Oscars: Saudi Arabia Submits ‘A Matter Of Life & Death’ For Best International Feature Film

The Saudi Film Commission has selected Anas Ba Tahaf’s A Matter of Life and Death as Saudi Arabia’s official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards.

Local stars Yaqoub Alfarhan (Scales, Norah) and Sarah Taibah (Mandoob) play an unlikely couple whose love blossoms against the odds in the Jeddah-set feature, one of the quirkiest local romantic-come-black comedies to come out of Saudi Arabia since the lifting of its 35-year cinema ban in 2017.

Taibah, who also wrote the screenplay, plays Hayat, a fiercely independent young woman convinced that a generational curse will kill her on her 30th birthday. Having made peace with dying, she crosses paths with Yousef (Alfarhan), a brilliant but emotionally detached heart surgeon living with bradycardia.

His abnormally slow heartbeat only seems to quicken when he comes close to death or to killing. As a surgeon surrounded every day by the fragile line between life and death, temptation is never far away. She wants to die, he wants to kill, and they should be perfect for each other. Then, inconveniently, they fall in love.

The cast also features Hosam Al Harthy, Fay Fouad, Amani Aljameel, Ghada Aboud, Rahaf Ibrahim and Najla Alabdullah, with production design by Ibrahim Khorma.

The film world premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival in December 2025, before opening theatrically across Saudi Arabia on June 25, 2026. It later received a Jury Special Mention at the 12th Saudi Film Festival, where Taibah won the Golden Palm for Best Acting for her performance as Hayat.

Director Ba Tahaf previously worked as coproducer, editor and first assistant director on Mahmoud Sabbagh’s Barakah Meets Barakah, which represented Saudi Arabia in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 89th Academy Awards.

A Matter of Life and Death is produced by Mohamed Hefzy for Film Clinic, Gianluca Chakra for Front Row Filmed Entertainment, and Abdulelah Alahmary and Ahmad Taema for Arabia Pictures, with support from the Red Sea Fund. Front Row Filmed Entertainment is handling international sales.

“Hayat is impulsive, funny, stubborn, fearless and spectacularly headstrong, a contemporary Saudi woman written without explanation or apology. Her independence is not the story. It is simply who she is,” wrote Front Row in a statement announcing the Saudi Oscar entry.

“The film’s originality lies as much in how it is told as in its premise. Its heightened visual style moves confidently between romance, fantasy and black comedy, shifting tone without settling neatly into any one genre. When the mythology behind Hayat’s curse is revealed, live action briefly gives way to a handcrafted, gothic animated sequence, adding another unexpected layer to the film’s visual language.”

“Together, these elements give A Matter of Life and Death an identity that stands apart within Saudi cinema and feels equally distinctive within Arab filmmaking more broadly. Set and shot in Jeddah, the city is integral to that identity. Its streets, architecture, humour, language and contradictions are woven into the story, grounding its increasingly fantastical world in a recognisable contemporary reality.”

Written by and starring Sarah Taibah alongside Yaqoub Al Farhan, the film is produced by Film Clinic, Front Row Filmed Entertainment and Arabia Pictures, with Front Row handling international sales.

Saudi Arabia, which first started submitting films to the Oscars in 2013, kicking off with Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadjada. Subsequent entries have included Barakah Meets Barakah (2016) and Shahad Ameen’s Hijra last year. The country has yet to be nominated.