FROM THE REGION. TO THE WORLD AND BACK
South and Central Asia is home to one of the world’s youngest populations, extraordinary creative talent and a depth of stories, histories and ideas that have yet to find their place on the global stage.
The Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Foundation exists to help change that.
We are building a platform that connects the next generation of filmmakers, artists, writers and creative thinkers across South and Central Asia with the opportunities, people and institutions that can help their ideas travel further.
Our ambition is twofold: to bring the world to the region, and to create pathways for the region to reach the world.
That means bringing international artists, mentors, institutions and ideas into meaningful exchange with creative communities here. It means giving emerging talent access to funding, mentorship, networks and opportunities that are too often concentrated elsewhere. And it means building partnerships across borders that can lead to new work, new collaborations and new ways of thinking
We are already building the platforms to make this possible.
Through Patakha Pictures, emerging filmmakers are given the funding, mentorship and professional support to develop their voices and make work of their own. Through Neela Asmaan, artists and thinkers from Pakistan and around the world come together in the Shigar Valley to create, experiment and exchange ideas across cultures and disciplines.
These are not standalone programmes. They are the beginnings of a larger creative infrastructure for the region.
The Foundation will build on them by developing new platforms, fellowships, residencies, learning opportunities and international collaborations that connect talent across South and Central Asia with each other and with the wider world. We will partner with cultural institutions, universities, foundations, creative industries and global organizations to bring knowledge, resources and opportunity into the region while creating routes for ideas and talent from the region to move outward.
Established as a Section 42 nonprofit organization, the Foundation brings together nearly two decades of work initiated by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy across filmmaking, education, cultural exchange and creative development. It creates a dedicated home from which that work can grow in scale, geography and ambition.
We believe the next generation of global creative voices is already here. What is needed are the platforms, partnerships and opportunities that allow them to emerge.
We are building those bridges across disciplines, across borders and between South and Central Asia and the world.
