Screening followed by Q&A with: Fawzia Mirza (Director) and Andria Wilson Mirza (Producer), moderated by Chani Nicholas.
The Queen of My Dreams
Directed By Fawzia Mirza | 2024 | 97 min
Queer Pakistani grad student Azra is worlds apart from her conservative Muslim mother. When her father suddenly dies on a trip home to Pakistan, Azra finds herself on a Bollywood-inspired journey through memories, both real and imagined; from her mother’s youth in Karachi to her own coming-of-age in rural Canada.
Screenplay by Fawzia Mirza | Executive Produced by Damon D’oliveira, Anam Abbas, Kamil Chima, Carol Ann Noronha, Robina Riccitiello, Josh Peters, Alexander Stegmaier | Produced by Jason Levangie, Marc Tetreault, Andria Wilson Mirza, Fawzia Mirza | Starring Amrit Kaur, Nimra Bucha, Hamza Haq, Ayana Manji, Gul-E-Rana, Ali A. Kazmi, Meher Jaffri
About The Director
Fawzia Mirza (she/they) is a White House Champion of Change in Asian storytelling, an alum of the Tribeca Film Institute, TIFF Writer's Studio and Filmmaker Lab, Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative, and the Canadian Academy of Women Directors' Program, and her new feature script HEIRLOOM was named to the 2022 Muslim List - The Black List's curation of the best unproduced scripts by Muslim writers. Her feature directorial debut THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS, shot in Canada and Pakistan, world premiered at TIFF 2023, had its international premiere at the BFI London Film Festival and was nominated for the Director’s Guild of Canada’s Jean-Marc Vallée Discovery Award and the BFI’s Sutherland First Feature Award. She co-wrote, produced & starred in the feature SIGNATURE MOVE which world premiered at SXSW and won 15 awards around the globe (including the US Grand Jury Prize Outfest). She wrote on Ava DuVernay and Greg Berlanti's CBS series THE RED LINE; her episode marked the first queer, Muslim romance on network TV. She wrote/directed the short films I KNOW HER (Palm Springs, Outfest, CBC Short Film Face Off Finalist) NOOR & LAYLA (BlackStar, Bentonville, Short of the Week, distributed by Frameline Voices, CBC GEM & Argo) BROWN ELEPHANT (20th Digital Studio, 2.3M views), and on TikTok series HIDDEN CANYONS. She directed THE SYED FAMILY XMAS EVE GAME NIGHT (written by and starring Kausar Mohammed) which world premiered at TIFF 2021, was named to Canada’s Top 10 and one of Harper’s Bazaar’s “Best Christmas Movies of 2021”. Her short AUNTIE, executive produced by Paul Feig, is now streaming on The New Yorker. She co-founded and runs BABY DAAL PRODUCTIONS with her wife, producer Andria Wilson Mirza.