UK picks Pegah Ahangarani's 'Rehearsals for a Revolution' as its Oscar international feature entry

Mixed · 2The UK has selected Pegah Ahangarani's 'Rehearsals for a Revolution' as its entry in the Best International Feature Film category of the 99th Academy Awards. 1 2 Mixed · 2Sony Pictures Classics announced the selection. IndieWire reports the film was chosen by a selection committee made up of members of BAFTA's film committee. 1 2 Mixed · 2The film draws on Ahangarani's experience of exile from Iran and of rebuilding her life in London, using personal archives, home videos, street protest footage, newspapers and recorded voices to retrace about 40 years of Iran's history. Deadline says it runs from 1979 to the war that began in 2026 and was written in the UK. 1 2

Mixed · 2The debut feature premiered as a Special Screening at Cannes, where it won the L'Oeil d'Or. It then played at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals and recently received an Albie Award from the Maysles Documentary Center. 1 2 Mixed · 2Sony Pictures Classics will give the film qualifying runs in New York and Los Angeles in December. It will open exclusively at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles and the Film Forum in New York on 8 January 2027, then roll out nationally. IndieWire adds that it was released in the UK in September. 1 2 Left · 1IndieWire says the film had already been positioned by Sony Pictures Classics as a major Best Documentary contender and could now be nominated in both categories, as Collective, Honeyland and Flee were. It notes the international race faces tougher competition because the Academy changed its rules earlier this year, so films no longer need to be submitted by a country if they win a qualifying award at an international festival. 2

Mixed · 2In a statement, Sony Pictures Classics called the selection potentially 'truly transformative' for the film and for Ahangarani's career, and said the film is 'building incredible momentum'. 1 2