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Pakistan is set to mark another milestone in its journey with the Academy Awards after the country’s Academy selection committee chose Mohammed Ali ‘Mo’ Naqvi’s documentary film Hanging by a Wire to represent the country in the Best International Feature category.

This marks the first time a documentary has been chosen to represent Pakistan at the awards. The country first submitted a film in the category in 1959 and did not receive a nomination with any of its 13 entries so far — the best Pakistan has ever done was in 2022, when Saim Sadiq’s Joyland scored a spot on the shortlist for nominations.

Directed by Naqvi, who also wrote and produced it alongside Bilal Sami, the film follows the harrowing Battagram cable car incident from 2023.

The incident took place in August 2023 and involved eight people — including six children of varying ages — getting stuck on a local cable car 900 feet above a raging river.

The passengers, who got stuck early in the morning, were all rescued, with the operation continuing late into the night. After an initial helicopter rescue only managed to save two of the children, rescuers retrieved the remaining passengers by sliding to the stranded cable car along one of the remaining cables and bringing its occupants back one-by-one late into the night.

The cable car, which crossed the Jhangri River, was the only way children in the area could cross the river in the absence of roads and bridges.

In a press release in July, Naqvi said, “To me, this film is a statement about what Pakistani cinema can be. A story from our mountains, told by our own people, can be a full-blooded action thriller — it can open Sundance, play the world’s biggest festivals, and be backed by a major Hollywood studio.”

He said Pakistan’s stories didn’t “have to be small or solemn to matter” and that he hoped his film “opens doors for many more to come”.

Hanging by a Wire is produced jointly by teams from Pakistan, the US and the UK, with industry giant Universal Pictures Content Group being part of the process. The film has had a highly successful festival run, premiering on the first day of this year’s Sundance film festival and playing in Sydney, Seattle and at the Tribeca Festival in New York.

Naqvi himself is an industry veteran, having won an Emmy Television Academy Award in 2008 for his work on Shame. His directorial work includes Among the Believers, Pakistan’s Hidden Shame, and The Accused: Damned or Devoted? He has also served as chair of Pakistan’s Academy Awards Selection Committee.