Meet Alifya Khandwala, she’s a visual storyteller making short films since she got her first SLR camera at the age of 19. Youngest filmmaker in Pakistan to have ever represented at The Glasgow Film festival. She learnt filmmaking and received her BFA degree from University of Karachi and received a Fulbright scholarship to carry out her MFA in Animation & VFX from Academy of Arts University, San Francisco.

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She’s worn a lot of hats being a cinematographer, graphic designer, advertising strategist, Visual Effects producer/director and eventually her dream career into producing animated films for Pakistan. Her dream is to create stories rooted in the Pakistani culture and context, stories told with a kind of depth and humor that touches your soul and wrenches a laugh from the heart.

In her work she has excelled in her ability to work on both sides of the desk as a creative and as a manager. She has worked for top advertising agencies and has spent seven years in San Francisco producing animated and visual effects movies. Her movies have won awards for visual effects namely, Vimana; Galactic Film Festival and Gold Short Film at WorldFest, Houston. Her short movie “Pehli Dharkan” also won at the Glasgow Film Festival.

Her short films, known for incredible storytelling and cinematic value have repeatedly been shortlisted for National and International Film festivals and she has had more than 15 years of experience in the field of film and animation & advertising.
Behind the scenes she is an excellent problem solver and adept at building a team to get the job done; Having been mentored by advisors from Pixar and Dreamworks, she aimed to start her own studio and was successful in venturing her own animation and pre-production company named Jugnu Films.  

Alifya is an ardent advocate of female representation and creating women friendly workplaces in animation, a notoriously difficult industry for women. As animated as her career, when Alifya isn’t at work trying to crack that glass ceiling (a very impractical building material, she thinks) she can be found working on Intellectual property for animation production, in her start-up studio, Jugnu Films.

If you would like to talk about animation, IP creation, coffee, and why she loves monster movies you can contact her at alifyakhandawala@jugnufilms.com.