The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Tuesday that Algerian/French
director Sélim Azzazi's short film Ennemis Intérieurs has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film, making Azzazi the only Arab among this year's Academy Award nominations. The award ceremony where the winners will be announced, will be held on Sunday, February 26, 2017.

Written and directed by Sélim Azzazi, Ennemis Intérieurs takes place in the 1990s, as the Algerian civil war rages and terrorists infiltrate France, a French police officer of Algerian descent conducts a rancorous interview with a French-born Algerian man seeking naturalization.

Nominated in the Short Documentary category are two films inspired by events that took place in the Arab world, the first of which is Watani: My Homeland by director Marcel Mettelsiefen. It revolves around a Syrian family attempting to flee the disastrous war in their country, seeking to build a new life for themselves in Germany.

The second film is The White Helmets directed by Orlando von Einsiedel, which portrays the chaos of war-torn Syria, where the unarmed and neutral civilian volunteers known as "the white helmets" comb through the rubble after bombings to rescue survivors. Superstar George Clooney had already announced that this short documentary would be adapted into a long feature film that is currently in progress.

It is noteworthy to mention that last year two Arab films were nominated for an Academy Award.
The Jordanian film Theeb by director Naji Abu Nowar was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category, while Palestinian director Basil Khalil's short film Ave Maria was nominated for Best Short Live Action Film.