‘The Wolves Always Come at Night’ chosen as Australia’s Oscars 2025 International Feature entry

Australia has chosen, The Wolves Always Come at Night, a Mongolian-language documentary by Gabrielle Brady, as its official submission for the Best International Feature category at the 2026 Academy Awards and the film will also be considered for Best Documentary Feature.

About the film

The movie mixes documentary and fiction to tell the story of two Mongolian herders, Davaasuren Dagvasuren and Otgonzaya Dashzeveg as they face tough choice to leave their homes after a powerful sandstorm hits their land and this natural disaster is made worse by the ongoing climate crisis.

Festival Screenings and Challenges

The Wolves Always Come at Night premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in the Platform Prize program.

However, there was controversy when Davaasuren and Otgonzaya were denied visitor visas by the Canadian government and couldn’t attend. The film also screened at the 2024 London Film Festival, Zurich Film Festival, IDFA, San Francisco International Film Festival, True/False, and Sydney Film Festival.

International co-production

This film is the first ever co-production between Germany, Australia and Mongolia as it has several executive producers including Oscar-winner Dan Cogan. The project received major funding from Screen Australia and private investors such as Weir Anderson Films and Storming Donkey Productions.

It also got support from BBC Storyville, SWR Arte and Madman Films as Worldwide sales are handled by Cinephil.

Australia’s history in the International Feature category

Australia picks its Oscar submission through a committee chosen by Screen Australia. Even though English is the main language spoken in Australia, the country has submitted film in order languages for the Best International Feature (formerly Bert Foreign Language Film) category since 1996.

So far, 16 Australian films have been submitted including, Ten Canoes (2006) in Yolngu Matha and Gunwinggu languages, Samson and Delilah (2009) in Warlpiri language, which was shortlisted, The Rocket (2013) in Lao language and Tanna (2016) in Nauvhal language, which earned an official Oscar nomination.