Two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy celebrated five years of Patakha Pictures, an initiative of SOC Films dedicated to nurturing Pakistan’s next generation of documentary filmmakers, at a special event in Karachi that also spotlighted the eight women filmmakers selected for the 2026 edition of its filmmaking mentorship and funding programme, Claim the Frame.
Since its launch in 2022, Patakha Pictures has supported 76 emerging filmmakers, whose work has collectively received more than 22 awards and screened at over 100 film festivals worldwide. Presented in partnership with the British Council and the Scottish Documentary Institute, Claim the Frame marks the eighth cycle of the programme, bringing together eight women filmmakers from Punjab, Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan in four creative pairs. Their documentaries explore women breaking barriers in traditionally male spaces, climate change and child marriage, survival and artistic tradition in Cholistan and generations of women providing healthcare in one of Pakistan’s most remote valleys.
Speaking about the programme, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Founder, Patakha Pictures, said, “Five years of Patakha Pictures have reaffirmed a fundamental belief: talent is universal, but opportunity is not. Together with the British Council Pakistan and the Scottish Documentary Institute, we have seen how access to funding, mentorship and creative freedom can transform the journeys of women filmmakers. From our award-winning alumni to our new ‘Claim the Frame’ fellows, their achievements demonstrate why investing in emerging voices matters. Our ambition now is to establish Patakha Pictures as a permanent space where the next generation of storytellers can learn and collaborate.”
Indeed, the five-year celebration reflected on Patakha Pictures’ evolution from a filmmaking mentorship initiative into a growing community of storytellers from across Pakistan, while turning the spotlight towards the programme’s next generation. Through successive cycles, fellows have received funding, international mentorship, practical filmmaking support and opportunities to develop stories rooted in their own communities.
Over the course of the five-month programme, the fellows received production funding, weekly online mentorship, an intensive in-person Edit Week in Karachi and specialised workshops spanning storytelling, camera techniques, editing and other practical aspects of documentary filmmaking.
Returning for the fifth time as an international mentor was acclaimed documentary filmmaker and Scottish Documentary Institute founder Noe Mendelle, joined by filmmaker and cinematographer Nadir Siddiqui, nonfiction and animation producer Huma Murad Shah, award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Maryam Ishani Thompson, Edit MentorHusain Qaizar, and sound engineer and producer Sameer Khan, bringing expertise across cinematography, documentary production and ethics, journalism and sound design.
In attendance were Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, British Council/Scottish Documentary Institute representatives, diplomatic community, filmmakers, media and other notable attendees, including Ayeza Khan, Sana Javed, Sanam Saeed, Momal Sheikh, Ali Khan, Erica Robin, Amna Ilyas, Adnan Malik, Tapu Javeri, Amean J and Sania Maskatiya to name a few.
PATAKHA PICTURES is an initiative of SOC Films dedicated to supporting the next generation of documentary storytellers in Pakistan.