Tunisia’s The Voice of Hind Rajab earns sole African Oscar nomination
Kaouther Ben Hania’s acclaimed film shortlisted for Best International Feature category
TUNIS, Tunisia (MNTV) – Tunisia has secured the only African nomination at the 2026 Academy Awards after Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab was shortlisted for Best International Feature Film, Oscar organizers announced.
The film will compete at the 98th Academy Awards, scheduled for March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Ovation Hollywood. It is the sole African entry among the final nominees, despite submissions from seven countries across the continent.
The other films nominated in the category are The Secret Agent (Brazil), It Was Just an Accident (France), Sentimental Value (Norway), and Sirāt (Spain).
African submissions that did not advance to the final list included Happy Birthday (Egypt), Disco Afrika: A Malagasy Story (Madagascar), Calle Málaga (Morocco), Demba (Senegal), The Heart is a Muscle (South Africa), and Kimote (Uganda).
Since its world premiere in the main competition at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival, The Voice of Hind Rajab has received widespread international acclaim. The film won the Grand Jury Prize along with six parallel awards and set a festival record for the longest standing ovation, lasting 23 minutes and 50 seconds, surpassing the previous record held by Pan’s Labyrinth.
The film was also named among Afrocritik’s 30 Remarkable African Feature Films of 2025.
For Ben Hania, the nomination marks her third Academy Awards recognition. She was previously nominated for The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020) in the Best International Feature category and Four Daughters (2023) in the Best Documentary Feature category, making her the only Tunisian filmmaker with multiple Oscar nominations.
The latest nomination highlights the continued growth of Tunisian cinema since its first Oscar submission in 1995 and underscores Tunisia’s rising prominence in global filmmaking, with three Oscar nominations achieved in recent years.
Have Your Say!
Have you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@soundvision.com.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a Muslim Network TV’s representative. You can also get in touch in the following ways:
Tweet: @MuslimNetworkTV
We must take charge of our narrative. Research indicates that 92% of their Muslim coverage is negative. Help us change that.
