The actor said she felt "incredibly fortunate"
Actor Dananeer Mobeen was in Moscow to receive the Diamond Butterfly Award for Best Actress.
She was honoured at the second Open Eurasian Film Awards for her performance in the film Mera Lyari.
In an Instagram post on November 13, 2026, Mobeen spoke about what the recognition meant to her.
She said: “Being honoured for a role that celebrates women, their strength, their resilience and their right to pursue their dreams is an honour I find difficult to put into words.”
Mobeen said women’s stories deserved to be told. She added:
“Stories about women who challenge expectations, break barriers, find their voices and dare to occupy spaces they were never encouraged to enter.”
The actor said she felt “incredibly fortunate” to be part of a story that stood for something beyond entertainment.
She said: “If this film has inspired even one girl to believe that she belongs wherever her heart takes her, then it has done something truly meaningful.”
Mobeen thanked everyone who believed in the film and helped bring it to life.
She also thanked the audiences who embraced the film with open arms.
The film’s director, Ali Sajjad Shah, also shared a post about the award.
He said Mobeen’s win was the result of the whole team’s effort.
He gave special credit to producers Waqas Rizvi and Ayesha Omar.
The Diamond Butterfly Awards were first held in 2025.
They are presented by the Eurasian Academy for Cinematographic Arts in partnership with the Russian Ministry of Culture.
Mobeen’s win is Pakistan’s second in as many editions of the awards.
Sonya Hussyn took home the Best Supporting Actress award last year for her role in Deemak.
The recognition is a prize in itself, but the winners also receive something extra.
Diamond Butterfly laureates are presented with a statuette encrusted with 5,000 lab-grown diamonds.
They are also given a diamond from mines in Russia’s eastern Sakha Republic.
The winner of Best Film receives a 10-carat piece, while all other recipients get five-carat gems.
Last year, just the smaller diamonds were valued at over $250,000, according to the organisers and the Russian embassy in Islamabad.
Overall, 41 films from 19 countries were nominated this year.
The top prize went to August, a Russian war film directed by Nikita Vysotsky and Ilya Lebedev.
Kyrgyz director Kanybek Kalmatov was among the other winners for Aitmatov.
Iranian screenwriter Alireza Motamedi won for Daughter of the Fairy Lady.
Kazakh actor Zhasulan Kopbergenov was also honoured for his role in Restart.
