“EID MUBARAK,” A Short Film Feasts Its Eyes On The Oscars Race

Director Mahnoor Euceph’s interest in exploring entertaining stories about the South Asian diaspora through the female gaze, led her to direct the live action short film Eid Mubarak. In this award-winning film, a privileged six-year-old Pakistani girl embarks on a mission to save her beloved pet goat from being eaten on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Azha, only to learn the meaning of sacrifice.

Eid Mubarak won the Jury Award for Live Action Short at the New York International Children’s Film Festival, qualifying the film for Oscars consideration this year. It has played over 40 film festivals including CAAMFest, SXSW Sydney, Tasveer, Atlanta ShortFest, and ShortShorts Film Festival & Asia. It won both the Jury Award for Narrative Short and the Audience Award for Short Film at the 2023 Austin Asian American Film Festival. It took the prize for Best Short at Big Eyes, Big Minds Singapore International Children’s Film Festival 2023, and three top awards including the jury award for Best Live Action Short at the 2023 Children’s Film Festival Seattle. It took home the Best Film award at both Mosquers Film Festival and Centre Film Festival this fall. The film currently holds a total of 13 wins.

Euceph’s work is injected with humor and features a hyper stylized sensibility informed by design and fine art. Her films seek to decolonize the mind and encourage audiences to engage in radical self love.

Ouat Media announced today that Eid Mubarak will be available in select territories on KIS KIS – keep it short, which will launch the film on YouTube on November 18, 2023, and in early 2024 on the streaming service Kanopy, the on-demand streaming video platform for public and academic libraries. Based out of Toronto, Canada, Ouat Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of the independent Canadian media group Channel Zero, specializes in distribution and worldwide sales of short films with a particular focus on titles by industry’s rising stars. Celebrating its 17th anniversary this year, Ouat Media has represented three Oscar® winners and 12 Oscar® nominees.

Eid Mubarak has a high-profile Los Angeles special screening set for Friday, November 17 at WME Screening Room presented by Gold House, the preeminent community for Asian Pacific creatives, entrepreneurs, and social impact leaders as well as partners South Asians in Entertainment, Rickshaw Film Foundation and 1497.

Additionally, the film has an awards campaign led by Adam Segal of The 2050 Group, the publicity agency that had 20 Oscar shortlisted and 7 Oscar nominated films in the 2022-23 awards season. Rohi Mirza Pandya is an executive producer on the film with her leading industry consultancy Box Office Guru Media. She is an award-winning Creative Producer in film, television, and theater for over twenty years.

In Eid Mubarak, Iman, a privileged Pakistani girl, goes with her family to buy a goat, as is the tradition in Pakistan before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Azha. She picks the cutest one, and takes it home. She spends all of her time with the goat, whom she names Barfi, after her favorite Pakistani dessert. Soon, however, she realizes that Barfi is not a pet, but a goat being raised for slaughter. She makes a plan to save Barfi’s life before he can be sacrificed on Eid. Along the way, through the help of her family and friends, she learns the true meaning of sacrifice, and the reason behind Eid al-Azha.

Director Mahnoor Euceph said: “I made this film as a love letter to the country I once called home, to the religion that taught me how to be a human with humanity, and to my family who are the beginning and end of everything. For non-Muslims, I hope this film is educational. For Muslims, I hope it is reflective. And I hope, for everyone, it is a reminder of childhood, and that magical, wondrous world we leave behind when we grow up.”

Euceph is a Pakistani-American writer and director. She immigrated to Los Angeles from Pakistan when she was eight years old. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA in 2017, with a major in Design | Media Arts and a minor in Film, TV, and Digital Media. During her BA, she traveled abroad to work with Pakistan’s sole Oscar-winner, filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy.

In 2021, she received her Master’s of Fine Arts from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in Film and Television Production, with an emphasis in comedy writing and directing, and production design. During her MFA, she worked as Art Director on American Eid, Disney’s first ever Muslim story, which is currently streaming on Disney+. In 2022, she participated in the Islamic Scholarship Fund’s inaugural Muslim Centered Writers’ Lab, with support from Extracurricular and The Black List, for her feature film, Queen of Diamonds.

Her professional directorial debut, Eid Mubarak, was produced by Creator+ as part of their inaugural Flip the Script Short Film Fund, and is screening in festivals all over the country. It won the Jury Award for Live Action Short at the New York International Children’s Film Festival, making the film Oscar-qualifying. Eid Mubarak is currently in consideration for Best Live Action Short Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

Eid Mubarak is written, directed and produced by Mahnoor Euceph, Producers Kamil Chima, Ben O’Keefe and Selena Leoni. Executive producer Rohi Mirza Pandya. Director of photography Arlene Müller. Production designer Hashim Ali.