1st ARY Film Awards
The 1st ARY Film Awards or AFA'14 ceremony, presented by ARY Digital Network and Entertainment Channel, sponsored by Nokia, powered by ZONG and L'Oréal and took place on April 27, 2014 at the Golf Club, DHA Phase VIII, Karachi. The ceremony was held recorded and televised on May 24, 2014. During the ceremony ARY Digital Network and Entertainment Channel presented ARY Film Awards in 29 categories and 4 special awards honoring the actors, technical achievements and films of 2013. The ceremony, televised in Pakistan by ARY Digital and was produced by ARY Digital Network chairman Salman Iqbal. ARY Film Awards became the most expensive event held in Pakistan.
Actor Shaan Shahid hosted the ceremony, while different segments were co-hosted by Ayesha Omer, Fahad Mustafa, Sarwat Gilani and Hamza Ali Abbasi. During the ceremony ARY presented its honorary lifetime achievement award and special honorary recognition to media and entertainment personalities.
Waar won the most awards with thirteen including Best Director - Viewers, Best Director - Jury and Best Film - Viewers. Other winners include Main Hoon Shahid Afridi with seven, Zinda Bhaag with five awards including Best Film - Jury and , Chambaili, Ishq Khuda, Siyaah with one. The telecast garnered more than 15 million viewers in Pakistan.
Winner and nominees
The nominees of 1st ARY Film Awards were announced on April 9, 2014 in Viewers Choice Categories for public voting's till April 24, 2014 at official website, While rest of the categories were announced on April 25, 2014. Main Hoon Shahid Afridi and Zinda Bhaag tied for the most nominations with nineteen each.Winners were announced during the awards ceremony on April 27, 2014, televised on May 24, 2014. Only three films won multiple awards with Waar became the highest awarded film of the night with thirteen trophies out of it sixteen nominations, Main Hoon Shahid Afridi with seven including Best Actor Jury for Humayun Saeed and Best Star Debut Male for Hamza Ali Abbasi. Zinda Bhaag was the third and last multiple winner film with five trophies including Best Actress Jury for Amna Ilyas and Best Film Jury for Mazhar Zaidi. Hamza Ali Abbasi and Aeysha Khan became the first AFAs acting winner to win for a debut film. Waar became the first film to win both leading Male and Female acting awards in addition with Both Jury Choice and Viewers Choice in directing. All the Film and Acting nominations were the highlights of awards. Bilal Lashari and Hassan Waqas Rana were the highest awarded individuals with four and three trophies respectively, while Shaan, Hamza, Ayesha and Humayun with two trophies each.
Awards
Winners are listed first and indicated with a double-dagger.Honorary ARY Film Awards
The ARY Group presented Special Awards during the ceremony, that usually are not a part of specific category, but, a special honor for artists related to cinema.;Lifetime Achievement Award
;International Icon of the Year
;Special Contribution to Pakistani Cinema
- Shaan Shahid
- Asif Razaq – Capri Cinema
- Jamil Baig – Nueplex Cinemas
- Nadeem H. Mandviwalla - Atrium Cinemas
- Hashim Raza – Cinepax
- Hammad Chaudhry – Cinestar
Films with multiple nominations and awards
| Nominations | Film |
| 19 | Main Hoon Shahid Afridi |
| 19 | Zinda Bhaag |
| Waar | |
| Chambaili | |
| 6 | Ishq Khuda |
| 6 | Siyaah |
| 6 | Lamha |
| Awards | Film |
| Waar | |
| Main Hoon Shahid Afridi | |
| Zinda Bhaag |
Presenters and performers
The following individuals and groups, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers.Presenters
Performers
| Name | Role | Performed |
| Shehzad and it Group | LED Act | Professional LED dress wearing dancers to open the ceremony. |
| Amna Ilyas Khurrum Patras | Performer | on a musical numbers of their nominated film Zinda Bhaag. |
| Ahsan Khan Urwa Tul Wusqa Ushna Shah | Performers | on a musical numbers of singer Sajjad Ali in order to pay tribute to his contributions. |
| Mariyum Ali Hussain | Performers | classical dance on a musical number of her upcoming film Mah-e-Meer. |
| Fahad Mustafa Hina Dilpazeer | Comic act | comedy act by Hina in her fame-character Momo, supported by Fahad. |
| Mathira Noman Habib Gohar Rasheed Humayun Saeed | Performer | on a musical numbers of their nominated film Main Hoon Shahid Afridi. |
| Sohai Ali Abro Shehryar Munawar Siddiqui Hamza Ali Abbasi | Performer | on a musical number of their upcoming film Kambakht. |
| Noor Bukhari Saima Noor | Performer | on several Punjabi musical hits numbers of 90s and 10s. |
| Babra Sharif | Performer | on musical hits of her own films of 80s and 90s. |
Ceremony information
ARY Film Awards marked the inception of celebration of New Pakistani cinema by recognizing industry artist and technicians, ARY Films and ARY Group chairman Salman Iqbaal and CEO Jerjees Seja announced the Film Awards in early 2014, looking at the super-hit 2013 cinematic year and collaboration of ARY Films with other productions. Award ceremony was produced by Salman Iqbal with the cost of Rs 80 million, which made this event one of the most expensive ceremonies ever held.Producer Slaman Iqbal and Jerjees Seja, centered the show around the theme. They asperse the show with a theme of celebrating the New Face of Pakistani Cinema commenting "Another milestone is going to be achieved by the Pakistan’s film industry with ARY Film Awards. It is a matter of pride for us that we are creating another platform to appreciate the talent of Pakistan and motivate the young and creative to make more films next year and keep the ball rolling". To coincide with the themes ARY Digital Network and Entertainment Channel presented a foray of special arrival by exhibiting dozens of sixty's hits movie banners, photographs, and artifacts.
