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Marvel might have lost its shine and gauntlet tight hold on audiences but the world still needs superheroes. Riffy Ahmed’s The Call, a love letter to parents, posits that the heroes we truly need are perhaps a little closer to home than expected. The Call is an emotive example of elegantly contained two-hander storytelling that blends the themes of strained family dynamics, the struggles of single parenthood and concerns for a loved one’s state of mind, all with an evocatively woven dose of magic realism. Adapted from Vanessa Rose’s original stage play, which caught Ahmed’s attention in 2018, she transformed this mother-daughter narrative into a visually rich short that you can’t help falling for. Ahmed was featured on the pages of Dn back in 2022 for her revitalisation of a mythological text through a Bipoc gaze in Medea and we welcome her back with The Call to...

In June 2021, Oscar-nominee and Emmy-winner Riz Ahmed and Pillars Fund’s Kashif Shaikh and Arij Mikati outlined the urgent need for more Muslim representation in the entertainment industry, both in front of and behind the camera, during an extensive interview with Variety.

The trio announced plans to launch a first-of-its-kind initiative, dubbed the Pillars Artist Fellowship, with a mission to provide resources and mentorship to a group of talented Muslim artists to help them use their talents to change the game in the film and television industries. Today, Pillars Fund, Ahmed and his Left Handed Films banner unveil the inaugural cohort of fellows.

“We spent months getting to know many talented candidates,” stated Shaikh, Pillars Fund’s co-founder and president. “We are honored to work with these incredible artists and are excited to provide them resources to reach even greater heights in the coming year.”

Sponsored by Netflix and Amazon Studios,...