Saudi Arabia Picks 'A Matter of Life & Death' for Oscars — SkimNews
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- The Saudi Film Commission selected Anas Ba Tahaf's 'A Matter of Life and Death' as Saudi Arabia's official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards.
- The film stars Yaqoub Alfarhan as a heart surgeon with bradycardia and Sarah Taibah — who also wrote the screenplay — as a woman convinced a generational curse will kill her on her 30th birthday, in a Jeddah-set romantic black comedy that blends fantasy and gothic animation.
- 'A Matter of Life and Death' world premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival in December 2025, opened theatrically in Saudi Arabia on June 25, 2026, and earned Taibah the Golden Palm for Best Acting plus a Jury Special Mention at the 12th Saudi Film Festival.
- Director Ba Tahaf previously served as coproducer, editor, and first assistant director on 'Barakah Meets Barakah,' which represented Saudi Arabia at the 89th Academy Awards.
- The film is produced by Mohamed Hefzy's Film Clinic, Front Row Filmed Entertainment, and Arabia Pictures, with Front Row handling international sales and the Red Sea Fund providing support.
- Saudi Arabia has been submitting films to the Oscars since 2013, starting with Haifaa Al-Mansour's 'Wadjada,' followed by 'Barakah Meets Barakah' (2016) and 'Hijra' — but has yet to receive a nomination.
Why it matters: Saudi Arabia is betting on a genre-bending local rom-com with gothic animation and a Jeddah identity to break a 13-year Oscar-submission streak that has yet to produce a nomination. With Sarah Taibah both writing and starring — and the country continuing to invest in cinema since lifting its 35-year ban in 2017 — the entry functions as a showcase of post-ban Saudi filmmaking to international buyers and Academy voters alike.
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