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Syria has selected Tawfik Sabouni’s documentary The Other Side of the Sun as its submission to the International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards. That is a national submission—not confirmation that the Academy has deemed the film eligible, shortlisted it or nominated it.
What is The Other Side of the Sun about?
The 2026 Arabic-language documentary follows Sabouni, a former prisoner at Sednaya, as he returns to the former prison after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the opening of Syrian prisons in December 2024. Four fellow survivors join him. Their visit turns the prison itself into a setting for testimony, memory and acts of survival. Icarus Films’ synopsis describes the film’s combination of survivor accounts and reenacted routines and gestures inside the site.
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The reenactments are part of how the survivors revisit what happened; they are not presented as a substitute for their testimony. The film’s stated purpose is memorial, and its focus is the survivors’ return and their agency in telling their stories.
Why was the film shot inside Sednaya?
Sabouni says he began work on the film in 2022, when he could access the prison only through memory. His initial plan was to build a studio set based on those memories. After the regime fell, he changed course and filmed inside the real prison, confronting remembered images with the physical site. That account appears in his director’s note in the film’s press kit.
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Returning to the prison with four other former detainees gives the documentary an unusual convergence of personal testimony and access to the place being remembered. The film’s method makes the setting part of the survivors’ account rather than merely a backdrop.
What does Syria’s Oscar submission mean?
Syria’s selection is its national entry for the Academy’s International Feature Film category. Screen Daily reports that this was the first selection by a newly formed Oscar committee overseen by the General Organisation for Cinema and accredited by the Academy. The trade report describes it as Syria’s first entry since Assad’s overthrow in December 2024. Screen Daily also reports that Syria had previously submitted one film in the category: Sam Kadi’s documentary Little Ghandi in 2017.
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A country’s submission is only one step in the process. It does not establish Academy confirmation of eligibility, a place on the shortlist or a nomination. Screen Daily’s overview of the 2027 category describes general rules and a schedule, but the Academy determines eligibility and the final selection. Under that overview, the category is for films over 40 minutes, produced outside the United States, with more than half of their dialogue in a non-English language. It gives an eligibility release window of October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026, and a submission deadline of September 30, 2026.
The same overview scheduled the 15-film shortlist for December 15, 2026, the final five nominees for January 21, 2027, and the ceremony for March 14, 2027. Those are reported dates for the awards cycle, not a status update on this film. Sabouni called Syria’s selection “the culmination of years of hard work, years during which I carried this film on my own, despite the doubts, the obstacles and the weight of such a responsibility,” according to Screen Daily.
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Festival history, US release and runtime
The Other Side of the Sun premiered in the Berlinale Panorama Documentary section in February 2026, according to Screen Daily. Festival and award listings vary by source: Andana Films lists Berlinale Panorama, SXSW London, Lightbridge Human Rights Film Festival, Durban International Film Festival and Amman International Film Festival, and identifies a Berlinale Panorama Audience Award, second prize. Icarus Films lists Berlinale, SXSW London and Durban, and notes the FIPRESCI Award and Audience Award at the Amman International Film Festival. These award descriptions are distinct and should not be conflated.
Screen Daily reports that New York-based Icarus Films acquired US rights from French sales agent Andana Films and planned a US theatrical release in the coming months. Icarus’s current film page also lists a DVD purchase option. The announcement does not provide a general theatrical release date, and the listing alone does not establish broad retail availability. Andana Films invites inquiries about public screenings.
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Published runtime listings conflict: Icarus Films gives 92 minutes, while Andana Films lists 88 minutes. Neither listing resolves the discrepancy, so a single runtime cannot be stated confidently from these sources.
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