Afghanistan's Only Astronaut Takes Centre Stage as 'Forgotten Spaceman' Grows Its Producer Ranks Ahead of Toronto
A documentary short about Afghanistan's first and only astronaut has added two production companies to its executive-producer ranks ahead of its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, Variety reported on 16 August.
Khan & Kumar Media and Prism Entertainment have come aboard Forgotten Spaceman as executive producers, joining existing executive producers Jack Thomas O'Brien of Sixteen Films and Catherine Tschaepe. Sharib Khan and Vikas Kumar represent Khan & Kumar Media; Shruti Ganguly, Priya Giri Desai and Megha Kadakia represent Prism. Lorraine Bhattachary of MonoFilm Productions produces, with Dheeraj Agnihotri as associate producer. María Vera of Kino Rebelde handles international sales and festival strategy (Variety).
The film is written, directed and edited by Elham Ehsas, a BAFTA-nominated filmmaker whose short Yellow earned a BAFTA nomination in 2024. His earlier short There Will Come Soft Rains won best film at both Raindance and Encounters Film Festival, and his debut feature Our Kind of Love is currently in development with the BFI (Variety).
Forgotten Spaceman tells the story of Abdul Ahad Momand, who flew to the Mir space station in 1988. During an orbital call home to his mother, Momand became the first person to speak Pashto in space — making it the fourth language ever used there. The documentary follows Ehsas as he discovers his own unexpected ties to Momand's story, threading themes of home, identity, exile and belonging (Variety).
The film is a 2026 Afghanistan–United Kingdom co-production (The Film Stage). It had its world premiere at the 79th Locarno Film Festival, screening on 9 August at La Sala as part of the Pardi di Domani — the Leopard of Tomorrow — official selection (Hollywood Reporter; Instagram).
At Locarno's Junior Jury Awards, Forgotten Spaceman won the Leopard of Tomorrow in the International Competition category (Variety).
The Toronto Film Festival now serves as the film's North American premiere — the second major festival stop on a run that began in Switzerland earlier this month. For a short documentary, landing both Locarno and Toronto on the festival circuit is a strong pairing: Locarno's Pardi di Domani sections are a recognised launchpad for emerging directors, while Toronto's programme carries wide industry and audience reach.
With the new executive-producer additions and Kino Rebelde steering international sales, the film enters Toronto with more commercial infrastructure than it had at its Locarno premiere. Festival premieres function as a marketplace as much as a showcase — sales agents and buyers use them to decide which films reach wider distribution. For Forgotten Spaceman, the question at Toronto will be whether that prize-winning momentum translates into acquisition interest.
