Iranian Filmmaker Takes Afghan Refugee Girl to Oscar
By Alireza Bahrami
TEHRAN: An Iranian documentary filmmaker has taken an Afghan girl to the top of the European festival stage and is now leading her to an Oscar.
“The Fox Under A Pink Moon” is the latest documentary film by Mehrdad Oskouei, an Iranian documentary filmmaker who has been honored at festivals around the world. It made its first international appearance, in the main competition section, at the 2025 International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA). The film was selected as the best feature documentary.
This is Mehrdad Oskouei’s third award from the world’s most prestigious documentary film festival (IDFA). He also won the Best Director award in 2018 with his film “Sunless Shadows.”
Reputable documentary film media outlets wrote positive notes and reviews about Oskouei’s new film before it was selected for this edition of the IDFA festival. These positive reactions continued after the film won at IDFA.
The film “Fox Under A Pink Moon” tells the story of the life and journey of Soraya, an Afghan girl who has lived in Iran since childhood but plans to reach her mother in Austria. Her mother has become a refugee in Europe.
The entire film was shot over a period of several years with a mobile phone camera that Mehrdad Oskouei had provided to Soraya. Therefore, Oskouei announced that he was co-directing the film with Soraya, and this was also mentioned in the film’s credits and ID.
When accepting the IDFA award, both Soraya and Mehrdad were on stage and received the award.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has designated 31 festivals where the winners of the Feature Documentary Award at these festivals are automatically eligible to submit their work to the Academy. The IDFA festival is one of these festivals. Therefore, “Fox Under A Pink Moon” has met the conditions for submission for consideration at the 98th Academy Awards in 2026.
It remains to be seen whether the film’s heroine (Soraya) can speak about Afghan girls and their dreams on the Oscars stage, which is what she did at IDFA.
