China Selects Once Upon a Time in the Middle East for Oscar Race as Film Opens in North America

Oscar bid follows a major domestic run

Wen Muye's restaurant drama Once Upon a Time in the Middle East opened in North American cinemas on October 9, 2026, two days after its production team announced that it would represent mainland China in the race for best international feature at the 99th Academy Awards. Distributor Well Go USA Entertainment planned a release across more than 120 cinemas in dozens of cities in the United States and Canada.

The film, whose Chinese title translates as Welcome to the Dragon Restaurant, had earned more than 2.356 billion yuan in mainland China by noon on October 7, according to the figures accompanying its selection announcement. Those accounts placed it second on the mainland's 2026 annual box office chart, behind Pegasus 3, with 4.420 billion yuan.

Its central character is Xu Fu, a Chinese cook played by Shen Teng who travels to the Middle East to repay family debts. When war interrupts his plans, cooking becomes both a means of survival and a way to protect children caught in the conflict.

The Oscar announcement, made on the film's official Weibo account on October 7, concerns China's choice of entry, not an Academy nomination. The awards ceremony is scheduled for March 14, 2027, in Los Angeles. No Academy shortlist decision or nomination for the film has been announced in the accounts of its selection and overseas release.

A restaurant becomes a refuge

Xu Fu begins with an ordinary financial problem rather than a political mission. A cook from Shenyang in northeastern China, he accepts work at the Dragon Restaurant because the salary could help clear his family's debts. Together with manager Ma Junsheng, played by Jiang Qiming, he turns the struggling business into a thriving restaurant.

The setting is a fictionalized Baghdad, and the story follows the disruption caused by the American invasion and subsequent fighting. Xu's skills keep him useful to people on different sides of the conflict, while the restaurant becomes a place where the needs of civilians intersect with those of soldiers and armed groups.

The drama gradually shifts from earning money and finding a route home to protecting others. War orphans become central to that change, particularly Seif, a Kurdish Iraqi boy played by Omar Sherif who becomes Xu's apprentice. The connection between teacher and pupil gives cooking a purpose beyond the next meal.

The film is described as drawing on real events, although its characters and dramatic sequence should not be treated as a documentary record. Wen says the idea grew from a news report and the experiences of Chinese cooks working in the region. During preparation, the team interviewed cooks, people in other trades and local residents who had lived through war.

Wen starts with people, not a thesis

At a film industry meeting at the Shanghai Literature Museum on September 16, Wen discussed the contrast between food and warfare. He described a Chinese restaurant caught in conflict as a way to examine ordinary lives disrupted by violence and to convey the value of peace.

In a separate interview, the director explained that his writing process began with characters and their immediate circumstances. Wen, whose earlier films include Dying to Survive and Nice View, said:

I never think about social issues in advance. What I actually want to tell is the story of specific people.

That approach helps explain why the film's broad subject is filtered through a cook's practical decisions. Xu must work, feed people, judge whom he can trust and decide whether to help others when doing so threatens his own escape. The public theme is peace, but the story reaches it through particular choices.

Wen also described the restaurant's presence across the story as a symbol of peace. It begins as a workplace, becomes separated from the protagonist by violence and later provides a connection to what has survived. The image makes continuity tangible through a familiar place rather than an abstract declaration.

Why food carries the argument

Food is more than a visual contrast with destruction. Xu's profession brings him into contact with Iraqis, Americans, insurgents and children. His ability to prepare a meal can win temporary safety, but it also creates relationships that make indifference harder to maintain.

Co-writer Zhong Wei has described peace as the film's central value and eating as its most direct expression. In discussing the screenplay, he connected shared meals with a Chinese understanding of everyday harmony: people gathering around food, sharing dishes and treating the act of eating as something that should be protected from violence.

Zhong also argued that Chinese filmmakers should have a place in telling stories about wars and major world events, rather than simply adopting Hollywood's perspective. That is a statement of creative intent, not proof that every audience will interpret the film in the same way.

Wen's account gives that ambition a more personal scale. Xu initially treats the conflict as someone else's concern, yet his relationships pull him into responsibility for people around him. The contrast between a meal and a battle works because both affect the same immediate needs: staying alive, caring for children and preserving a connection to home.

The cast connects humor with loss

Shen Teng's association with comedy was part of Wen's thinking when he cast him in a war drama. The director said Shen suited his conception of Xu as a middle-aged northeastern cook with a sense of humor, while his comic ability could bring moments of ease to heavier material.

That choice gives the story room to move between the familiar rhythms of restaurant work and the insecurity of conflict. Humor does not remove the violence from the film. It helps establish the everyday life that the fighting disrupts.

Alongside Jiang Qiming as Ma Junsheng and Omar Sherif as Seif, the cast includes Aarif Lee as Tony, a Chinese American private in the U.S. Army. Sherif Sobhy plays Zaid, a government employee and restaurant stakeholder whose personal losses push him toward revenge.

