‘Hanging by a Wire’ has been selected as Pakistan’s first documentary to be submitted for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards, marking a historic milestone for the country’s cinema. The announcement was made by Pakistan Academy Selection Committee Deputy Chairperson Sana Zahra Jafri on October 1 during the film’s premiere at the Mosaic International Film Festival in Canada.
The documentary, directed and written by Mohammed Ali Naqvi alongside producer Bilal Sami, revisits the dramatic August 2023 cable car emergency in Battagram, in which eight passengers, including seven schoolboys, were left suspended around 600 feet above a ravine after a cable snapped. The incident prompted a major rescue operation that was closely watched in Pakistan and internationally.
Pakistan Army personnel managed to rescue one person using a helicopter. To save the remaining seven, zipline experts Ali Swati and Sahib Khan were brought in. After nearly 12 hours of an intense rescue operation, all eight people were eventually brought to safety.
The film features eyewitness footage, survivors’ testimonies and cinematic reconstructions, and premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition before screening at the Tribeca Festival in mid-2026.
Naqvi, a recipient of a Television Academy Honour and four-time Emmy nominee, said the film was made possible in part by footage recorded and shared by people in the affected community. He called the film’s selection at the 99th Academy Awards “a great honour and a matter of immense pride” for him.
“Wherever we have screened the film so far — at Sundance, Tribeca, Sydney, Australia, and London, UK — audiences have received it with great enthusiasm. However, sharing this story with the people of my own country, Pakistan, is particularly meaningful and a source of great joy and pride for me. Pakistani audiences have the strongest connection with this film and understand its story most deeply,” he told Geo.tv.
He expressed hope and excitement to bring the film to Pakistani theatres in the coming months. Naqvi said the film’s story deeply relates to Pakistan. “It is a tale of courage, perseverance and finding a way forward with whatever resources are available in difficult circumstances. It is a great honour for me to share it with audiences around the world and to showcase the best side of Pakistan and its people,” he added.
“I felt that the film captures something deeply recognisable about us as Pakistanis,” Sana Zahra Jafri shared about the documentary.
For the 2026 selection cycle, Naqvi stepped down as chairperson of the academy to submit his own film. The committee was headed by Jafri and included actors Marina Khan and Hina Bayat, artist Misha Japanwala, director Nabeel Qureshi, actress Tamkenat Mansoor, director-producer Shahzad Rafique and producer Badar Ikram.
Hanging by a wire is expected to be released in Pakistan this year, though the date has not been announced yet. As Pakistan’s first documentary Oscar submission, ‘Hanging by a Wire‘ not only honours the resilience shown during the 2023 rescue but also signals a new chapter for the country’s documentary filmmaking on the global stage.
Source: Geo News