Filmmaking graduate judged by industry icon for top arts prize

A talented visual artist and filmmaking graduate has been shortlisted for a prestigious arts prize and will be judged by a panel of industry greats including iconic performance art pioneer Marina Abramović.

Alina Akbar’s short film Pardesi Raga is being shown on a global network of big screens this month including London’s Piccadilly Gardens.

She is up for a £30,000 prize selected by top names including Abramović and managing director of the Black Cultural Archives Lisa Anderson, as well as a £10,000 award as voted by the public.

British Pakistani Akbar’s two-minute film was shortlisted by the Cultural Institute of Performing Arts (CIRCA) for its 2024 prize and depicts a snapshot of diverse working-class life in Britain including jockeys, a grandfather and granddaughter, and shop workers.

It is Akbar’s artistic response to CIRCA’s 2024 manifesto ‘Break free, time’s arrow flies forever forward’ and is in the running for the prestigious prize, which will be announced during a live ceremony at Piccadilly Gardens on Tuesday 1^st October.

Akbar graduated in BA (Hons) Filmmaking from Manchester Met’s School of Digital Arts (SODA) in 2021 and has already forged a successful career as a visual artist including curating high-profile exhibitions at venues including Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery, and participating in creative mentoring projects with The Face.

She said: “I’m incredibly excited to be up for this award and judged by such an impressive panel. With my film I’ve tried to capture authentic and ethical working-class representation and issues of diversity in society.

“My work looks to a more positive future for the diaspora while subtly acknowledging the past and what has got us here. If I’m lucky enough to win I’d like to create more artist moving image work that is developed in a socially engaged way and use the funding to build my voice as an artist.”

Akbar was one of over 1,500 applications from across the world for this year’s CIRCA prize and one of just 30 shortlisted artists whose work is appearing on London’s iconic Piccadilly Lights at Piccadilly Gardens this month, while simultaneously broadcasting across a global network of screens in Berlin and Milan.

Mark Thomas, senior lecturer at SODA and Akbar’s former tutor, added: “I speak for the whole filmmaking and wider SODA team when I say we’re so proud of Alina’s achievements. It’s brilliant to see her talent recognised with this nomination, which is such a prestigious platform and so thoroughly deserved.

“When Alina was an undergraduate she was everything you hope a filmmaking student will be - highly creative, considered and always up for new challenges. I’ve had the good fortune to work with Alina both within an academic setting and within industry contexts and it’s been a delight to see how she’s developed, maintaining conviction in her ideas and aesthetics while being open to explore her practice in a range of outputs. She’s an inspiration to us all.”