COLOMBO - Afghan filmmaker Roya Sadat’s “A Letter to The President” won the Best Screenplay award at SAARC Film Festival in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday, July 7.
A Letter to the President, the 90-minute, full-length movie, took two years to complete.
The movie is about the miseries suffered by women in Afghanistan as well as about discrimination and violence against women in the country.
Starring Leena Alam, the move is written by Aziz Deldaar, produced by Roya Film House and co-produced by Kaboora Production.
The SAARC Film Festival has been held every year since 2011 and this is the ninth consecutive time that Sri Lanka is hosting this prestigious film festival.
The award was received by Afghanistan’s Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Mohammad Ashraf Haidari.
Of the 34 films from eight SAARC countries, four were from Afghanistan, including two short and two feature films, of which A Letter to the President received the award.
In total, 12 awards were handed out.
The following 12 awards were presented at the SAARC Film Awards 2019 on July 7, selected by a panel of jury members from non-SAARC member states
•    Best Feature Film
•    Best Director
•    Best Actor
•    Best Actress
•    Best Short Film
•    Best Screenplay
•    Best Cinematographer
•    Best Editor
•    Best Sound Designer
•    Best Original Score (Music Composer)
•    Special Jury Award No 1
•    Special Jury Award No 2
(Tolo news)

Abdullah says he hopes the intra-Afghan conference in Doha will help the peace process. 
KABUL - Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah on Monday welcomed the Intra-Afghan Dialogue Conference in Doha and said he hopes it will lead to direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
“It is expected that the meeting will lead to direct talks between the two sides including the government of Afghanistan and it will lead to peace,” Abdullah said at the Council of Ministers meeting on Monday.
Critics see direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban as a key to moving forward the peace process. 
The Intra-Afghan Dialogue Conference entered its second day on Monday where more than 50 delegates from Afghanistan and 17 representatives of the Taliban have attended on their “personal capacity” to discuss issues around the future of the peace efforts in the war-ravaged country.
The first day of the meeting was focused on wide-ranging discussions about the women’s rights, the freedom of the press, civilians protection, ceasefire, foreign forces withdrawal, the post-peace deal government, and other relevant issues, according to few delegates interviewed by TOLOnews.
Talking reporters, a spokesman of the Taliban, Suhail Shaheen, said the group is ready to entering intra-Afghan issues, including a ceasefire, when a timetable on foreign forces withdrawal from Afghanistan is announced.
The meeting was also welcomed by the Presidential Palace.
“It can be evaluated as progress [in the peace process] and an opportunity for those Afghans who are present there in the meeting to share their ideas with each other,” President Ghani’s spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told TOLOnews. (Tolo news)