Muslim International Film Festival 2024 Awards
Films screening at the 2024 Muslim International Film Festival in London will screen in competition, with awards presented to the Best Feature and Best Short film, judged by a jury of industry experts – meet the 2024 jury members below.
As well as championing new and upcoming filmmakers and talent, MIFF celebrates and honours individuals who have already made innovative contributions to the film industry with the festival’s Trailblazer Award. MIFF is thrilled to present the inaugural Trailblazer Award to Asif Kapadia, who will be presented with the Trailblazer Award during the festivals opening gala – the London Premiere of Hounds at Odeon Luxe West End on 30 May, followed by a reception sponsored by the Aziz Foundation.
Trailblazer Award
Asif Kapadia
Asif Kapadia is an Academy Award, Grammy and four-time BAFTA winning Director / Writer / Producer. Kapadia is known for his emotionally engaging, visually striking, genre-breaking films exploring 'outsiders' in extreme circumstances. Working in drama and documentaries, Kapadia is best known for his trilogy of narratively driven, archive constructed documentaries SENNA, AMY & DIEGO MARADONA. Asif Kapadia says: “For me working on films was like running away with the circus. I found a home and a family, I have been lucky to travel, collaborate with the most extraordinary people, create work which I hope will stand the test of time, films which have moved and engaged with people around the world. 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. Becoming a film director, a writer, 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. But I feel lucky that I found filmmaking. It changed my life. It’s a great honour 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 are able to say, create or express through our art.”
Jury
Neila Butt
Neila Butt is Channel 4’s Creative Diversity Lead for the Nations and Regions. She has been working in TV and Audio for over 20 years, with a background in news. Her expertise in DEI challenges covers finding and working with both on and off screen talent, unpicking complex editorial, as well as running various interventions to improve representation and portrayal.
Tas Brooker
Tas Brooker is an award-winning producer and director with over 20 years of experience creating high quality programming for both national and international broadcasters. Recently Tas finished her debut feature length documentary When We Speak, which was nominated for Best Documentary at Raindance Film Festival, Longlisted for a BIFA Discovery Award and won Best Documentary at the Whistleblowers Summit and Film Festival.
Leon Oteng
Leon Oteng is Production Inclusion Manager for BFI Filmmaking Fund. Previous TV & Film, projects include Greed (2019), The Great (Hulu/C4) and Get Millie Black (HBO/C4) coming out this year. Leon is also working as a freelance writer, producer and AD.
Youssef Kerkour
Youssef was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for 5 years and named a BAFTA BREAKTHROUGH honoree for 2020. He is most well known for portraying Sami in the Channel 4 series HOME for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy, winning a Royal Television Society award for Best Actor in a Comedy 2021. Originally from Morocco he is a graduate of Bard College in upstate New York and a LAMDA graduate with honours in London.
Claudia Yusef
Claudia Yusef is Commissioning Executive at BBC Film. She has Executive Produced a number of features and shorts for BBC Film including Clio Barnard’s ALI &AVA; PRAY, novelist Caleb Azumah Nelson’s debut short as a director; IN CAMERA, Naqqash Khalid’s debut feature starring Nabhaan Rizwan; THE END WE START FROM, the debut feature of Mahalia Belo, written by Alice Birch and starring Jodie Comer; and THE OUTRUN directed by Nora Fingscheidt, based on the best-selling memoir by Amy Liptrot (which Fingscheidt adapted in collaboration with Liptrot) and starring Saoirse Ronan.