Pegah Ahangarani's "Rehearsals For A Revolution" Wins Cannes Documentary Award

Cannes, 12-23 May 2026 - L’Œil d’or 2026

Iranian filmmaker Pegah Ahangarani has won the 2026 L’Œil d’or, Cannes’ documentary award, for her feature documentary Rehearsals for a Revolution.

The film screened in the Special Screenings section of the 79th Cannes Film Festival. The L’Œil d’or is awarded to the best documentary presented across Cannes’ official and parallel sections. This year, the jury considered 21 documentaries before choosing Ahangarani’s film.

Pegah Ahangarani won the 2026 L’Œil d’or. Illustration by Souzian Dispatch, based on a photo by Benjamin Géminel.

The win appears to mark the first L’Œil d’or awarded to an Iranian filmmaker since the Cannes documentary prize was launched in 2015.

The award gives wider international attention to a film that looks at Iran not through a single political event, but through memory, family history, and the traces left by decades of upheaval.

Rehearsals for a Revolution moves across more than 40 years of Iranian history, using family archives, home videos, protest footage, newspapers, recorded voices, and personal recollections. Through five portraits of relatives and mentors, Ahangarani connects private lives with a larger story of repression, resistance, exile, and the hope for change.

The L’Œil d’or jury was chaired by Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov. Tabitha Jackson, Géraldine Pailhas, Lina Soualem, and Victor Castanet also served on the jury.

In its statement, the jury praised the film for its vivid and urgent storytelling, and for the way it moves through violent waves of history while keeping the value of individual human life at its center.

Cannes described the film as Ahangarani’s first feature, shaped by intimacy and community. The festival also highlighted its mix of visual materials, including Super 8 family archives, YouTube videos, animation, and voice recordings.

For Ahangarani, the project is also closely tied to exile. Speaking to Reuters during Cannes, she said making the film felt closer to therapy than conventional filmmaking. She said the film allowed her to speak about both her own memories and the history of Iran, while keeping international attention on what continues to happen inside the country.

The film is produced by Czech company Medianest and Spanish company Fasten Films, with international sales handled by The Party Film Sales. After the Cannes win, Sony Pictures Classics acquired the film, according to TheWrap.

A Special Mention in the L’Œil d’or section went to Tin Castle by Alexander Murphy, which was presented in Critics’ Week.

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