Pakistani actress Dananeer Mobeen has won the Best Actress Diamond Butterfly Award at the second Open Eurasian Film Awards for her performance in the film “Mera Lyari”. She accepted the honour at a ceremony in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday.
The win adds to the international recognition that Pakistan’s film industry has been receiving. Mobeen’s performance has also drawn attention to Pakistani cinema’s portrayal of women who push against social barriers in pursuit of their goals.
Mera Lyari follows girls who dream of football
In the film, Mobeen plays Afsana, a young girl from Lyari in Karachi who wants to play football. Her ambition runs against societal restrictions and the opposition of her father.
The story is also built around a disabled football coach, played by Ayesha Omar. The coach returns to Lyari after leaving an abusive marriage and sets up football trials for local girls. Afsana and another character, Kashmala, face family limits and the threat of a forced marriage respectively. Both turn to the sport, and they train in secret in the hope of earning a chance to represent the country at the national level.
After the win, Mobeen shared her happiness on social media. She said it was a great honour to be recognised for a film that shows women’s strength, courage and resilience, and their right to chase their dreams. She stressed that stories of women who challenge expectations, overcome obstacles and make room for themselves in fields where they were not traditionally encouraged needed to be told.
The actress said she felt lucky to be part of a project with a purpose beyond entertainment. In her view, the film would have achieved something meaningful if it inspired even one girl to believe in her dreams and act on them.
Film director Ali Sajjad Shah also congratulated Mobeen. He described the result as the outcome of the whole team’s joint effort and specifically thanked producers Waqas Rizvi and Ayesha Omar.
Pakistan’s second straight year at the Diamond Butterfly Awards
The Diamond Butterfly Awards were launched in 2025 and are organised by the Eurasian Academy of Cinematographic Arts in collaboration with Russia’s Ministry of Culture. With Mobeen’s win, Pakistan has taken an award at both editions of the event.
Last year, Pakistani actress Sonya Hussyn received the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in the film Deemak. This year’s ceremony featured 41 nominated films from 19 countries. The Best Film award went to the Russian war film August, directed by Nikita Vysotsky and Ilya Lebedev. Other notable winners included Kyrgyz director Kanybek Kalmatov, Iranian screenwriter Alireza Motamedi and Kazakh actor Zhasulan Kupergenov.
The trophy is decorated with 5,000 lab-grown diamonds. Winners also receive a diamond sourced from mines in Russia’s eastern Sakha Republic. The Best Film winner gets a 10-carat stone, while winners in other categories receive five-carat diamonds. According to statements issued last year by the organisers and the Russian Embassy in Islamabad, the smaller diamonds alone were valued at more than $250,000.
From a viral video to a film debut
Mobeen belongs to a Pashtun family from Peshawar. Her father previously served as a brigadier in the Pakistan Army, and she grew up in a military household before becoming known on social media and then entering the entertainment industry.
She rose to fame in February 2021, after posting a short Instagram video recorded with friends during a trip to Nathia Gali. Her line “Yeh hamari car hai, yeh hum hain aur yeh hamari pawri ho rahi hai” (This is our car, this is us, and this is our party) spread quickly across Pakistan, India and beyond. Indian music producer Yashraj Mukhate later made a musical remix of the clip, which turned the phrase into a major trend and earned her the nickname ‘Pawri Girl’.
Mobeen made her acting debut in the 2021 drama serial “Sinf-e-Aahan”, playing Syeda Sidra Batool. That performance earned her the Best Emerging TV Actress award at the Lux Style Awards. She later gained wider recognition for playing Zubia in the 2023 drama “Mohabbat Gumshuda Meri”. In 2024, she also appeared in Very Filmy and “Meem Se Mohabbat”.
She made her film debut with “Mera Lyari” in 2026. The Best Actress honour in Russia now stands as her first major international recognition.
