Yahoo Lifestyle Usman Riaz’s ‘The Glassworker’ Contends For Best Animated Feature At Academy Awards, Bringing Pakistani Animation To Global Stage
It’s not every day an animated movie emerges from Pakistan — and if it’s feature length, 2D hand-drawn animation, that’s virtually unheard of coming from this region of South Asia. For Usman Riaz, creator, animator, co-composer and director of The Glassworker, it took dedication and perseverance to bring this first-of-its-kind animation from Pakistan in front of a global audience.
Produced by Khizer Riaz, Manuel Cristobal (Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles), and Riaz, and executive produced by Apoorva Bakshi (Delhi Crime), The Glassworker is contending for a Best Animated Feature nomination at the 97th Academy awards. An Urdu-language narrative, the story revolves around childhood sweethearts — an apprentice glassblower learning from his father in their artisan glass shop, and a gifted violinist struggling to find her own unique voice. Set during a time of war and in a location loosely inspired by Pakistan, the story follows both characters through their formative years as opposition to the romance from their fathers, and the growing threat of war, affects their relationship.
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The film has been dubbed into multiple languages including English, Spanish, and Ukrainian, and thus far has earned a nationwide release in Pakistan last July, and in Spain last November.
“I love the craft of 2D animation,” says Riaz, “specifically hand-drawn animation.”
For Riaz, animation sparked his creativity from a young age, though in Pakistan music was viewed as a more acceptable form of artistic expression. The lack of infrastructure and support for 2D animation in the country led the young artist in Riaz to take matters into his own hands, although it would require more than a decade to realize his dream.
“I grew up drawing but also learned classical music because it seemed like the more feasible option in Pakistan,” he tells Deadline. “The film industry is already very difficult to navigate in Pakistan but animation, specifically hand-drawn animation, was next to impossible, and not something that I could pursue there. So, I began taking my music more seriously and was invited for a TED [talk] when I was 21 years old. I was the youngest TED fellow ever selected, and got to speak, perform and showcase my work. That opened up a lot of possibilities for me. Being around all these amazing people doing pioneering, groundbreaking things — all of a sudden doing animation in Pakistan didn’t seem as impossible as I once thought it was. So, I decided if no one’s going to start an animation studio in Pakistan, and specifically the hand-drawn animation that I love, I’ll start my own. That was 11 years ago, and I’ve been on this journey for 10 years with the singular purpose of making The Glassworker.”
Riaz founded Mano Animation Studios, where he began shaping the 2D hand-drawn animation style he was inspired by and aimed to incorporate in The Glassworker, but he soon encountered limitations on the type of animation that could be created in Pakistan.
“The earlier animation works of Disney like Pinocchio are a big influence on the story,” states Riaz, “but it was not possible to do it in Pakistan, so I thought that the Japanese aesthetic was a more pragmatic approach. Disney animation focuses a lot on the fluidity of the animation versus Japanese animation, which is much more pose oriented, and the drawings lead into each other versus a continuous motion.”
He adds, “It’s a lot of work and a lot of drawings, but I understood the Japanese aesthetic and style. I love Studio Ghibli and its founders, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata — they are my animation heroes, along with Walt Disney. I have all of Miyazaki’s and Takahata’s storyboards and art books and have studied them. I understood what I needed to use from that aesthetic and also incorporate some of the other Disney elements into [the animation] to make something of my own.”
Blending the aesthetics of Disney’s and Miyazaki’s animation, Riaz envisioned telling a story that could bring people together amidst strife and opposition.
“I wanted to make a film that moved others, the way the animated films I grew up watching moved me – with their timeless art, beautiful hand painted backgrounds, and a depth to its story and themes,” says Riaz. “And the theme of The Glassworker is persistence – no matter how difficult life gets and whatever challenges it throws at you – about 2 characters struggling to find their place in the world, who find love, and live through a war they experience while desperately holding on to their innocence.”
Though Pakistan has seen the emergence of animated films such as Oscar-winner Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s 3 Bahadur franchise (2016) – the country’s first CG animated feature film – The Glassworker is the first entirely hand-drawn 2D animated film from Pakistan.
“Every single drawing of the characters in The Glassworker – moving and emoting – I drew by hand, and every single background has been painted by hand,” asserts Riaz. “I also drew a lot of moving camera shots where parallax and depth had to be planned through a lot of layering – you are essentially working on a flat canvas and have to give the illusion of depth through layers in the background.”
