Faculty member of the Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (CLCS) Minor at the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences (MGSHSS), Dr. Zebunnisa Hamid, has been selected to be part of Pakistan’s Oscar Selection Committee this year. The Committee includes preeminent members of the film industry such as Zeba Bakhtiar, Sarmad Khoosat and Asim Abbasi, and is chaired by Sharmeen Obaid–Chinoy. The Oscar committee will be responsible for choosing one film as the official submission from Pakistan for the International Feature Film Award Category, formally known as the Foreign Language Feature Film category, for the 92nd Academy Awards.
Dr. Hamid is an Assistant Professor of Film Studies at LUMS. She completed her PhD in 2017 from SOAS University of London, in which she explored the developing industry, imaginaries and transnational characteristics of New Pakistani Cinema. Following the completion of her PhD, Dr. Hamid held the position of Research Associate at SOAS and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at LUMS. Her current research focuses on gender and the crisis of masculinity, the transnational city and urban spaces on screen, and the industries of small cinemas. She is working on her book on New Pakistani Cinema, which will bring all these perspectives together. She has also trained as a film editor at The Edit Center in New York and worked as a production consultant on Mira Nair’s film, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012).
As a scholar of film studies and a film editor, Dr. Hamid believes that there is immense potential for the growth of film as a theoretical and practical field in Pakistan. Dr. Hamid explains, “These are exciting times as we are witnessing the emergence and development of a new cinema in Pakistan. While this new cinema will face many challenges, it is very important that films keep getting made and receive support and recognition for their achievements.”
With her critical and technical expertise, we are sure that Dr. Hamid will have much to offer to the committee in their pursuit of selecting the most deserving Pakistani film of the year. The Oscars will be held in Los Angeles on February 9, 2020.