Several other people were involved with the telecast and its promotion including show main sponsor Nokia's managing director Burhandun Qurreshi, while ZONG and L'Oréal served as a secondary sponsors. ARY team and crew designed 200-high feet stage in an open air at Golf club, while ARY Group spend Rs 80 million for the event. Winners with the ARY Trophy were awarded with Nokia mobile set. Television personality and actress Mawra Hocane hosted the Red carpet of ceremony.
Broadcasting
1st ARY Film Awards were broadcast by ceremony presenter ARY Digital Network and Entertainment Channel's ARY Digital. Ceremony was held live on April 27 while airs on May 24 after completion of editing and censorship process of Pakistan.Voting trend and summary
As of 1st Ceremony fourteen categories were set open for online public voting's in viewers choice categories, from April 9 to April 25. All the categories were made by AFA's Jury members and AFA's membership as a whole, but Viewers Choice portion were voted by public and winners were declared according to highest votes gain by relevant winner.Online voting system proves enormous beneficial in selecting winners by holding fairness among nominees, around ten million online voters votes for their actors and artists across the globe, and a special thank were given at the end of ceremony.
ARY Film Awards motto
Cinema and Film making in Pakistan makes an enormous hit comeback in the year 2013, with the name like Revisiting the death and Revival of Pakistani Cinema and phrases like New-wave, rebirth and revival become the tagline of every event that held in Pakistani Film Industry. Release of around seven Pakistani films throughout the country gave a much-needed push to aspiring local film-makers, it also produced a hyper-sentimental wave about the rise of Pakistan cinema, which masked the realities on the ground. The current year holds more promise for Pakistani cinema as more than two dozen productions are reportedly on the floor.ARY Digital Network and Entertainment Channel joins hand with many film ventures and give birth to the new subsidiary to entire Group ARY Films, which mark the new milestone in Pakistani cinema foundation. ARY Films release thirty five films including 11 Urdu, 6 Punjabi and 17 Pashto films. Among them Waar, Main Hoon Shahid Afridi, , Chambaili, Zinda Bhaag, Siyaah and Lamha tops the charts in industry and collects splendid box office performances on domestically and internationally. To celebrate the success of Pakistani cinema, ARY Films inaugurated First Film Awarding Ceremony after the demolishing of Nigar Awards, with the motto of "Celebrating the New Face of Cinema" to honor the films from all over the Pakistan, actors and technical achievements.
Box office performance of nominated films
At the time of the nominations announcement on April 9, 2014, the combined gross of the five Best Film nominees at the Pakistani box office was Rs 327.4 million, with an average of Rs 65.48 million per film. When nominations were revealed, Waar was the highest-grossing film among the Best Film nominees with Rs 230 million in domestic box office receipt. Main Hoon Shahid Afridi was the second highest-grossing film with Rs 55 million; this was followed by Chambaili and Zinda Bhaag tied with, and finally, Ishq Khuda.Out of top-grossing movies of the year, all nominations went to 8 films. Only Waar, Main Hoon Shahid Afridi, Chambaili, Ishq Khuda and Zinda Bhaag were nominated for Best Film Jury, Best Film Viewers, or any of directing, acting or screenwriting awards. Other top box office hits that earned nominations were Josh, Lamha and Siyaah. Among best film nominees Zinda Bhaag was the film who achieve the success ride of critical reception which made its way to Oscars, the film was selected as the Official Pakistani entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, the second film after 1950 Aina to achieve that feet in 50 years, but was out of the race in final five nominations for category.
Special screening of films
During the ceremony many upcoming Pakistani films were released through their trailers, press release or official announcement. Shaan Shahid released the first look of his upcoming film Arth 2, a joint venture of ARY Films and Riaz Shahid Films, this film is the remake of bollywood most controversial film Arth by Mahesh Bhatt. The second film which was screened was Kambakht a comedy-thriller starring Hamza Ali Abbasi., this was followed by first Pakistani art-film Mah-e-Meer starring Fahad Mustafa as Mir Taqi Mir. and Yasir Jaswal's Jalaibee was also screened where film's star cast promoted the film. Another one of the most awaited movie by mother-son Zeba Bakhtiar and Azaan Sami Khan's O21 directed by Summer Nicks was revealed.Chairman of ARY Group Salman Iqbal and Oscar-winner filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy revealed the first look of Pakistani first ever computer animated feature film 3 Bahadur, based on the story of 3 extraordinary children's with the enthusiasm of removing hate and evil from Pakistan. 3 Bahadur or 3B is a joint venture of ARY Films and SOB Films, and film is all set to release in summer 2015.