Ayny Wins the Amarji Alsumaria Award at the Amarji International Film Festival for Short Films

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The Third Award for the Animated Short Film

Ayny Wins the Amarji Alsumaria Award at the Amarji International Film Festival for Short Films


Director Ahmad Saleh's animated short film Ayny won the main award (Amarji Alsumaria) at the 2nd Amarji International Film Festival for short films in Al Najaf, where three films distributed by MAD Solutions were screened. The MAD films were Ayny, Five O'clock and Nocturne in Black.

Completely funded and organized by self-efforts, the Amarji International Film Festival for short films is the first short film festival to take place in Al Najaf. Over nine Iraqi films were nominees for international film awards. The festival takes place at the Culture Castle Theatre in Al Najaf with the participation of special guests from inside and outside Iraq. The festival's first edition was covered by more than 40 Iraqi and Arab media organizations.

Based on true events, Ayny follows two young boys who run away from their mother's protection and slack line on the danger of war to play music with the instrument they always dreamt to own. The film is written, directed, edited and voiced by Ahmad Saleh, music by Nizar Rohana, animated by Frank Pingel, DOP Lionel Poutiaire Somé, produced by Stefan Gieren, and its Arab world distribution is handled by MAD Solutions. The film is a co-production between Germany, Jordan, and Palestine.

Ayny has won the Best Third Movie - Film Competition from Outside Iraq at the 2nd Qumrah International Film Festival in Iraq and the Student Academy Award for Best Foreign Animation. The film made its world premiere in the Muhr Short competition of the 13th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF). The film was also screened at the Beirut Cinema Days, Sudan Independent Film Festival (SIFF), Animate. Ps (Palestine Animation Festival), ALFILM - Arab Film Festival Berlin and the Ismailia
International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts.

Recently, he finished another Master's study in Film, in which he wrote the short film Circle, directed the short film MaaBaa and started writing his first feature. His graduation project Ayny won a Golden Oscar at the Student Academy Awards 2016 in the Foreign Animation category.