The Gandhara Independent Film Festival (GIFF), an initiative of Cirque Films, began its Edition 7 in an exclusive Opening Night at the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) with official selections’ special presentations of nine foreign language independent short films from France, Canada, Iran, Brazil, China, Australia, KSA and Peru.
Kiran Murad opened the festival by thanking esteemed sponsors: UBL, Candi Biscuit, Candyland, Olper’s Diary Tea Creamer and Vatika. Beenish Umer, GIFF Producer 2026 thanked industry partners: Epic Pictures, Sharp Image, Hot Water Bottle Films, Bionic Films, Tallman Films, Y Productions and What’s Next. Afreen Zehra, Head of Media & Communications highlighted the role of Karachi Film School (KFS) as an official Educational Partner, NAPA as the Venue Partner, Talking Point as the PR Partner, See Prime as the Strategic Partner and ARY Plus OTT as an official Streaming Partner for this year.
These curated short films were profoundly about family heritage, artist’s bloc, relationship complexities, identities, motherhood and social drama. The Red Carpet ceremony welcomed guests as they were later moved towards the Zia Mohyeddin Theatre for film screenings. This year GIFF received around six thousand films from all over the world including Pakistan, out of which, sixty films (seven foreign-language feature films, twenty-five foreign language shorts films and twenty-eight Pakistani short films) were selected for the digital edition, which streamed online at the ARY Plus OTT and GIFF’s website from September 18 till 30. There are twenty-eight selected independent films screening at NAPA for the on-ground edition 7; nineteen amongst them are foreign-language short films and nine of them are Pakistani independent films.
“GIFF started with a budget of zero in dollars but an investment of millions in passion, grit and commitment. Six years of unwavering zeal and tireless effort has seen it emerge into a festival that is respected and trusted by filmmakers and cinephiles the world over. We gave it our heart and soul expecting nothing back, just for the love of cinema, we have come a long way in a very short time. We want to give a huge shout out to everyone who has supported, attended and worked for GIFF, as we forge ahead towards making GIFF a festival we can all be proud of.” Founder Gandhara Independent Film Festival commented.
Jarri Masood Zaidi, CEO NAPA, welcomed the guests in his opening remarks and said, “There could hardly be a more appropriate place for such a festival. NAPA is an institution built on the belief that the performing arts are not merely entertainment. They are a way of understanding ourselves, questioning the world around us, and imagining the world we would like to inhabit. And that is precisely what cinema does.” He also passed on a message by the NAPA Chairman, Syed Jawaid Iqbal, who had congratulated the GIFF team for successively organizing this event every year in such an exemplary fashion. In his message, the NAPA Chairman celebrated the relationship between NAPA and GIFF as a symbol of shared belief in artistic excellence.
The festival will continue tomorrow till Sunday with an exclusive official lineup of international and Pakistani films, along with Q/As and an award ceremony on Sunday night.