Pakistani documentary 'Kids Fight' - A Fight for Identity has won Runner-Up in the Video People Category at the 2026 ABU Together for Planet, People, Peace Media Awards, presented by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU).
The recognition is being seen as a major moment for Pakistan’s documentary and broadcasting landscape, as it marks the country’s first winning recognition in the Global Broadcasting Union’s Media Awards.
Filmed over eight years in Lahore, 'Kids Fight' is a longitudinal coming-of-age documentary that follows four boys as they move through childhood, poverty, mentorship, crime, family breakdown and the search for belonging.
While the film begins inside an MMA gym, its real subject is not fighting as a sport. Instead, the documentary explores childhood and what happens when young people are forced to grow up without consistent protection, support or care.
MMA gym becomes lens into childhood
Rather than focusing on MMA as a sport, 'Kids Fight' uses the gym as a lens into the fragile social structures that shape young lives. The documentary observes how children search for identity and stability in environments where opportunity is limited and the consequences of neglect can arrive early.
Sarah Tareen, the director and producer of the film, said the award is meaningful because 'Kids Fight' was never simply a film about MMA.
“The gym became a place where the boys’ lives revealed something much larger about how childhood is shaped when protection is missing, when mentorship arrives unevenly, and when a child is forced to make adult choices too early,” Tareen said.
S. Izmerai Durrani, producer of 'Kids Fight', said the recognition reflects the importance of stories that follow young people beyond a single moment in their lives.
“What makes 'Kids Fight' powerful is that it does not look at these boys through one event or one headline,” Durrani said.
Durrani said the recognition of a Pakistani documentary by the ABU T4P Media Awards is an important moment because such stories deserve to be seen with care, dignity and complexity.
