“A Fox Under a Pink Moon” Wins 2026 CDS Filmmaker Award

At the 28th annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, the Duke Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) presented its CDS Filmmaker Award to A Fox Under a Pink Moon, directed by Mehrdad Oskouei and Soraya Akhlaghi. The film, which had its US premiere at the festival, tells the story of Akhlaghi, a 16-year-old Afghan woman living in Iran, and her repeated attempts to escape the country in search of safety and her family.  

“We created this prize to honor filmmakers whose work has the potential to educate and spark change.” –CDS Director Chris Sims

“We are proud to offer the CDS Filmmaker Award for the 24th year,” said CDS Director Chris Sims at the Awards Barbecue. “This award honors documentary films that combine originality and creativity with firsthand experience to examine pressing societal issues. We created this prize to honor filmmakers whose work has the potential to educate and spark change.” 

This year’s jury of students, staff, and faculty from across CDS and Duke considered all 34 films in the New Docs category. Jurors and festival attendees described A Fox Under a Pink Moon as unlike anything they had seen before — an intimate, urgent work that gives a human face to the global immigration crisis. 

“We hope that this film will convey a poetic message of peace and hope beyond borders.” – A Fox Under a Pink Moon Co-Director Mehrdad Oskouei

“Soraya and I, along with our colleagues, are deeply honored to receive the CDS Filmmaker Award at Full Frame,”  Oskouei. “Receiving this award at such a leading and important film festival means more than words to us — especially now that the Iranian people are suffering from grief and war. We believe that documentary film is witness, memory, and poetry. And we hope that this film will convey a poetic message of peace and hope beyond borders.” 
 
The film also received the Full Frame Grand Jury Award, the festival’s top prize for feature-length documentaries.  

A Fox Under a Pink Moon: An Intimate Portrait of Survival and Creativity

Built from Soraya Akhlaghi’s own cell phone footage and video conversations with filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei, the film invites viewers into Akhlaghi’s daily life and to witness the physical abuse she suffers at the hands of her husband, her longing for her mother in Europe, and the dangers of trusting smugglers to cross national borders. 

Alongside distressing footage, viewers see Akhlaghi making art — drawings, sculptures, paintings, music — that help her process and transcend her circumstances.  

“A Catalyst for Social Change” 

Jurors praised the film for its fearlessness, originality, and deep resonance with the present moment.

“This film feels very relevant and urgent to what we’re seeing here, right now in America,” said Michelle Moore of the Nasher Museum of Art. “Brave, fearless, and determined, it helps us understand the desperation people have of crossing borders and risking their lives.” 

“It helps us understand the desperation people have of crossing borders and risking their lives.” 

“It did a good job at showing and not telling. Every shot had a strong message,” said Jacey Anderson of CDS. “That method of filmmaking motivates change in me far more than someone explaining why something is bad. I saw it as a catalyst for social change because it humanizes the experience of displacement.” 

“Despite the film’s gravitas, it nevertheless soars with creativity and hope,” said Julie Hamilton of Duke Alumni Engagement and Development. "Her sculptures, her music, and animation depict the perseverance of the human spirit.”

The jury included Moore, Anderson, and Hamilton along with Frances Howorth, Deborah Jakubs, Jamal Michel, DaManuel Richardson, Jasmin Riley, and Timothy Tyson, and was coordinated by Carol Bales.  

Audience Impact 

Festival attendees echoed the jury’s response, describing A Fox Under a Pink Moon as immersive, emotionally powerful, and informative. 

Xeyal Qertel, founder and director of the New York Kurdish Film Festival, emphasized the film’s educational urgency: 

“There are so many obstacles in her life that are not being portrayed in mainstream media or news — not here in America, not in the West, and not even sometimes in the East — because it’s a struggle against patriarchy, against statelessness. I can very much feel the pain of it as Kurds don’t have their own nation-state. Her insight to navigate the troubles that she is surrounded by is as pure and as humane as it could get.” 

“I can very much feel the pain of it. ... As pure and as humane as it could get.” 

Olivia Hicks, a Minneapolis-based journalist, shared how the film impacted her personally: 

“I left with a sense of purpose and understanding, appreciation for life, appreciation for others. Full Frame always brings empathy out of people, and I think that this film did a great job of creating empathy. It was creative, I hope everyone has an opportunity to see it. It’s unlike anything I've seen before.”  

After its Full Frame screening, A Fox Under a Pink Moon won the prize for Best Film in the International Competition at IDFA.   

About Full Frame 

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, CDS’s largest public-facing program, is one of the world’s premier showcases for nonfiction cinema. Each spring, the Academy Award®–qualifying festival brings thousands of filmmakers, industry leaders, and audiences from around the world to Durham for film screenings, panels, parties, and community-building.  

Renowned for its support for documentary artists, Full Frame presented 10 awards totaling $50,000 to documentary filmmakers this year. See the full list of 2026 award winners.