The Pakistani Academy Selection Committee (PASC) is a non-governmental selection committee of Pakistani film director, producers, writers, actors, distributors and exhibitors, headquartered in Karachi and Lahore. The PASC selects the Pakistani Official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film each year. However, submission is not bound to Foreign Language category, if meets with the eligibility requirements of Academy's rules, it is permissible for every competitive award. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is a chairman and head of committee who overseen the final selection for Oscars and is a lifetime member of PASC. In 2013, committee shortlisted the four films.
Eligibility Criteria
The PASC choose one film as Pakistan’s official submission for the, "Foreign Language Film Award." A foreign language film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States of America with a predominantly non-English dialogue track. The criteria for eligibility is as follows:
The motion picture must be first released in the country of submission no earlier than, e.g. 1 October 20XX and no later than 30 September 20XX, and be first publicly exhibited for at least seven consecutive days in a commercial motion picture theater for the profit of the producer and exhibitor. Submissions must be in 35 mm or 70 mm, or in a 24 or 48 frame/s progressive scan digital cinema format with minimum resolution not less than 1280x720 and projector resolution of 2048 by 1080 pixels, source image format conforming to ST 428-1:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Image Characteristics; image compression (if used) conforming to ISO/IEC 15444-1 (JPEG 2000); and image and sound file formats suitable for exhibition in commercial Digital Cinema sites. The audio in a typical Digital Cinema Package (DCP) is 5.1 channels of discrete audio, and that is the preferred audio configuration, although up to 7.1 channels is acceptable. The minimum for a non-mono configuration of the audio shall be three channels as Left, Centre, Right (a Left/Right configuration is not acceptable in a theatrical environment). The audio data shall be formatted in conformance with ST 428-2:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Audio Characteristics and ST 428-3:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Audio Channel Mapping and Channel Labeling. The picture must be advertised and exploited during its eligibility run in a manner considered normal and customary to the industry. The picture need not have been released in the United States. Films that, in any version, receive a nontheatrical public exhibition or distribution before their first qualifying theatrical release will not be eligible for Academy Awards consideration. Nontheatrical public exhibition or distribution includes but is not limited to: Broadcast and cable television PPV/VOD DVD distribution Internet transmission The recording of the original dialogue track as well as the completed picture must be predominantly in a language or languages other than English. Accurate English-language subtitles are required.
Submissions
Pre-2013 submissions
Before 2013, as no committee was formed, films were sent by directors by themselves. The 1958 Urdu film Jago Hua Savera was Pakistan's first submission, but the film was not selected from the selection process to shortlist and to final five nominations. In 1963 second film Ghunghat was also fail to compete in selection process.
Submissions and committees by year
Following is the complete details of selection committee's submissions for Best Foreign Language Film category at Academy Awards.