Tajik comedy Safari Havoi (Air Safar) by Daler Rahmatov has won the 'Special Jury Award' at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Film Festival in Qingdao, China.
The first Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) film festival took place in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, from June 13 to June 17.
As a major cultural exchange activity following the latest SCO summit in Qingdao, the five-day event has reportedly attracted films produced in the past two years by 12 countries, including 23 vying for the film awards and 55 slated for screening.
The film festival was co-hosted by the State Film Administration of China and Shandong provincial government.
The film festival was well represented by Pakistan with 5 Pakistani films, Jawani Phir Nahi Ani, Punjab Nahi Jaungi, Parchi, Bin Roye and Chalay Thay Saath, showcased in the festival. Pakistani romantic-comedy Punjab Nahi Jaungi also won the 'Special Jury Award' at the SCO Film Festival in Qingdao.
The SCO was founded at a Summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization currently has eight full members — China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, India, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are four observer states, and SCO’s dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey. ACEAN, CIS, Turkmenistan and the United Nations are guest attendances.
Thanks to the membership expansion, the SCO has grown into the largest regional organization for comprehensive cooperation in the world, in terms of both the area it covers and the population it represents. With 3.1 billion people, it now carries a bigger heft and plays a more important role on the world stage.
