Malala Yousafzai joins Pakistan's Oscar submission 'Joyland'

Malala Yousafzai's production company, Extracurricular Productions has joined Joyland - Pakistan's Oscar submission in the international feature category. The female education activist has joined the film as an executive producer.

Joyland is a Pakistani Urdu-language film centering on the extended patriarchal Ranas family, who yearn for the birth of another boy. Set in a middle-class family living in Lahore, it deals with a wheelchair-bound yet severe patriarch who wants two sons and their wives to produce grandchildren. But his son falls in love with a transgender player.

The film premiered at the 75th Cannes Film Festival in May and garnered positive reviews. After receiving a standing ovation at the festival, The Hollywood Reporter called it a family saga that is used to observe how gender norms constrict and asphyxiate individuals. It won the Queer Palm and the jury prize at the festival's Un Certain Regard strand. The film was also shown in Toronto. The film is currently playing at both the BFI London Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival. It is competing for the Sutherland Award in the former.

Yousafzai told Variety that she is incredibly proud to support a film that proves Pakistani artists are among the best in global cinema. "Joyland invites us to open our eyes to the people closest to us and to see our family members and friends as they are, not colored by our own expectations or societal bias."

The activist last year made a multi-year programming deal with Apple TV+.