conference on Sept. 30 boasts a host of industry luminaries.

Speakers set to feature at the event include Bianca Gavin (Pulse Films), Bee Devine (Sky), Gareth Unwin (Screenskills) Jules Hussey (Brazen Productions), Sara Putt (Sara Putt Associates), David Vickery (Industrial Light & Magic), Victoria Einslee (actor and founder Primetime) and Paul Brett (Flying Tiger Entertainment).

In addition, casting director Shakyra Dowling, John Maidens (BBC Studios), Chris Overton (Slick Films), producer Sunshine Jackson Underhill, Line Langebek (Raising Films), Pinky Lilani (Kindness in Leadership), Will Hanrahan (First Look TV), Lucy Powell (Film & TV Charity), Ita O’Brien (Intimacy on Set), Robin Millar (Chrysalis Records), Sadhbh Murphy (Network Ireland Television), Bob Clarke (Mama Youth), Michelle White (Six feet from the Spotlight) and Anna Southgate (Penwoman) will also speak at the event.

Writer and actor Zara Janjua, Sajid Varda (U.K. Muslim Film), producer Candida Julian-Jones, psychotherapist and former...

The Key Buyers Event: Digital, a film and TV market held in Russia, will return for a third edition in 2021. The event showcases new audiovisual content from the country and highlights emerging talent. This year’s focus will be international co-production, rather than the typical focus on distribution. The event is organized by promotional body Roskino and is supported by the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development of the City of Moscow and the Agency for Creative Industries. The 2020 edition gathered more than 1,400 participants and 600 international distributors from 70 countries, according to Roskino. A new strand will also be inaugurated this year that will highlight Russian projects for global film festival programmers. “Russian content has enjoyed increasing levels of success within the global market over the last three years. Russian films have increasingly become popular – the latest example is Sputnik, a sci-fi horror that has been acquired for an English-language remake in Hollywood.

A new charity has launched in the U.K. with the aim of challenging Muslim stereotypes on screen.

U.K. Muslim Film, which launched Wednesday at a British Film Institute event, was founded by Brit actor and producer Sajid Varda in response to what he said were years working within the industry both in front of and behind the camera and “realising that Muslims need to be represented at all levels, in writer’s rooms and as commissioners.”

The charity will focus on advising the entertainment industry on how to better represent Muslims on screen, while also helping “support, nurture and ...

A new charity has launched in the U.K. with the aim of challenging Muslim stereotypes on screen.

U.K. Muslim Film, which launched Wednesday at a British Film Institute event, was founded by Brit actor and producer Sajid Varda in response to what he said were years working within the industry both in front of and behind the camera and “realising that Muslims need to be represented at all levels, in writer’s rooms and as commissioners.”

The charity will focus on advising the entertainment industry on how to better represent Muslims on screen, while also helping “support, nurture and ...