Press Releases

NEW YORK (November 4, 2025) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they will release THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE on February 6, 2026 in select theaters, before expanding nationwide on February 27, 2026. The film will have a one-week qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles starting on December 12, 2025. The feature debut from writer and director Hasan Hadi was submitted by Iraq as their official entry for the Best International Feature category for the 2026 Academy Awards^®. The film received rave reviews following its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it became the first Iraqi film to ever compete at the festival and won the Directors’ Fortnight People’s Choice Award and Camera d’Or. 

The film had its North American premiere in the Centrepiece section at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival before making its US debut at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Most recently, THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE took home the award for Best Narrative Feature at the Hamptons International Film Festival. 

THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE is produced by Leah Chen Baker with executive producers including award-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (FORREST GUMP) and director Marielle Heller (NIGHTBITCH, BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD). The film is made in association with Missing Piece Films, Working Barn Productions, Maiden Voyage Pictures and Spark Features. 

While people across 1990s Iraq struggle to survive the war and food shortages, the President requires each school in the country to prepare a cake to celebrate his birthday. Despite her efforts to avoid getting picked, 9-year-old Lamia is chosen among her classmates. The young girl must now use her wits and imagination to gather ingredients and prepare the mandatory cake in THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE.  

ABOUT SONY PICTURES CLASSICS 
Michael Barker and Tom Bernard serve as co-presidents of Sony Pictures Classics—an autonomous division of Sony Pictures Entertainment they founded with Marcie Bloom in January 1992—which distributes, produces, and acquires independent films from around the world.  Barker and Bernard have released prestigious films that have won 42 Academy Awards® (38 of those at Sony Pictures Classics) and have garnered 190 Academy Award® nominations (164 at Sony Pictures Classics) including Best Picture nominations for I’M STILL HERE, THE FATHER, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, WHIPLASH, AMOUR, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, AN EDUCATION, CAPOTE, HOWARDS END, and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.  

ABOUT SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition, and distribution; television production, acquisition, and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services. http://www.sonypictures.com/corp/divisions.html.