Nocturne in Black by Director Jimmy Keyrouz Wins Best Live Action Film Award at the BAFTA L.A.'s Student Film Awards

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Shortlisted for the 2017 Oscars within the Live Action Short Category

Nocturne in Black by Director Jimmy Keyrouz Wins Best Live Action Film Award at the BAFTA L.A.'s Student Film Awards


Lebanese film Nocturne in Black by director Jimmy Keyrouz continues its successful tour at world festivals. Reaping its eleventh award, the film won the Live Action Film Award at the BAFTA Los Angeles Student Film Awards. Most recently, the film was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Awards within the Live Action Short Category.

Nocturne in Black was inspired by an article about a Syrian young man who continues to play his piano under threat of persecution in the midst of his country's civil war and struggles to rebuild his piano after it is destroyed by terrorists.

Nocturne in Black landed its world premiere at the Columbia University Film Festival where it won the Jury Selects. In 2016, the film received a number of awards including; the Gold Medal at the 43rd Student Academy Awards, the Jury Award for Best Narrative Short Film at the Long Beach International Film Festival, the Marion Carter Green Award at the National Board of Review, the Gold Circle Award at the Caucus Foundation Award, the IFP Audience Award at the Independent Film Project, and the Best Director award at the NDU International Film Festival in Lebanon. Most recently, the film won the BIFF Award for Best Short Film at the Boulder International Film Festival.

Written, directed and edited by Jimmy Keyrouz, Nocturne in Black stars Julian Farhat, Tarek Yaacoub, Karim Zein, and Rachid Salloum. The film is produced by Marc Fadel, Ellie Foumbi, Felecia Hunter, and Jimmy Keyrouz. MAD Solutions is handling the film's distribution through the Arab world.

This year's BAFTA Los Angeles Student Film Awards jury members included directors Ron Clements and John Musker (Moana); actors Shohreh Aghdashloo (Star Trek Beyond) and Ioan Gruffudd (Fantastic Four); producer David Gelb (Chef's Table); and editor Joan Sobel (Nocturnal Animals)

Jimmy Keyrouz is an award-winning director and writer. In 2012, Keyrouz joined the Screenwriting/Directing Master in Fine Arts programme at Columbia University, New York, where he enrolled in directing, screenwriting, TV writing and directing, actors classes and served as teaching assistant where he taught directing and writing classes. Keyrouz is currently developing the feature-length version of Nocturne in Black, Twelve, a one-hour TV drama.