Asif Kapadia And Amjad Al Rasheed’s ‘Inshallah A Boy’ Among Winners At London’s Inaugural Muslim International Film Festival
The first Muslim International Film Festival (MIFF) ended this weekend in London with Amjad Al Rasheed’s debut feature Inshallah A Boy taking the best feature gong while veteran documentarian Asif Kapadia picked up the festival’s honorary Trailblazer Award.
The festival ran from May 30 to June 2 in London. The festival was launched by producer Sajid Varda with a focus on highlighting international Muslim culture and faith through filmmakers of all backgrounds.
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This year’s competition jury featured Claudia Yusef (Head of Development at BBC Films), Leon Oteng (Production Inclusion Manager at BFI Filmmaking Fund), Neila Butt (Creative Diversity Lead, Nations and Regions at Channel 4), Tas Brooker (filmmaker, When We Speak), actor Youssef Kerkour (Channel 4’s Home).
Accepting the best feature award, Rasheed said: “I’m honored to be competing with these great films and winning Best Feature at the Muslim International Film Festival. Thank you MIFF, thank you jury.”
Inshallah A Boy debuted in the Critics Week sidebar at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival before going on to play a host of festivals, including Red Sea, Bengaluru, and Thessaloniki. The best short award was nabbed by Elham Elhas’s BAFTA-nominated Yellow. The short project is described as a “poignant and visually rich” story about a woman in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan who buys her first full-body veil.
The Muslim International Film Festival handed its inaugural Trailblazer Award to Asif Kapadia during its opening gala. Kapadia is an Academy Award, Grammy, and four-time BAFTA winner best known for his documentary features, including Senna, Amy, and Diego Maradona.
“A recurring theme in my work is my interest in exploring ‘outsiders’, those who may not conform or fit into the power systems around them,” Kapadia said accepting the award. “Becoming a film director, a writer, a producer or indeed working on the crew in the film industry isn’t an obvious or simple choice for someone born in Hackney to working-class British Indian Muslim parents during the 70s.”
He added: “But I feel lucky that I found filmmaking. It changed my life. It’s a great honor to receive the Trailblazer Award from the Muslim International Film Festival, it’s important to show that people from all faiths and backgrounds can be successful and there should never be any boundaries or limits for what we can say, create, or express through our art.”
The Muslim International Film Festival closed Sunday with a screening of Naqqash Khalid’s In Camera.
“Sharing this year’s programme with cinema lovers in London has been a true privilege We’re already excited for our second edition in 2025,” said Varda.
Submissions for next year’s festival are open.
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