He adds, “I storyboarded the entire film and planned every single shot meticulously in order for my team in Pakistan to understand my vision because I wanted every aspect to be very clear to each individual department working on the film — whether it was the background art, animation, or the character emotion. I had to do that to ensure that the work reached a certain standard.”
This level of care caught the eye of well-known Hollywood animators – siblings Tony and Tom Bancroft who have worked on classics such as Mulan, Aladdin, and The Lion King. They came across clips of The Glassworker that Riaz had uploaded online.
“I saw an interesting video on YouTube about a musician/animator [Riaz], who was making the first 2D animated feature in Pakistan,” says Tony Bancroft. “The first thing I thought was, ‘I know most everybody in animation, how come I have never heard of Usman Riaz?’ The thing that immediately struck me was the high level of production value in the work. At that moment I reached out to Usman through Instagram and asked to have him on the podcast my brother Tom, and I, produce.”
For executive producer Bakshi, it was Riaz’s storytelling and bold message told through animation that were deciding factors that convinced her to board the film.
“I am drawn to collaborating with brave creators who dare to tell audacious stories that stop you in your tracks and compel you to think and feel more deeply,” Bakshi explains. “Usman’s vision was truly inspiring, and I knew I wanted to be part of this extraordinary journey. Rooted in a nuanced understanding of the complexities of war, The Glassworker sparks a universal call to action for peace. The film’s technical brilliance, matched by its emotional core, and the passion and dedication Usman and his team brought to creating a hand-drawn animated feature, is a groundbreaking endeavor for Pakistan.”
The Glassworker first garnered international attention in 2022 when French sales agency Charades came on board to handle worldwide distribution, following Riaz’s participation in the film’s first work-in-progress panel at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France. In June last year the film was nominated for the Best Film Contrechamp Award at Annecy. More recently, The Gotham Group, known for its expertise in animation and literary adaptations, signed on to represent Riaz, further expanding the film’s global reach.
The caliber of 2D animation displayed in The Glassworker has also cast a spotlight on the creative talent in Pakistan which has made the global film community take notice.
“For a country who has zero animation industry to ‘suddenly’ be releasing a 2D animated feature film, it’s natural to have low expectations,” says Tom Bancroft. “But when I first saw the trailers and clips Usman was releasing, it was jaw dropping. He and his core team somehow trained a huge group of artists that had never worked in the animation industry, to create work that many studios with 5-10 years of experience cannot achieve. I was blown away at the consistent level of ability.”
In 2024, Obaid Chinoy told the BBC The Glassworker could be a “monumental step” for animation in Pakistan, and was further quoted saying “there is a lot of scope in Pakistan for animation, we’ve just never been given the opportunity to create it.”
Bakshi believes that professional guidance, funding and international support can be crucial in fostering the untapped animation workforce in Pakistan.
“Pakistan’s animation industry holds immense potential for growth, but realizing this requires deliberate investment and structured mentorship,” emphasizes Bakshi. “With support from global studios and streaming platforms, they can play a transformative role in unlocking this potential to nurture emerging talent. This can lead to the creation of extraordinary animated films and TV series that resonate with audiences worldwide from untapped markets like Pakistan and the rest of South Asia. The impact of The Glassworker has been remarkable — it has placed Pakistan on the map as a producer of high-quality animation, signaling what we hope is the beginning of a new chapter for the South Asian animation industry.”
Though Riaz knows Pakistan’s socio-economic climate still has a long way to go in accepting artists inclined towards animation, like Bakshi, he feels optimistic about the future for creative talent in the country.
“There are so many talented artists in Pakistan, but they don’t have platforms to express themselves and create work, like animation,” says Riaz. “If you aren’t becoming a doctor, dentist, or an engineer, you’re a failure. Every single person on the team was trained at the studio. It took a lot of work because nobody had any sort of experience that we could draw from. I’m very grateful that we got to work with a remarkable group of artists.”
Adds Riaz, “I think people need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy. With The Glassworker, we have shown the next generation that we can make work like this in Pakistan. This may inspire them to pursue their own dreams and ambitions. I have high hopes and I’m excited for what the future holds.”
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