Tag: Riz Ahmed

  • Mehwish, Adnan, Sanam congratulate Riz Ahmed on his Oscar nomination

    Riz Ahmed, who played the role of a drummer who begins to lose his hearing in Amazon Studio’s Sound of Metal charted history by becoming the first Muslim to be nominated in the leading actor category at the Academy Awards.

    Read more – Obamas to adapt Mohsin Hamid’s ‘Exit West’ for Netflix with Riz Ahmed in the lead

    The actor, while responding to the nomination said that he was “honoured to be nominated by my fellow actors alongside such inspiring performances”.

    “I am grateful to the Academy for their support and encouragement,” the actor added.

    Mehwish Hayat, Adnan Siddiqui and Sanam Saeed celebrated Riz’s big achievement and congratulated the actor on social media.

    “Congratulations Riz. You have created history with your nomination as the first Muslim for lead actor at the distinguished Academy Awards,” said Siddiqui. “Hard work and talent always get recognised.”

    “Pakistan is proud of you,” added the actor.

    Mehwish Hayat also expressed her delight over the nomination, saying: “In a world where we’re fighting for fairer representation in mainstream media, a Muslim nominated for Best Actor for the first time since 1929 is one hell of a big deal.”

    Sanam Saeed also congratulated her ‘dosst‘, saying: “Proud moment, you totally deserve it.”

    “Go on then keeping making waves and bringing about change,” she added.

    The 2021 Oscar nominations were announced from London by presenters Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. The Academy Awards would typically have happened by now but this year will be telecast on April 25. The film academy said Monday that the show will be held at both its usual home, the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, and the city’s railway hub, Union Station.

  • Riz Ahmed is the first Muslim to bag ‘Best Actor’ nomination at Oscars

    Riz Ahmed is the first Muslim to bag ‘Best Actor’ nomination at Oscars

    Riz Ahmed, who played the role of a drummer who begins to lose his hearing in the Sound of Metal charted history by becoming the first Muslim to be nominated in the leading actor category at the Academy Awards.

    This is also for the first time that two Asian actors have been nominated in the Best Actor category. Nine of the 20 acting nods went to non-white performers, including Riz and a South Korean Yuh-Jung Youn of Minari, in what Variety Magazine described as the most diverse acting Oscars slate ever.

    Sharing his excitement on social media, Riza said: “Wow! I’m honoured to be nominated by my fellow actors alongside such inspiring performances, and am grateful to the Academy for their support and encouragement.”

    “I’m equally thrilled for our visionary writer-director Darius Marder and the brilliant Paul Raci As well as our editor Mikkel, sound designer Nicolas, and co-writer Abe Marder,” he added.

    “These nominations represent the time, generosity and talents of so many — all of our incredible cast, crew, producers,” said the actor further. “Sound of Metal is about how a health crisis can cut you off from your life and loved ones, and force you to grow in unexpected ways. In a challenging year for so many, I hope this story can inspire us to forge new and deeper connections with ourselves and others.”

    “And in particular I’d like to thank my mentors in the drumming, addiction recovery, and D/dead communities” Riz concluded.

    Meanwhile, six nods each were earned by the other best picture contenders The Father, Black Panther story Judas and the Black Messiah, Korean-language drama Minari, Nomadland, #MeToo revenge tale Promising Young Woman, 1960s Vietnam War courtroom drama The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Amazon Studio’s deaf drama Sound of Metal.

    The late Chadwick Boseman also got a first Oscar nod for his final film, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

    The nominations were announced from London by presenters Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. The Academy Awards would typically have happened by now but this year will be telecast on April 25. The film academy said Monday that the show will be held at both its usual home, the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, and the city’s railway hub, Union Station.

    This year’s awards season — typically a month-long circuit of screenings, cocktail parties and schmoozing — has been entirely virtual, taking much of the buzz and predictability out of the Oscars. Eligibility was extended to early 2021 releases and to movies that bypassed theatres.

  • Obamas to adapt Mohsin Hamid’s ‘Exit West’ for Netflix with Riz Ahmed in the lead

    Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground Productions on Friday announced six new projects in development for Netflix Inc, including a love story with a supernatural twist and a young adult thriller.

    The former president and first lady’s Higher Ground Productions will adapt British-Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West into a film, according to a statement from Netflix. The book tells the story of a young couple who find magical doors to transport them to other places and land in the middle of a global refugee crisis. Obama had also named it as one of the best books he read in 2017. According to The New York Times, the upcoming project will star the Pakistani-British actor Riz Ahmed.

    Other film projects include a science-fiction movie called Satellite, which will be produced with T Street, a production company run by Star Wars director Rian Johnson and producer Ram Bergman. Another is Tenzing, the story of the Nepalese-Indian man who first reached the summit of Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand.

    The Young Wife is a feature film that follows a woman on the day of her wedding who feels out of sync as a storm approaches.

    The company also is developing two TV series. Firekeeper’s Daughter is a thriller based on a young adult novel by Angeline Boulley about an 18-year-old Ojibwe tribe member who reluctantly goes undercover in a police investigation on her reservation.

    The other series is a nature documentary about national parks.

    Netflix said the projects will be released over the next few years but did not give exact release dates.

    Read more – Netflix to release a new movie every week in 2021

    The Obamas signed a multiyear production deal with Netflix in 2018. Their earlier Netflix projects include American Factory, which won an Oscar in 2020 for best documentary.

  • Riz Ahmed reveals he is married

    British-Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed has revealed that he is married. While initially, the actor did not share the name or details about his wife, he later revealed that he married US novelist Fatima Farheen Mirza, who is a New York Times best-selling author whose books include A Place for Us.

    Speaking on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Ahmed shared how he met Mirza in New York while preparing for his latest film.

    “She’s an amazing novelist. We met so randomly while I was preparing for this role, for Sound Of Metal when I was in New York,” said the 38-year-old actor. “We both sat down at the same table in the cafe where we both turned up to write. We were both jostling over the same laptop plug points, like a very modern way of meeting.”

    “And we struck up a friendship and reconnected down the line. But it’s weirdly like one of the many things about preparing for this role that was so special, it just brought a lot of goodness into my life,” he continued.

    “Obviously I met Fatima for the first time and met so many people in the deaf community that have become friends. There’s just something about this whole period around this film that was kind of life-changing,” he added.

    Ahmed had first revealed that he was married during a BBC podcast Grounded With Louis Theroux. In the podcast, the actor had shared that he hadn’t been married for “very long” and is currently residing in North California because that’s where his wife’s family is from.

    “I think it’s the first time I’ve ever mentioned it in an interview,” Riz had said. “So, congratulations on this incredibly exciting scoop.”

    “I don’t really feel it’s generally that relevant [his private life], so I don’t delve into my personal life or dating history. I guess I don’t feel like it’s that necessary to go, ‘Hey, here’s everything that’s happening in my life’,” he added.

    Ahmed recently won the Best Actor award at the Gotham Awards for his performance in Sound Of Metal. In his acceptance speech, Riz paid a rich tribute to the late Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan, by quoting a lesson Khan gave to his son Babil.

    “Surrender to the dance of uncertainty. It feels like a wobbly time. If we can wobble together we may find each other dancing,” said Riz, quoting Khan.