A Blackburn film-maker has been honoured at a recent awards ceremony for a project he co-wrote.
Sufiyaan Salam won Best British Short Film at the 2025 British Independent Film Awards for MAGID / ZAFAR, the project he co-wrote with director Luís Hindman.
The win marks a major milestone for Salam, who is now the second British Pakistani to receive the award, following Riz Ahmed’s win for The Long Goodbye in 2020.
Salam said it felt “mad” to have won, admitting he is not usually someone who celebrates his achievements, but that this moment felt too big to ignore.
He attended the ceremony alongside co-writer and director Luís Hindman, producer Aidan Robert Brooks, his agent and team members from Film4 and the British Film Institute.
He recalled seeing A-list actors Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Celia Imrie, and Alexander Skarsgard walking around the venue.
When the winner was read out, he did not even hear the announcement because of the shock.
He only realised they had won when he saw Luís and Aidan’s reaction, before being brought on stage, where they all paid tribute to their mothers.
Sufiyaan said: “It only really dawned on me that we had actually won once we had been ushered off the stage, getting our official portraits taken with David Jonsson.
"Then, finally, I was like, this is crazy. I am very grateful that this film, written and directed by two Asian men, featuring a cast of Asian characters in an Asian location, got to win Best British Short Film.”
MAGID / ZAFAR follows two British Asian men, who were once childhood friends, confronting each other over their diverging futures inside the heat and pressure of a Pakistani restaurant.
The cast includes Eben Figueiredo as Magid, Gurjeet Singh as Zafar, Ravin J Ganatra as Mamoo Tauqeer, and Kulvinder Ghir as Bilal.
Salam and Hindman have worked together for years, beginning with music videos before deciding to move into narrative work.
The idea for the character Magid came early from their interest in exploring a British Asian 'bad boy' performance of hyper-masculinity, and slowly stripping it back to reveal the truth behind the bravado.
They were also reacting to an under-representation of British Asian spaces in cinema.
Salam wanted to show a British-Pakistani setting with the same beauty and intensity seen in films like Uncut Gems and Chungking Express.
The soundtrack reflects that energy, featuring music from South Asian artists Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Swet Shop Boys, and M.I.A.
Although the film was shot in London, the inspiration came from the takeaways and restaurants he grew up around in Lancashire.
He spoke warmly about spots across Blackburn and about family visits to Wilmslow Road, Manchester, also known as 'Curry Mile'.
One of his earliest memories is spending time in Kebabish, where he remembers the fire shooting up from the grills and the lively atmosphere inside.
Reflecting on his journey, Salam said, “It’s a bit of a cliche to say, but when you grow up in Blackburn, in a working-class family, during times of austerity and reduction in arts funding, it’s very difficult to see any way into the film industry.
"But what Blackburn did give me is real stories, and a proper sense of community.”
He began writing as a child and took it seriously while studying English Literature at the University of Manchester.
He wrote short stories, novels, TV pilots, and film scripts and sent them to competitions, agents, and anyone who would read them.
He said that in the early stages, “you have to be almost deluded because the odds are so stacked against you," but he continued simply because he loved making things.
He and Luis Hindman began writing the film in early 2023, unsure if they would ever receive funding.
They were eventually selected for Film4 and BFI’s FutureTakes scheme and shot the film in December that year.
It spent most of 2024 in edit and premiered at the opening night of the London Film Festival in 2025. It has since screened internationally from New York to Sydney.
Salam’s creative work is continuing to grow, with his debut novel, WIMMY ROAD BOYZ, to be published by Penguin Random House in May 2026 after winning Stormzy’s Merky Books New Writers Prize.
READ MORE: 'It’s still sinking in': Sufiyaan wins Stormzy's #Merky Books prize
He said the book is inspired by Wilmslow Road and follows three young British Muslim men on a chaotic night out on the Curry Mile.
He describes it as a fast-paced story about friendship, heartbreak, and the experience of growing up Muslim in Britain today, while still being funny and full of energy.
He added that with both MAGID / ZAFAR and WIMMY ROAD BOYZ he is not trying to make work that is defined only by being Asian or Muslim, but work that stands on its own while embracing those parts of himself.
He said, “Qawallis and rap battles and doing laps on Wilmslow Road are all British culture now.
"I am just trying to show it off.”
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