Budding UOWD filmmaker Aamna Rafat honoured at Dubai International Film Festival

Wednesday, 24 December, 2014

Aamna Rafat Jahan, a Master of Media and Communications student at UOWD, has been honoured at globally renowned Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) for her short film, The Delivery Boy.Aamna was part of a group of 15 young filmmakers (shortlisted from 300 initial entries to Samsung’s SHRT FLM CNTST) who were selected to shoot a film with guidance from renowned Emirati director Nayla Al Khaja. Aamna and her fellow competitors were then given the opportunity to showcase their movies during an exclusive premiere event at The Beach at Jumeirah Beach Residence as part of this year’s DIFF program.The budding filmmaker’s original five minute film, a story of a friendship between an elderly woman and a young delivery boy, was shot using a Samsung Note 4 over a 25 day period with the support of a small production team, made up of friends and classmates from UOWD.The Delivery Boy was praised at the premiere event by the judging panel of officials from DIFF, the New York Film Academy and Nayla Al Khaja. Aamna was awarded with the contest’s runner-up title and a Samsung Note 4.The Delivery Boy marks Aamna’s first foray into narrative filmmaking, having previously been honoured at Cinematheque 2012, the Film and Television Institute of India’s National Student Film Awards and the 10th Indian Documentary Producers Association Awards for ‘Qurban’, a short film documentary about the struggling lives of two young boys living in the slums in India.Commenting on her success, Aamna said: “I really enjoyed the experience of the Samsung SHRT FLM CNTST and being part of a renowned film festival. I’m looking forward to making more films in the future – I have a lot of ideas for the areas that I’d like to explore next.”UOWD Associate Professor Dr Swapna Koshy, who teaches Aamna film and cinema studies, added:"Aamna is a serious student of cinema and her talent has won her a number of prestigious awards in a short span of time. Her films reveal a rare maturity of vision and it is evident that she will continue to capture audiences with her touching and honeststories."