As part of its plan to screen short films in the Arab world, MAD Solutions is launching the Oscars Shorts programme, a film programme that is the first of its kind in the Arab world. The programme will be screening a number of exceptional Arab short films that made it to the Oscars at Zawya Cinema on Sunday, the 29th of October at 07:30 PM. The company is going to launch another programme soon titled Stars in Shorts. Oscars Shorts Programme is scheduled to be launched in Egypt first, with the support of filfan and alfasla websites as media partners, to be followed by Lebanon, the UAE and the rest of the Arab countries soon.


The Oscars Shorts Programme includes five short films; AVE MARIA by director Basil Khalil, Ayny by Ahmed Saleh, Nocturne in Black by Jimmy Keyrouz, The Rifle, The Jackal, The Wolf, and The Boy by Oualid Mouaness and Baheya & Mahmoud by Zaid Abu Hamdan.

The soon-to-be launched programme, Stars in Shorts, will include a number of award-winning short films featuring famous stars in the Arab world. The programme's launch date will be announced soon.

About the Oscars Shorts Programme Films:

AVE MARIA

AVE MARIA is a 14-minute comedy that tells the story of an order of Palestinian nuns living in the middle of the West Bank wilderness. Their daily routine of silence and prayer is disrupted when a family of Israeli settlers breaks down right outside their convent, just as the Sabbath is beginning. The family need to get home but can't operate the phone, and the Nuns have taken a vow of silence. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short in 2016 and was released in over 400 screens in US theatres as a part of the Oscars nominated films of 2016, generating more than $2.8 million in revenues. The film gathered more than 25 awards from more than 130 world festivals.

Ayny

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 received the Gold Medal for the Best Foreign Animation in 2016 at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in Los Angeles, in addition to other 15 awards from world festivals.

Nocturne in Black

The film is 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. The film received the Gold Medal at the Student Academy Awards and shortlisted for the 2017 10 Live-Action Shorts at the 89th Academy Awards.

The Rifle, The Jackal, The Wolf, and The Boy

Set in a mountain village in Lebanon, two brothers use their dad's rifle behind his back, unaware of the dire consequences of their action. The film was shortlisted for the 89th Academy Awards' Best Live-Action Short Film in 2017. The film toured more than 20 international film festival.

Baheya & Mahmoud

The film tells the story of an aging married couple, Mahmoud and Baheya, who have fallen into a monotonous lifestyle of bickering and making one another miserable.However, this changes one day when Mahmoud wakes up to find his wife Baheya gone.The film was the official Jordanian submission to the Academy Awards.

Screening Times of MAD's Oscars Shorts Programme at Zawya Cinema
Sunday, the 29th of October at 07:30 pm