Pakistan has selected Mo Naqvi’s documentary thriller Hanging By a Wire as its official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards, announced Deadline.
The selection marks the first time Pakistan has chosen a documentary for the category.
The film recounts the August 2023 cable car emergency in Battagram, northern Pakistan, when six schoolchildren and two adults were stranded around 900 feet above the ground after a cable snapped.
Directed by Naqvi and written and produced by Naqvi and Bilal Sami, the film combines eyewitness footage, survivor testimony and cinematic reconstructions featuring people involved in the rescue.
“I’m honored that Hanging by a Wire has been selected to represent Pakistan in the International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards, and grateful to the Pakistan Academy Selection Committee,” Naqvi told Deadline.
“It’s a straight-up disaster film, except it really happened, and you’re watching real footage of it unfolding live,” he added. “The community on the ground filmed it themselves and trusted me with that footage, so in a real sense they co-authored this film with me.”
Naqvi also described the film as a story about resilience and resourcefulness during the rescue effort.
Sana Zahra Jafri, deputy chairperson of the Pakistan Academy Selection Committee, said, “The selection marks a historic milestone for Pakistani documentary filmmaking and brings an extraordinary story from northern Pakistan to the International Feature Film Oscar race.”
The documentary premiered in the World Cinema Documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival and has since screened at Tribeca, Seattle and Sydney film festivals.
Hanging By a Wire is produced by EverWonder Studio, Universal Pictures Content Group, Mindhouse Productions and 64th Street Media.