Wen wrote the screenplay with Lang Qunli and Zhong Wei. Ning Hao served as executive producer. Wen joined Ning's film development project in 2016, and his debut feature Dying to Survive earned him the best new director award at the 2018 Golden Horse Awards. The new film extends his interest in ordinary people under pressure to a setting beyond China.

Strong earnings, with different reported rankings

The October 7 box office total of more than 2.356 billion yuan followed nearly two months in cinemas, beginning with the mainland release on August 11. The film also maintained audience interest during the National Day holiday period.

Using the cited figures, its earnings were about 53 percent of the 4.420 billion yuan taken by Pegasus 3. The difference between the two stated amounts was roughly 2.064 billion yuan, although the restaurant drama's figure was described as exceeding 2.356 billion rather than being a final total.

Reports differ on both its earnings and chart position. A separate director interview gave a total of 2.29 billion yuan, or $342 million, and called it the third highest earning Chinese film of 2026. The October 7 accounts instead placed it second on the mainland annual chart with the higher yuan figure.

The interview's box office cutoff date was not specified in its text. Different reporting dates or chart definitions could explain the discrepancy, but there is no confirmed explanation. The dollar amount attached to the 2.29 billion yuan figure should not be presented as a verified conversion of the later 2.356 billion yuan total.

Overseas expansion moves beyond the original plan

An international release schedule announced on August 25 outlined openings from September 11 in Hong Kong, Macao, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia. Singapore followed on September 17 and Japan on September 18. Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Laos were listed for October.

Cambodia's release was confirmed for October 8. Legend Cinema scheduled screenings in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Sihanoukville and other locations, with Mandarin dialogue and Khmer, English and Chinese subtitles. Those language options made the release accessible to both local audiences and Chinese residents.

The North American opening followed on October 9. The announced cinema network included Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, Toronto and Vancouver. The plan for more than 120 cinemas describes the intended reach of the release, not a verified count of every venue operating on opening day.

The principal dates show how the domestic run, Oscar announcement and overseas expansion developed:

• August 11, 2026: The film opened in mainland China.
• August 25: The production announced its overseas release schedule.
• September 11 to 18: The first scheduled overseas openings covered seven markets, including Hong Kong and Macao.
• October 7: The production announced the film as mainland China's Oscar entry.
• October 8: The film opened in Cambodia.
• October 9: The North American cinema release began.
• March 14, 2027: The 99th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled in Los Angeles.

Early reactions focus on ordinary lives

Initial reactions in the Los Angeles area praised the film for approaching Middle Eastern conflict through a perspective different from familiar Hollywood treatments. Some viewers pointed to its production quality and its ability to make the consequences of war understandable across national boundaries.

A viewer identified as Alivia, who watched the film at a cinema in Monterey Park in Los Angeles County, described it as powerful and moving. She said it encouraged audiences to see the conflict as involving everyone, rather than only Americans and people in the Middle East.

Film critic Brett Arnold also praised its emotional force and compassion in depicting the brutality of war and the loss of human dignity. These are individual responses, however, not evidence of a general North American audience consensus. No North American box office total or comprehensive audience survey accompanies the release accounts.

The film's treatment of national perspectives also invites a more complicated reading. Its American characters can be frightened and homesick, while Iraqi characters experience grief and anger that can lead to destructive choices. Even with that attention to others, the narrative remains centered on a Chinese protagonist. Giving other characters sympathy does not make their experiences the primary story.

What is confirmed, and what is still pending

The immediate achievement is a combination of domestic commercial success, selection as mainland China's international feature entry and a widening cinema release abroad. None of those developments establishes how Academy voters will respond.

A national entry is distinct from an Oscar nomination. The production's announcement identifies the film chosen to compete on behalf of mainland China, while any later Academy recognition is a separate decision. The ceremony date is known, but no shortlist or nomination date is given in the announcements discussed here.

Distribution plans also remain incomplete. North America and Cambodia now have confirmed opening dates, while the earlier schedule placed Indonesia, Thailand and Laos in October without specifying dates. Releases in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa were still being pursued when the broader overseas plan was announced.

The film's strongest connecting thread across these developments is its use of a Chinese cook to examine survival and care during war. Its domestic earnings demonstrate a substantial audience in China. The expanding international release will give viewers elsewhere the opportunity to judge both that personal story and the national perspective through which it is told.

Key Points

• The production announced on October 7, 2026, that the film would represent mainland China in the Oscar international feature race.
• Once Upon a Time in the Middle East is the English release title; the Chinese title translates as Welcome to the Dragon Restaurant.
• Reported mainland earnings exceeded 2.356 billion yuan by October 7, although another account gave 2.29 billion yuan and a different annual ranking.
• The film opened in Cambodia on October 8 and North America on October 9, with a planned North American release in more than 120 cinemas.
• Wen Muye directs Shen Teng as a cook whose efforts to survive war develop into a mission to protect children.
• The Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for March 14, 2027. China's selection announcement is not an Oscar nomination.