{"id":586034,"date":"2026-08-31T16:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586034\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T16:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:24:11","slug":"oscar-contender-a-fox-under-a-pink-moon-acquired-by-kino-lorber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586034\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Contender ‘A Fox Under A Pink Moon’ Acquired By Kino Lorber"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Kino Lorber<\/a> has acquired North American distribution rights to A Fox Under a Pink Moon<\/a>, one of the most acclaimed documentaries of the year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film directed by Mehrdad Oskouei<\/a> and Soraya Akhlaghi<\/a> won the top prize<\/a> at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) last year and has gone on to claim awards at ZagrebDox in Croatia, Docville in Leuven, Belgium, Tempo Documentary Festival in Stockholm, Sweden, Full Frame in Durham, NC and more. It follows the journey of Soraya (the co-director), a talented young sculptor and artist of Afghan descent who was born in Iran but is essentially stateless.<\/p>\n

\n\tKino Lorber plans a theatrical release later this year followed by a digital, educational, and home video release.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"'A<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018A Fox Under a Pink Moon\u2019 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKino Lorber\/Oskouei Film Production<\/p>\n

\n\tSoraya \u201chas been trying for five years to find a way out of Iran and join her mother in Europe,\u201d notes a description of the film. \u201cTrapped in a marriage to a violent man, Soraya escapes the brutality and isolation of her daily life through art, putting all her worries, joys, and fears into stunning drawings and sculptures that are as beautiful as they are dark. Many of her creations feature recurring figures: a clown who never laughs, a pink moon that always watches over her, and a fox who is her loyal traveling companion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe description continues, \u201cCrafted from years of Soraya\u2019s own cell phone footage and video calls with filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei, this subtly textured self-portrait interweaves Soraya\u2019s illustrations with chilling scenes of her escape attempts, political news from Afghanistan, and videos where she sings, dances, or defiantly shows her bruises. A diary, a survival story, and an artistic manifesto, A Fox Under a Pink Moon is an unforgettable testament to the creative resilience of a 16-year-old girl who refuses to be reduced to her circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDirector Mehrdad Oskouei at the Zurich Film Festival on September 25, 2020.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAndreas Rentz\/Getty Images for ZFF<\/p>\n

\n\tDirector Mehrdad Oskouei said in a statement, \u201cBy collaborating on our film with Soraya \u2013 an Afghan refugee, young woman, and artist \u2013 I sought to confront a disturbing silence: why are the personal and often painful stories of Afghan refugee women absent from the lens of mainstream documentaries? This film is an act of revitalization. Through Soraya\u2019s eyes, her dreams, and her art. My goal was to help her bring her voice to the forefront of the world\u2019s consciousness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Soraya<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSoraya Akhlaghi, her faced bruised from a beating by her husband.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKino Lorber\/Oskouei Film Production<\/p>\n

\n\tSoraya Akhlaghi commented, \u201cI\u2019m proud that through our film, I\u2019ve been able to give voice to Afghan girls whose courage, creativity, and strength shine far beyond the hardships they face. Despite every limitation, they find a way to bloom\u2014like flowers breaking through stone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Deadline reported in early<\/a> July, filmmaker David Borenstein<\/a>, who won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for Mr. Nobody Against Putin<\/a>, has joined A Fox Under a Pink Moon as an executive producer. He calls Oskouei and Akhlaghi\u2019s film \u201celectric.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Kino<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKino Lorber<\/p>\n

\n\tKino Lorber has proven a major player in the Oscar race, serving as the North American distributor of Mr. Nobody Against Putin (co-directed Pavel Talankin, who like Soraya, is both filmmaker and protagonist). In 2025, Kino Lorber\u2019s documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d\u2019Etat earned an Academy Award nomination. The acquisition deal for A Fox Under a Pink Moon was negotiated by Kino Lorber VP of Acquisitions Karoliina Dwyer and Catherine Leclef of CAT&Docs.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe were captivated and deeply moved by the story of Soraya, a fiercely talented young artist facing unimaginable obstacles in her attempts to flee an abusive marriage and reunite with her mother in Europe,\u201d said Kino Lorber\u2019s Dwyer. \u201cWith hope, fear, and unwavering determination, Soraya brings the audience on her journey to freedom, blending footage from her phone with striking animation of her own artwork. We\u2019re so proud to partner with Mehrdad and Soraya to bring this exceptional documentary to North American audiences.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tA Fox Under a Pink Moon is an Oskouei Films production. The film is produced by Mehrdad Oskouei and Siavash Jamali and executive produced by Chandra Jessee and Rebecca Lichtenfeld for InMaat, Tony Tabatznik, Jenny Warburg, David Borenstein, James Costa and Trevor Burgess for Bird Street Productions, and Radovan S\u00edbrt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Kino Lorber has acquired North American distribution rights to A Fox Under a Pink Moon, one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[219630,181890,156,83875,288505,409,111,139,69,288506],"class_list":["post-586034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-a-fox-under-a-pink-moon","tag-david-borenstein","tag-entertainment","tag-kino-lorber","tag-mehrdad-oskouei","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-soraya-akhlaghi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}