MAGID / ZAFAR Enters Oscar Race After BAFTA Nod, BIFA Win

Oscar-qualified British short MAGID / ZAFAR, from rising writer-director Luís Hindman, has entered the Academy Awards race following an impressive awards run that includes a BAFTA nomination and a Best British Short Film win at the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA).

The film, which premiered in competition at the 2025 BFI London Film Festival, has emerged as one of the most acclaimed British shorts on the international festival circuit. Alongside its Oscar qualification, MAGID / ZAFAR has collected major awards at Leeds International Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival and London Breeze Film Festival, with selections at Clermont-Ferrand, HollyShorts, Raindance, Outfest Los Angeles, Woodstock and SXSW Sydney.

Written by Hindman and Sufiyaan Salam, and produced by Aidan Robert Brooks for Lovechild Studio, MAGID / ZAFAR unfolds over one sweltering night inside a British Pakistani takeaway, where the pressures of a professional kitchen bring long-buried tensions between two childhood friends to the surface.

Starring Eben Figueiredo and Gurjeet Singh, the film explores South Asian masculinity, identity, class and the complicated dynamics of male friendship, examining what happens when two young men who share a past begin to confront very different futures.

The film won Best British Short Film at the 2025 BIFAs before securing a nomination for British Short Film at the 2026 BAFTAs. Its international accolades also include a nomination at Belfast Film Festival, Best British Short at Leeds International Film Festival, the Narrative Short special jury mention at New Orleans Film Festival, Best UK Short Fiction at London Breeze Film Festival and was just nominated for cinematography at the BSC awards.

For Hindman, who is of South Asian and Northern Irish descent, the film marks a significant breakthrough. In 2015, he received the Into Film 'One to Watch' award, sponsored by the BFI and EON Productions, with a judging panel that included Alan Parker, David Yates and Peter Kosminsky.

He subsequently established himself as a music video director, most notably helming the UK Music Video Awards-nominated Permanent Damage project for soul-pop artist Joesef, before returning to narrative filmmaking with MAGID / ZAFAR.

The short was developed and financed through FUTURE TAKES, the inaugural filmmaking initiative from the British Film Institute, supported by National Lottery funding, and Film4. It also marks producer Brooks' narrative filmmaking debut following a career producing award-nominated music videos and fashion films.

Hindman developed the story alongside Salam, whose debut novel Wimmy Road Boyz is being published by Penguin Random House and Merky Books. Drawing on their cultural backgrounds, the filmmakers sought to challenge familiar representations of young South Asian men.