Pakistan sends documentary 'Hanging by a Wire' to international Oscars race
Pakistan has chosen a documentary for its International Feature Film Oscar entry for the first time.
Mohammed Ali Naqvi's "Hanging by a Wire" will represent the country at the 99th Academy Awards, Variety reported on 2 Oct 2026. The category honours feature-length films made outside the United States, largely in a language other than English.
The selection was made by the Pakistan Academy Selection Committee. Deputy chair Sana Zahra Jafri issued the announcement. Naqvi directed the film and wrote and produced it with Bilal Sami.
The film revisits the August 2023 Battagram cable-car emergency in northern Pakistan. A snapped cable left eight passengers suspended about 900 feet above a ravine. Six of them were schoolboys.
It is a first. No documentary has previously carried Pakistan's submission in this category.
"Hanging by a Wire" started its public run at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. It played in the World Cinema Documentary Competition, the festival strand for non-United States documentaries. It then played at the Tribeca Festival. The film is a US-UK-Pakistan co-production, as listed in Sundance line-up coverage, Variety.
The production credits include EverWonder Studio, Universal Pictures Content Group, Mindhouse Productions and 64th Street Media. Dogwoof holds UK theatrical distribution rights, which covers cinema release in Britain. Abramorama handles the US theatrical release. A streaming release on Paramount+ is set for 28 Oct.
Pakistan has a long, difficult record in the category. The country has submitted 13 films since 1959 without securing a nomination. Saim Sadiq's "Joyland" in 2022 remains its only appearance on the shortlist, the narrowed list published before nominations, Variety.
That history includes a recent absence. Pakistan's officially selected submission "Hun Dan - An Echo of a Dirge" failed to reach the Academy Awards because of administrative hurdles, ScreenAnarchy reported. The field remains tight each year. Fifteen films advanced to the next round of voting in the category for the 98th Academy Awards, according to the Academy.
What makes this stand out is the route to the screen. A festival launch at Sundance and Tribeca, followed by cinema releases in Britain and America and then streaming, is the standard path for an independent documentary seeking a wide audience. For Pakistan, putting that kind of title forward in a category usually filled by fiction features is new.
For viewers new to the race, this stage is only the entry. Each country can submit one film. The Academy then narrows the field to a shortlist and then to final nominees.
