Pakistan Sends Documentary 'Hanging by a Wire' to the Oscars

Pakistan has selected Mohammed Ali Naqvi's documentary thriller "Hanging by a Wire" as its submission for the international feature film Oscar at the 99th Academy Awards. It is the first time a documentary has represented the country in the category.

The Pakistan Academy Selection Committee announced the pick, calling it a historic milestone for Pakistani documentary filmmaking. Sana Zahra Jafri, deputy chair of the committee, issued the announcement.

Naqvi directed the film and wrote and produced it with Bilal Sami. "Hanging by a Wire" revisits the August 2023 cable car emergency in Battagram, in northern Pakistan. A snapped cable left eight passengers — six of them schoolboys on their way to school — suspended roughly 900 feet above a ravine. The rescue effort that followed was broadcast live across Pakistan and internationally.

The film builds its account from footage shot by witnesses, testimony from survivors and staged reenactments involving people who took part in the rescue.

"Hanging by a Wire" premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition lineup, then screened at the Tribeca Festival.

EverWonder Studio, Universal Pictures Content Group, Mindhouse Productions and 64th Street Media produced the film. Dogwoof holds U.K. theatrical distribution rights, and Abramorama will handle the U.S. theatrical release. The film streams on Paramount+ starting Oct. 28.

The selection brings the Battagram rescue story into the International Feature Film race as Pakistan's representative for this awards cycle.

Pakistan has submitted 13 films in the category since 1959 without securing a nomination. Saim Sadiq's "Joyland" marked the country's only shortlist appearance, in 2022. "Hanging by a Wire" now carries the chance to change that record — and to test whether a documentary can break through in a category long dominated by fiction.