Iraq Picks 'No Paradise' for Oscars Best International — SkimNews
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- Iraq's National Selection Committee unanimously selected Halkawt Mustafa's 'No Paradise If You Are Killed By A Woman' as the country's Best International Feature Film entry for the 99th Academy Awards, citing 'mature directorial vision' and 'cohesive integration of visual and technical craftsmanship.'
- The film stars Avan Jamal as female Peshmerga sniper Vyan, who heads to Mosul to rescue her younger sister from ISIS; supporting cast includes Thorbjørn Harr, Kanar Sarchl, and Kader Jalal.
- Director Halkawt Mustafa, born in Iraqi Kurdistan and a child refugee to Norway, rooted the story in his 2014 encounter with a female Peshmerga sniper as women moved into frontline positions against Islamic State; he said the film honors 'the women who refused to bow to darkness.'
- Mustafa's prior credits include documentary 'Hiding Saddam Hussein' (about the farmer who sheltered the deposed dictator for 235 days in 2003), Iraq's 2016 Oscar submission 'The Classic,' and 2015's 'The Women ISIS Fears.'
- The film's Venice premiere will run Out of Competition early next week, ahead of Oscar consideration; the production is handled by Hene Films with co-producers La Media (Iraqi Kurdistan) and The Chimney Pot (Sweden), with True Colours on international sales.
- Iraq's 2025-26 awards momentum was fueled by Hasan Hadi's 'The President's Cake,' which won the Cannes Caméra d'Or and became the country's first feature to reach the Oscar December short list.
Why it matters: Iraq's submission arrives on the heels of its first-ever Oscar short-listed feature ('The President's Cake') and hands a Venice world premiere director — one with a prior 2016 submission — another shot at the shortlist, this time from a Norwegian-Kurdish filmmaker telling a female Peshmerga story rooted in his own childhood displacement from Iraqi Kurdistan.
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