UK Picks Iranian Exile Documentary for Oscar Race — SkimNews
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- The UK selected Pegah Ahangarani's "Rehearsals For A Revolution" as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards, with Sony Pictures Classics announcing the choice.
- Ahangarani's film retraces more than 40 years of Iran's history — from 1979 to the war that began in 2026 — drawing on personal archives, home videos, protest footage, and recorded voices in five portraits of relatives and mentors framed as acts of resistance.
- Sony Pictures Classics acquired distribution rights for North America, Latin America, Asia (excluding Japan), New Zealand, Turkey, Portugal, and global airlines out of Cannes and will stage qualifying runs in New York and L.A. in December.
- "Rehearsals For A Revolution" opens exclusively at Landmark's Nuart Theatre in L.A. and Film Forum in New York on January 8, 2027, before expanding nationwide.
- The documentary won the L'Oeil d'Or (Golden Eye) at Cannes as a Special Screening, played at Telluride and TIFF, and recently received an Albie Award from the Maysles Documentary Center.
Why it matters: A deeply personal Iranian exile documentary — written in London by a woman working outside her home country — now carries the UK's flag in the Best International Feature Film race, a platform that could turbocharge its reach. Sony Pictures Classics' January 8, 2027 openings at Landmark's Nuart and Film Forum give it prime awards-season real estate after a Cannes Golden Eye win.
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