Karachi, PAKISTAN – The Glassworker, Pakistan’s first hand-drawn animated feature film, will represent the country at the 2025 Oscars.
Usman Riaz, the director, main animator, and creative mind behind the film, is an alum of Karachi Grammar School, where he recently spoke to students about his work.
Riaz said he wanted to make an international film that showed Pakistan’s talent.
“Pakistan is known for many things, but hand-drawn animation is not one of them,” he said. “I want to change that.”
The Glassworker – highly anticipated by audiences intrigued by the innovative film – premiered July 26 in theaters all over Pakistan in both Urdu and English. It has been submitted for consideration in the Best International Feature Film category at next year’s Academy Awards.
It took Riaz a decade to make the movie, he said, because he had to start by making the tools he needed. It was no small feat. The Glassworker became a labor of love that eventually involved his wife and cousin.
Riaz made the film with the intention of capturing what it was like growing up as a creative young person in a post-9/11 world, particularly in a city like Karachi.
Driving past Karachi’s Sea View inspired him to make the film, he said. He used elements of Pakistani culture – showcasing colonial architecture, myths, traditional clothes and food – and mixed them together to create something new.
Determined to stay true to his cultural heritage, he ensured that even in the English version of the film, all voice actors were of South Asian descent.
Riaz said he also wanted to make a coming of age story, with themes of love, especially a love in challenging times. The main characters, Vincent and Alliz, struggle with their blossoming relationship, particularly due to frequent clashes between their fathers.
Riaz went to Japan to study directly from the masters in hand-drawn animation, seeking advice from his own childhood heroes in Studio Ghibli.
“I wanted to make a good film that we can proudly put up as our contribution to the amazing world of film,” Riaz said.
The film itself is centred on Vincent Oliver, a young boy who is an apprentice glassworker who is fated to take over his father’s shop.
Vincent meets a colonel’s daughter, Alliz, and the two begin an easy friendship.
But Alliz’s military-minded father clashes with Vincent’s pacifist father. The entire film is set against the backdrop of a war between Vincent’s country and an unnamed one, over a highly coveted strip of land.
Despite the heavy background of the film, it mostly focuses on Alliz and Vincent and how their relationship develops over the years, even when frowned upon by family.
They meet fantastical creatures – like the Djinn – and experience many hardships together. The overall messaging behind the film is staunchly anti-war, and Riaz said he was striving to remind audiences that no matter the outcome of a war, people on both sides will always suffer.
Speaking to students in Karachi, Riaz shared his inspiring life story.
He was the youngest TED fellow in 2012 and the youngest TED senior fellow in 2014. A multi-instrumentalist, he won a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied until work on The Glassworker pulled him away.
In 2015, Usman formed his animation company, Mano Animation Studios, with his wife and co-founder, Mariam Riaz Paracha.
His cousin, Khizer Riaz, is the CEO of the company and co-producer of the film. Usman Riaz said he shared his cousin’s dream to work together.
Speaking with the students in Karachi, Usman Riaz described his struggle to create this film – a long 10 years of constant toil.
He said he spent “years of work where every day was spent obsessing over this, even Sundays.” When asked how he made the film, he answered with a smile, quoting a producer he met at Studio Ghibli, “With great, great difficulty.”
From having to start his own animation studio, design his own animating tools, train animators, and win investors’ support, Usman had his work cut out for him.
But his passion was clear, and eventually he triumphed.
Asked about future projects, Riaz said that he has already begun planning. However, he begged for some time off – 10 years of little else but work has taken its toll.
He said he believes that true art requires original creation.
One “cannot create without experience,” said Riaz, asking audiences to enjoy The Glassworker for now while he works on collecting more life experiences.
When asked if he had any advice for aspiring animators, actors or generally creative young people, he said that they should remember, “You aren’t going to make everyone happy.”
He urged young people to seek their passions, and left them with this parting advice:
“There’s a whole world out there and you have to reach out and grab it.”
Anya Farooqui is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
