The UK has entered Pegah Ahangarani's Rehearsals For A Revolution in the Best International Feature Film category of the 99th Academy Awards, and Sony Pictures Classics has set a January 8, 2027 theatrical opening to carry the campaign.

SPC acquired the film out of Cannes for North America, Latin America, Asia excluding Japan, New Zealand, Turkey, Portugal and global airlines. The distributor announced the UK selection and laid out its release plan in the same statement.

The mechanics are conventional but tight. SPC will run the film for Academy qualification in New York and Los Angeles in December. It will then open it exclusively at Landmark's Nuart Theatre in L.A. and the Film Forum in New York on January 8, 2027, before it widens across the country over the following weeks.

What film is the UK backing?

Ahangarani, an Iranian filmmaker, built her debut feature around her own exile in London. The film presents five portraits of relatives and mentors — each one, the film argues, an act of resistance. The UK served as the base where she wrote it, which gives the national selection a factual anchor beyond sentiment.

The material is archival: home videos, street protest footage, newspapers, recorded voices. Cut together, it retraces more than 40 years of Iranian history, from the early days of 1979 to the war that began in 2026, and builds a portrait of a country living under political repression and waiting for a revolution.

The takeaway: the UK has chosen a first-time feature director with a strong festival record, not a veteran name.

What has the film already won?

The festival record explains the campaign logic.

• World premiere as a Special Screening at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the L'Œil d'Or (Golden Eye).
• Screenings last month at Telluride and the Toronto International Film Festival.
• A recent Albie Award from the Maysles Documentary Center, which honors mentors, role models and champions of social justice.

That is three festivals and one jury prize before the qualifying runs even begin.

How does the release plan shape the race?

A December qualifying run followed by an exclusive two-city opening in January is a standard SPC pattern for international contenders. It concentrates attention on a small number of screens during the voting window, then widens the footprint once nominations land.

The January 8, 2027 date puts the exclusive run inside the final phase of Academy voting, and the national rollout follows in the weeks after. For a debut director, that schedule trades box office for visibility at the exact moment ballots are cast.

SPC framed the stakes in its statement. “From winning the L'Œil d'Or at Cannes to the standing ovations at TIFF and now this recognition, Rehearsals For A Revolution is building incredible momentum and marking a significant moment for a formidable female filmmaker creating in exile from her home country,” the distributor said.

The company went further on what the category slot itself changes. “This selection in the Best International Feature category has the potential to be truly transformative for the film, opening doors to audiences around the world while shining a spotlight on Pegah's extraordinary talent and her vital voice,” SPC said. “It's a recognition that will have a lasting impact not only on the life of this film, but on Pegah's future career as a filmmaker.”

One entry slot, one January platform, and a first-time director now inside the Oscar field.