Iraq Picks Halkawt Mustafa's Venice-Premiering Thriller for Oscar Race
Iraq has selected Halkawt Mustafa's No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman as its official submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards, due to be held on 14 March 2027 (The Hollywood Reporter).
The choice was unanimous. Iraq's National Selection Committee — a body mandated by the state ministry of culture — picked the film without dissent, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The Norwegian Film Institute, which announced the selection on 4 September 2026, described the project as a Norwegian-Iraqi feature (Norwegian Film Institute). Deadline corroborated the news the same day (Deadline).
The film follows Vyan, a Kurdish sniper who suppressed her emotions to survive war, as she returns to Mosul to rescue her younger sister, missing since the 2014 ISIS assault on the city. Avan Jamal stars as Vyan, alongside Thorbjørn Harr, Kanar Sarchl and Kader Jalal. The film runs 110 minutes in Kurdish and Norwegian (TIFF).
Mustafa was born in Iraqi Kurdistan and fled to Norway as a child. The screenplay drew from his encounter with a female Peshmerga sniper during the 2014 frontline battles. He is no stranger to either the Oscar process or the subject matter: his film The Classic was Iraq's submission in 2016, and his 2015 documentary The Women ISIS Fears also examined the world of female Kurdish fighters. His other credits include Hiding Saddam Hussein, a documentary about the farmer who concealed the Iraqi dictator for 235 days in 2003.
Production took place on location in Mosul — the same city where the story is set. Hene Films produced, with La Media and The Chimney Pot as co-producers, in a Norway-Iraq-Sweden co-production. True Colours is handling international sales. The film had its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival before screening as a Market Screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, where buyers and sales agents survey upcoming titles.
For Mustafa, the Oscar submission is a second trip to the same well: an Iraqi-Kurdish filmmaker who left the country as a child, now telling a story anchored in Mosul and shot in the streets where it unfolds. The committee's unanimous vote suggests the film resonated at home as well as on the festival circuit.
The road ahead follows the Academy's established calendar. The 15-film shortlist for Best International Feature will be announced on 15 December 2026, with five nominees named on 21 January 2027. The 99th Academy Awards ceremony takes place on 14 March 2027.
