The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced on Tuesday that Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s latest film, The Voice of Hind Rajab, has been shortlisted for the 2026 Oscars in the Best International Feature Film category. The powerful documentary is among 15 films selected from a record number of submissions worldwide, advancing one step closer to the coveted nomination.
The film chronicles the tragic and widely reported story of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who, in January 2024, was trapped alone in a car surrounded by the bodies of her deceased family members in Gaza City. For hours, her desperate, increasingly faint pleas for rescue were captured in a phone call shared with emergency services—an audio recording that echoed globally, becoming a heartbreaking symbol of the conflict’s human cost.
Ben Hania, an Oscar-nominated director known for her hybrid documentary The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020) and the critically acclaimed Four Daughters (2023), constructs the film around that central audio testimony. Weaving together archival news footage, interviews with first responders, and animation, the film traces the frantic, ultimately failed effort to reach Hind before her transmission fell silent.
“This shortlisting is a profound recognition, not for me, but for Hind’s voice, which demanded to be heard by the world,” Ben Hania stated in a release from her production company. “This film is a testament to a singular tragedy that illustrates a collective one. It is a difficult watch, but a necessary witness.”
The Voice of Hind Rajab is understood to be Tunisia’s official submission for the International Feature category. Ben Hania’s selection marks her continued ascent on the global stage and brings a fiercely urgent current events story into the awards conversation.
The Academy’s International Feature Film Committee screened all submitted works to determine the shortlist. The next stage will see specially appointed committees in New York, Los Angeles, and London screen the 15 shortlisted films before casting nomination ballots. The final five nominees for the 98th Academy Awards will be announced on January 18, 2026.
The shortlist announcement places Ben Hania’s work alongside films from established cinematic powerhouses and emerging voices, setting the stage for a highly competitive race. As the awards season intensifies, The Voice of Hind Rajab stands out for its raw, immediate, and deeply human confrontation with one of the defining crises of the era.
TunisianMonitorOnline (NejiMed)
