PAKISTAN

  AMMAR AZIZ   

Documentary filmmaker and poet

Born in the city of Lahore. A graduate of Lahore’s National College of Arts. During the filming of several short documentaries about the working class and their struggle for better working conditions in Pakistan, Ammar became close to the left movement in the country. Featured in the Christian Science Monitor’s ’30 under 30′ people from all over the world for his art and activism, he was a jury member for IDFA’s Oxfam Global Justice Award in 2015. 

His multi-award winning films have been screened in over a hundred countries at major film and art festivals. His debut feature length film A Walnut Tree had its world premiere at IDFA and North American premiere at Hot Docs. The film won awards for the best film from Film SouthAsia, Moscow International Documentary Film Festival Doker, Sole Luna DocFilm Festival and many others. His Second feature Discount Workers also had a worldwide audience and festival success with the premiere at One World Film Festival.

Ammar is a recipient of the International Federation of Film Critics Award. In 2022, he won the Berlinale Mastercard Enablement program for his organization’s work on Super Sohni, an animated short series on child sexual abuse prevention.

Ammar’s poetry has been published in Wild Court, Poetry at Sangam, Dhaka Tribune, Muse India among others, and is included in several international poetry anthologies. His poems often use personal narratives and meditations on bodies, objects and mythologies. Aziz’s work across the genres of writing and film has been lauded for its sensitivity.