Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy '02 (left) and Daniel Junge pose with their awards for best documentary short for "Saving Face" during the 84th Academy Awards. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
At the 84th Academy Awards ceremony last night, Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy ’02 won an Oscar for her short subject documentary, Saving Face.
Saving Face won the Best Documentary (short subject) category, beating other nominees, God Is the Bigger Elvis, The Barber of Birmingham, Incident in New Baghdad, and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom. It is Sharmeen’s first Oscar, and the first nomination for a Pakistani film.
The film depicts two interwoven stories: the story of Pakistani women who have been burned with acid and the work of Dr. Mohammad Jawad, a British-Pakistani surgeon who provides reconstructive surgery to those women. According to news reports, more than 100 woman are disfigured in acid attacks every year. The film and Oscar win are expected to increase global awareness of this violent crime against Pakistani woman that is seldom discussed.
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