Saville Productions has signed two-time Academy Award and three-time Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy for her first U.S. commercial and branded entertainment representation. She brings to the Venice-based Saville more than 15 years of experience as a director along with a lineup of multi-award-winning films from around the world.
Most recently, Obaid-Chinoy collaborated with Lebron James on the HBO Sports documentary Student Athlete to raise awareness about the exploitation of athletes in high-revenue collegiate sports. Additional films include A Girl in the River, Song of Lahore, A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers and Saving Face.
With today’s brands seeking to revolve a marketing strategy around authenticity and relevant social causes, branded content was a natural next step for Obaid-Chinoy, whose work often tackles complex social issues through eloquent narratives that are visually and thematically compelling. She fuses an investigative journalism background with an intimate directorial approach to create powerful work that has gone on to highlight relevant issues involving refugees, women rights and human rights.
Her unique directorial styling that amplifies the voices of underrepresented groups to the outside world has not only helped spark critical change in communities, but has also earned her industry recognition including three News & Documentary Emmy Awards for Best Documentary and two Academy Awards for Best Documentary Short for A Girl in the River and Saving Face (which was co-directed with Daniel Junge), giving Pakistan its first-ever Oscar. Most recently, Obaid-Chinoy was also awarded with the 2018 ‘Eliasson Global Leadership Prize’ of The Tällberg Foundation. Other accolades include Time Magazine including her in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, the Canadian government awarding her a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work in the field of documentary films and the World Economic Forum honoring her with a Crystal Award at its annual summit in Davos.
Saville founder and executive producer Rupert Maconick noted, “Sharmeen is an exceptional filmmaker with an eye for visually striking narratives that spark critical, socially-driven conversations. Her directorial aesthetic and probing storytelling approach will be a major asset for brands who are looking to become involved in social causes and do so in an authentic and compelling way.”
Sharmeen added, “I am a storyteller and I feel that brands now more than ever are listening to the world around them and want to tell stories that push the envelope. I think it’s time that I turn my camera lens on to advertising to start frank and open conversations.”
Growing up in Pakistan, Obaid-Chinoy began her career as a journalist in order to initiate conversation around critical issues in Pakistan. At the age of 22, after spending time at a refugee camp in Afghanistan as an investigative journalist, she traveled to the U.S. with a documentary proposal, and after many rejections, she got her big break when that documentary was picked up by the president of The New York Times Television. Since then, she has gone on to direct over a dozen films in over 10 countries. She is also actively involved in nonprofit work, and is a founder of the Citizens Archive of Pakistan, a nonprofit, volunteer organization that fosters and promotes community-wide interest in the culture and history of Pakistan.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More