Hanging by a Wire: Pakistan’s 2027 Oscars Pick

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Pakistan has picked Mohammed Ali Naqvi’s documentary “Hanging by a Wire” as its submission for the best international feature film prize at the 2027 Oscars.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film revisits an August 2023 cable car emergency in Battagram, in northern Pakistan. Six schoolboys were riding to school when a cable snapped and left them about 900 feet above a ravine. The rescue was broadcast live to audiences in Pakistan and around the world.

The outlet also reports that the documentary premiered at Sundance, combines eyewitness footage, survivor testimony and cinematic reconstructions with rescue workers, and that Naqvi and Bilal Sami wrote and produced it.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Richard Lawson writes in his review: “What works best in the film, as is often the case with movies such as this, is the stitching together of actual footage from the ordeal, both the fuzzy faraway phone videos and the stomach-plunging drone shots capturing these young men in staggering close-up as they sit precariously in the overturned gondola, waiting desperately for rescue.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film’s production companies include EverWonder Studio, Universal Pictures Content Group, Mindhouse Productions and 64th Street Media. The same report says Dogwoof will handle the theatrical release in the U.K., and Abramorama will release it in the U.S. Paramount+ will start streaming it Oct. 28, 2026, the report says.

If you remember the live coverage, this is the fuller story. If not, Oct. 28 is the date to put on your list.

• Hanging by a Wire
• Mohammed Ali Naqvi
• Oscars
• Pakistan
• Paramount+
• Richard Lawson