'Hanging by a Wire' selected as Pakistan's first documentary Oscar submission

Pakistan's art is set to mark another milestone as the documentary thriller ‘Hanging by a Wire’ has been selected as Pakistan’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards, becoming the first documentary chosen to represent the country in the category.

The announcement was made by Pakistan Academy Selection Committee Deputy Chairperson Sana Zahra Jafri on October 1 during the premiere at the Mosaic International Film Festival (MISAFF) in Canada.

The documentary is expected to be released in Pakistan this year; however, the date has not been announced yet.

The nonfiction film, 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.

“I felt that the film captures something deeply recognisable about us as Pakistanis,” Sana Zahra Jafri shared views about the documentary film.

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.