Female Filmmaker Friday: Mahak Jiwani’s ‘Darling’
Today we’re focusing on a talented indie filmmaker who we first heard about a few years ago. In fact we’ve featured her work before – Mahak Jiwani is a talented producer who has worked all over the world. Originally from Pakistan, Mahak Jiwani has worked in Chile, USA, Japan and Pakistan. In 2017, she produced Premonition in Chile, which won the Cacho Pallero Award at Huesca International Film Festival and screened at Aspen ShortFest, Seattle International Film Festival and Palm Springs International ShortFest. Jiwani’s films Horizon (2018) won the GiGadgets Technology Award and Darling (2019) was awarded the Katharina Otto-Bernstein Production Grant at Columbia University Film Festival. She’s also developing the features Gulaab (Locarno Open Doors 2018) in Pakistan and Shadow in Chile. Jiwani is a graduate of the MFA program at Columbia University. Darling is set in Lahore, Pakistan at an erotic dance theater. As the theater prepares for a new show, a sacrificial goat goes missing, a dreamy trans girl vies for the spotlight, and a naïve young boy falls in love. Darling’s cast includes newcomer Mehar Bano and veteran actress Nadia Afgan. Leads include Shani (Abdullah Malik) and Alina (Alina Khan – a trans girl in her acting debut who was discovered after an exhaustive search through the Lahore trans community). Follow this inspirational producer on Instagram. Also look out for Congratulations, whose world premiere is set for the Santiago International Film Festival in August in the national talent section of the program.
Professional Background and Current Role
Jiwani currently serves as Director of Scripted at Jigsaw Productions in Los Angeles. In this role she has contributed to both scripted and unscripted projects for HBO, Paramount+, ABC Signature, and CBS. Her Columbia MFA training continues to inform the range of material she develops and oversees at the company.
Recent Career Milestones at Jigsaw Productions
Her credits at Jigsaw include producing or contributing to Joyland, which premiered in competition at Cannes, and the Emmy-winning documentary The Forever Prisoner. These projects sit alongside her earlier short film work and demonstrate how her focus has expanded from festival shorts into larger scripted and documentary productions across multiple platforms.
Darling Production and Premiere Details
Darling had its world premiere in the Orizzonti section at the Venice International Film Festival in 2019, where it became the first Pakistani film to screen in competition there. It also screened in the Short Cuts program at the Toronto International Film Festival the same year. The film’s recognition at Venice marked a significant moment for Pakistani cinema on the international festival circuit.
Darling’s Festival Success and Legacy
Darling ultimately won the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film at Venice. The win has kept the film visible in Jiwani’s filmography alongside later titles such as Joyland, and it remains a reference point when programmers and critics discuss emerging Pakistani voices in short form storytelling.
Development Projects
No confirmed public updates on Gulaab or Shadow have surfaced in recent sources. Both projects were announced during Jiwani’s time at Columbia and Locarno Open Doors, but they have not appeared in subsequent festival lineups or production reports.
Industry Jury and Mentorship Roles
In 2024 Jiwani served as a jury member for the International Shorts and Indie Episodics categories at a major film event. Her participation reflects the shift from emerging producer to established industry figure whose perspective is now sought for evaluating new work from other filmmakers.
Additional Recent Producing Credits
Jiwani earned a producer credit on the 2024 project Aria, a Film Independent sponsored production. The credit shows her continued involvement in short form work even as her slate at Jigsaw has grown to include larger studio and network projects.
Across her filmography the through-line remains a commitment to stories that sit outside conventional industry pipelines. From early shorts shot across three continents to recent producing roles at Jigsaw and on the festival jury circuit, Jiwani’s path illustrates how persistence and specificity can open doors for both individual projects and the broader community of filmmakers around them.
