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UK Selects 'Rehearsals For A Revolution' For Best International Feature Film
Confirmed
In Short: The United Kingdom has selected Pegah Ahangarani’s documentary 'Rehearsals For A Revolution' as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards.
The film, which premiered as a Special Screening at the Cannes Film Festival and won the L’Oeil d’Or (Golden Eye), explores Ahangarani’s experience of exile as she rebuilds her life and creative practice in London.
Ahangarani, an Iranian filmmaker, pieces together intimate and collective memories from the early days of 1979 until the war that began in 2026, forming a portrait of a country shaped by political repression and constant hope for a revolution.
The documentary relies on personal archives, home videos, street protests footage, newspapers, and recorded voices to tell the story of 40 years of Iran’s history.
Sony Pictures Classics, which distributed the film, said it will give the film qualifying runs in New York and Los Angeles in December.
The UK selection committee, composed of members or representatives of BAFTA’s film committee, chose the film.
Ahangarani wrote, researched, and edited the film in the UK over more than two and a half years.
The film had its world premiere in the Special Screenings section at Cannes Film Festival this year, where it won the L’Oeil d’or award for best documentary across the festival’s sections.
It then screened at the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.
Sony Pictures Classics will hold Oscar-qualifying runs in New York and Los Angeles in December before opening the film exclusively at Landmark’s Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles and Film Forum in New York on January 12.
The film will then roll out to more theaters across the country in the following weeks.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the 15-film shortlist for the 2027 best international feature film Oscar on December 12.
What this adds
The film now has a chance to nab nominations in both the Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary categories, following in the footsteps of films like 'Collective,' 'Honeyland,' and 'Flee' which have achieved similar recognition.
The UK won its first Oscar in the best international feature category in 2024, for Jonathan Glazer’s 'The Zone Of Interest.'
Background
The United Kingdom has selected Pegah Ahangarani’s documentary 'Rehearsals for a Revolution' as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards.
What's confirmed
- “How extraordinary to see Pegah’s remarkable film recognized in this category. From winning the L’Oeil d’Or at Cannes to the standing ovations at TIFF and now this recognition, Rehearsals For A Revolution is building incredible momentum and marking a significant moment for a formidable female filmmaker creating in exile from her home country,” said SPC in a statement.
- The film explores Iranian filmmaker Ahangarani’s experience of exile as she rebuilds her life and creative practice in London, through five portraits of relatives and mentors, which are also expressions of resistance.
- The UK has selected Pegah Ahangarani’s Rehearsals For A Revolution as its entry to the Best International Feature Film category of the 99th Academy Awards.
- To tell her story and that of her native country, she relies on personal archives, home videos, street protests footage, newspapers, and recorded voices, while retracing 40 years of Iran’s history.
- “Rehearsals for a Revolution” was released in the U.K.
- London-based Ahangarani wrote, researched and edited the film in the UK over more than two and a half years.
What's still developing
- The UK played an integral role in the film’s journey, serving as the base where it was written.
- Sony Pictures Classics is fielding several contenders this season, including “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,” which is generating Oscar heat for John Turturro’s lead performance.
- It now has a chance to nab nominations in both categories.
- That’s something a handful of films, such as Romania’s “Collective,” North Macedonia’s “Honeyland,” and Denmark’s “Flee” have pulled off.
- In fact, “Flee” also earned a nomination in the Best Animated Feature category.
- Sony held a limited release for the film in the UK and Ireland on September 25.
- It is produced by Kaveh Farnam for the Czech Republic’s Media Nest and Adria Mones for Spain’s Fasten Films.
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- Co-writers on the film include Ehsan Abdipour, Amir Ahmadi Arian, Arash Ashtiani and Majed Neisi.
- The UK won its first Oscar in the best international feature category in 2024, for Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest.