Kino Lorber Acquires 'A Fox Under a Pink Moon,' IDFA-Winning Doc Built From a Stateless Teen's Phone Footage
Kino Lorber has acquired North American distribution rights to A Fox Under a Pink Moon, the IDFA award-winning documentary co-directed by Mehrdad Oskouei and Soraya Akhlaghi, according to Deadline. The deal brings a film with a remarkable origin story to cinemas across the United States and Canada later in 2026, with digital, educational and home video releases to follow.
The film won the top prize at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2025 — the world's largest documentary festival — and has since collected awards at ZagrebDox in Croatia, Docville in Leuven, Belgium, Tempo Documentary Festival in Stockholm, and Full Frame in Durham, North Carolina.
What sets the film apart is how it was made. Akhlaghi, who co-directs, is a 16-year-old sculptor and artist of Afghan descent, born in Iran and effectively stateless. She has spent five years trying to leave Iran to join her mother in Europe. The documentary was built from years of Akhlaghi's own cell phone footage and video calls with Oskouei, the veteran Iranian film-maker who directed and produced the project. Akhlaghi is also credited as cinematographer and sound engineer, according to ZagrebDox.
Joining the film as executive producer is David Borenstein, who won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for Mr. Nobody Against Putin, co-directed with Pavel Talankin. That connection runs deeper than a credit line: Kino Lorber also served as the North American distributor of Mr. Nobody Against Putin, making this acquisition a second collaboration with Borenstein's orbit.
Kino Lorber, a New York-based distributor specialising in independent and international cinema, has been on a steady acquisition run. Its website lists recent pickups including Judith Godrèche's A Girl's Story, based on the novel by Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux; Rodrigo Sorogoyen's The Beloved, starring Javier Bardem and Victoria Luengo; Reed Van Dyk's Cannes Directors' Fortnight selection Atonement; Manuela Martelli's Cannes Un Certain Regard entry The Meltdown; and Maya Annik Bedward's SXSW documentary Black Zombie.
For A Fox Under a Pink Moon, the theatrical release later in 2026 gives the film a traditional cinema run before it reaches streaming and home video — a strategy that keeps festival documentaries visible on the big screen, even as most viewing eventually shifts to digital platforms. The film's official website lists it as winner of the IDFA Award for Best Film in the International Competition, and its Instagram account notes a recent festival appearance at the Seville Documentary Film Festival in Baku, Azerbaijan.
A distributor's press release date and specific opening cities have not yet been announced.
