New York, June 15
The Painterist, a short film about the exploitation of artists, shot in Pakistan, declared winner from the second annual edition of People of Color: The International Cultural Exchange Film Festival, held in New York, United States of America.
The short film was directed by Khalid Khan Khan and co-produced by Azim Ahmed and Syed Ovais Ali. Zahid Rai penned down the script of a soul-searching painter whose artwork was being brazenly sold by a deceptive art-dealer. Adnan Bashir Khan, Kainat Munir and Aliza Javed starred in the project, with Aisha B and Atif Siddiqui as DPs.
POC Film Festival gets an average submission rate of 1618 films from 63 countries annually. Piruz Alemi MFA, PhD, the Executive Director of People of Color, expressed the main goal of this festival to present “a sincere experience of cultures and advance a progressive perspective”.
Earlier, The Painterist has been officially selected by Panama Series Festival, Panama, Nac Short Film Festival, USA, WILDsound Daily Screenplay Festival, USA and Financial Focus FilmFest, USA.
The short film has earned “Honorable Mention” from the third annual Financial Literacy Film Festival, San Juan, Puerto Rico, earlier in June 2022. Khalid Hasan Khan, the filmmaker, updated, “this is the third award winner status for ‘The Painterist’, along with awards from the second annual LOGIHQ International Happiness Film Festival & Exhibition, New Delhi, India, in 2022 and from the fifth annual Buddha International Film Festival, Pune, India, in 2021”.