Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy

Pakistani filmmaker and first-time Oscar nominee Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy won an Academy Award on February 28, 2012 for her documentary about acid attack victims, a first for a Pakistani. Her victory shines a spotlight on a subject, which affects thousands of women in Pakistan and elsewhere, but is seldom discussed at home. Chinoy dedicated the award to the women of Pakistan.(Updated February 28, 2012)
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy is an Emmy award winning documentary filmmaker. Her films include PAKISTAN’S TALIBAN GENERATION, which aired on PBS, Channel 4, CBC, SBS and Arte and was the recipient of the Alfred I Dupont Award as well as The Association for International Broadcasting award. Sharmeen has made over a dozen-multi award winning films in over 10 countries around the world and is the first non-American to be awarded the Livingston Award for best international reporting.
In 2007, Sharmeen was awarded the broadcast journalist of the year award in the UK by One World Media for her work in a series of documentary films for Channel 4, which included a film about xenophobia in South Africa THE NEW APARTHEID. Her other films have been awarded The Overseas Press Club Award, The American Women in Radio and Television Award, The Cine Golden Eagle award and the Banff Rockie Award.
Sharmeen was born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan and received a bachelors degree from Smith College and went on to complete two masters degree from Stanford University.