Aneel Ahmad

aneel ahmad (Writer/Producer/Director) Aneel Ahmad, Manchester - Filmmaker Born and raised from a working class family, Aneel has grown up within the poverty stricken, inner city suburbs of Manchester (ENGLAND UK) aneel is completely self-taught. In his early career, Ahmad gained experience by participating in many prestigious film writing courses; these included TAPS Bafta, The First Film Foundation, Raindance Film Festival Script development, BBC's "Writers Room" new writer’s initiative, and The Writers Gym M.A Writers course (London Film School & French Institute). He was also part of other film courses such as NFTS Compass Point 2009/10, a mentoring programme for minorities run by Paul Moody (NFTS) some of the film mentors included Oscar Bafta Winning directors Danny Boyle, Kevin Macdonald, Penny Woolcock, Asif Kapadia, and artist director Steve McQueen His role models are Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, Satyajit Ray and documentary filmmaker Peter Watkins Ahmad's first documentary was a 10-minute short, filmed in Manchester in 1996 and titled Movin as a Massive. This documentary was nominated by the Royal Television Society in 1996 for "Most Innovative Film/Video" and was one of the winners of the Lloyds Bank Film Challenge, organised with Channel 4 Waiting For Sunrise was Ahmad's first international short documentary, funded by North West Vision Media and the UK Film Council film won the United Nations (UNICEF) UK Award at Sheffield in 2005 It was shortlisted for one of the film world's most distinguished awards—the Grierson Awards for documentary. Waiting for Sunrise was acquired by the BFI for national archive 2008 Boot Polish was co-produced with Ahmad by (BAFTA) British Academy of Film and Television Arts winning short Producer (The Banker 2005) Kelly Broad. In 2007 Aneel Ahmad & his film Boot Polish were shortlisted top 20 finalists, for one of the world’s most prestigious In-circle Grant Schemes at the Abu Dhabi Middle East Film Festival and won a number of International short film awards. Boot Polish was acquired by the BFI for national archive 2008 Boy in the Tree 2011 was premiered at the Raindance film festival in 2011 won a number of international awards in 2011/13. In 2012 Boy in the Tree was long listed for a (BAFTA) British Academy of Film and Television Arts for Best short film 2012. Boy in the Tree was also acquired by the BFI for national archive 2012. His latest short film Checkpost a political short film will premiere at the London Short Film Festival in 2014 and has just been entered into a number of short film festivals this year. Checkpost was long listed for a (BAFTA) British Academy of Film and Television Arts for Best short film 2014