BEVERLY HILLS:

Iran’s first Oscar-nominated documentary will compete in Hollywood at a time of incredible tumult at home, days after US-Israeli strikes killed the country’s long-time supreme leader.

As the Islamist regime scrabbles to shore itself up in the wake of the death of the hardline Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “Cutting Through Rocks” offers a different vision of leadership in a country dominated by male clerics for half a century.

“We have a character in our film that really uses the power that she has to empower others,” co-director Mohammadreza Eyni told AFP.

“Not controlling them, not suppressing them, not dictating to them what is right, but just creating a space for them,” he said.

Eyni and fellow director Sara Khaki spent eight years following their subject, Sara Shahverdi, the first Iranian woman elected to a council in a rural community.

That process involved “being patient enough to witness the change that (Shahverdi was) able to offer within her village,” Khaki said during an interview in Beverly Hills before the war began.

“She goes from teaching the young girls how to ride a motorcycle to creating land ownership for women,” Khaki said.

“Thanks to her, more women are becoming householders” in deeply patriarchal Iran, she added.

Eyni — who fell in love with, and married Khaki during the eight years of production on the feature — said that for him, “Cutting Through Rocks” offers an insight into the kind of inspirational and responsible leadership that the world lacks.

“Every day, all of us wake up seeing crazy news; leaders taking reckless decisions. So we think that we need stories about leadership more than ever,” he said.

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“Cutting Through Rocks” debuted at the Sundance Film Festival last year and then had a successful run through the European festival circuit before landing an Academy Award nomination for best documentary feature.

For the filmmakers — both of whom are first-timers — the whirlwind of an Oscars campaign has been special.

“We are really honored to be here,” Khaki said.

“We had so many amazing conversations” with fellow nominees about Iran and what is happening there, said Eyni.

“It is amazing to feel that you are in a safe house and you have colleagues that really support you, and this is important for them.”

The duo’s time in Hollywood has also given them the space “to remind each other that change is possible, and this is why we are telling stories,” he said.

“Cutting Through Rocks” will compete against “Come See Me In The Good Light,” “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” “The Perfect Neighbor” and the prison drama “The Alabama Solution.”

The Oscars gala will be held on March 15 in Hollywood.

The nominees for the 98th Academy Awards were announced on January 22, 2026, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, by actress Danielle Brooks and actor Lewis Pullman.

The sixteen nominations received by Sinners are the most in Oscar history, surpassing the previous record of fourteen shared by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016). It also broke the record for most Black individuals nominated for a single film at ten. The film’s studio, Warner Bros. Pictures, earned thirty nominations, tying its own record set in 2005. Numerous film critics and journalists praised the breakthrough of nominations, applauding the Academy for embracing Black cinema and the horror genre.

At the age of 30, Timothée Chalamet became the youngest actor to earn three acting nominations since Marlon Brando, and also the youngest person to be nominated for both acting and producing in the same year, surpassing Warren Beatty. Wagner Moura became the first Brazilian nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Stellan Skarsgård became the first actor nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for a non-English language international feature film.