Adding two awards to its wall of achievements through the last few days of October, Basil Khalil's film AVE MARIA won The GREEN S.O.S Award for short films concerning humanity and environmental issues at Kaohsiung Film Festival in Taiwan. The film has been contending in the Taiwan Shorts A section in the festival. On the other hand, the film also won the Audience Award at the 37rd edition of CINEMED International Mediterranean Film Festival in Montpellier.

In December, AVE MARIA will be contending at the Muhr Short Competition at 12th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) (9-16 December) landing its first screening in the Arab world.

DIFF is one of the most important film festivals in the Arab world. In its 12th edition this year, DIFF will showcase over 120 features, shorts films and documentaries from around the world and will include several world premieres. Every year DIFF presents new and exciting cinema from the Arab world and beyond, introducing audiences to fresh new talent and original and distinctive filmmaking.

AVE MARIA recently won the Second Prize for Best Short Film at the 5th International Short Film Festival of Cyprus, which ended on October 23rd, and was also awarded Best Short Film at Adana Golden Boll Mediterranean Short Film Festival in Turkey last month.

AVE MARIA's international journey began with its world premiere in the Short Film Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2015, followed by Festival du Film Court de Grenoble, France's longest-standing short film festival, where it won Best Screenplay Award. The film also received a Special Mention for Best Live Action Short Film at the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival (North America's largest short film festival) in addition to the 1st place award in the HP Bridging The Borders Awards, presented by Cinema Without Borders. Recently, Basil Khalil was awarded a prize for Best Director in the Documentaries and Short Movies section at Cervignano Film Festival in Italy.

To date, AVE MARIA has been well received at more than 45 international film festivals in 20 different countries, including Australia, France, Italy, Taiwan, South Korea, Mexico, USA, Sweden, Greece and the United Kingdom, with more being announced on regular basis.
The 14 minute film tells the story of the Nuns of the 'Sisters of Mercy' Convent, in the middle of the West Bank wilderness, who have their daily routine of silence and prayer disrupted when a family of Jewish settlers come knocking at their door for help after crashing into the convent's wall.

The title of the film, "AVE MARIA", is Latin for "Hail Mary", an important Roman Catholic prayer. The film was written by Basil Khalil and Daniel Yáñez, and stars Maria Zreik, Huda Al Imam, Shady Srour, Ruth Farhi and Maya Koren. The film is produced by Incognito Films in Paris with the support of Robert Bosch Stiftung Fund in Germany.

French broadcaster Canal+ has bought the French pay-TV rights exclusively. MAD Solutions is the film's distributor in the Arab world and Ouat Media, an Academy Award winning sales company, is handling AVE MARIA's international distribution. Owned and operated by Channel Zero Inc, Ouat Media has contributed to the distribution of many short- and long award-winning films worldwide.