Pakistani short film The Last Glance has taken a major step onto the Academy Awards circuit. Director Kamran Faiq’s 12-minute drama won the Jury Award for Best Short at the 21st Tasveer Film Festival in Seattle, a win that places it on the longlist for the 2028 Oscars. Tasveer, which ran from October 13 to 18, is the world’s only Oscar-qualifying South Asian film festival, and Faiq has said his film is the only one to have qualified from the festival.
The film follows Barkaat, a man fleeing violence with his pregnant wife and young son, who reaches a remote police checkpoint where a demand for loyalty forces a life-altering choice. The story draws from true events. Veteran actor Adnan Shah Tipu leads the cast as Barkaat, with Areej Ayub and Fahad Hashmi co-starring. Faiq wrote, produced and directed the film under Autumn Pictures, with Umer Peerzada producing and Armeena Rana Khan among the co-producers.
The Tasveer victory builds on earlier festival success, including Best International Short Film at Canada’s Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival and a place among eight finalists for the short film program at the Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles, chosen from more than 50 Asian countries. Faiq has been clear about what qualification means and what it does not: this is not a nomination, but a place in a longlist of roughly 200 qualifying shorts from thousands submitted.
The team is already planning its awards campaign through 2027, including bringing an Oscar-nominated actor on board as an executive producer to represent the film at the Oscars. For a national industry that has long struggled with limited distribution and infrastructure, every qualifying festival award carries real weight — and The Last Glance has just turned a family story of flight and forced choice into an international calling card.
