Sanctity by Saudi actress and filmmaker Ahd won the second prize at the official Short Competition in the 6th Gulf Film Festival that took place from April 11th to April 17th.

The prize was submitted by the festival's jury that includes filmmaker Fayiza Amba, Emirati director Said Salmin Almary and Egyptian director Oassama Fawzi.

Sanctity participated in the International Short Films section at the Bird's Eye View Film Festivalwhich was held in London and ran from 3rd April to 10th April. Bird's Eye View International Film Festival aims to shed the light on women's contributions to the cinema. In this year's installment of the festival, the focus was to celebrate Arab women filmmakers.

Sanctity has participated recently in 7th Ayam Beirut Al Cinema'iya Arab Film Festival in Lebanon that closed on March 24th.

The film's participation in the Gulf Film Festival is the fifth in international festivals. The first participation was in in Doha Tribeca Film Festival where Sanctity got awarded the Development award in the Arab Short Film Competition.The second festival participation of Sanctity was in the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival where it was the first Saudi film to ever screen within the framework of the highly acclaimed festival.

Shot on location in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Sanctity is written and directed by Saudi filmmaker and actress Ahd and is considered her second directorial effort. The film is produced by BIZIBI andSILVERGRAY with the participation of the Centre National du Cinémaet de l'image Animée CNC.

Mohamed Ottman stars opposite of Ahd in his first acting role in the film as well as veteran actorMohamed Bakr. Sanctity tells the story of Areej, a young widow who tries to do her best to protect her unborn child.

Ahd's directorial debut was the short film The Shoemaker where she played the title role opposite of the Egyptian actor Amr Waked. The film received numerous awards from Arab and international festivals including the Gulf Film Festival and Beirut International Film Festival, as well as competing in theInternational Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand.

In October-2012, Ahd was selected as a jury member in the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. In the same year,Ahd participated in the highly acclaimed Venice International Film Festival through the Saudi filmWadjda where she played a role. She also starred the Turkish film Razn for which she won the Golden Gate Award for Best Actress at the San Francisco International Film Festival.The film also participated in Rotterdam Film Festival.

Ahd is the first Saudi woman to study film acting and filmmaking in the USA, after which she worked on Hollywood films including The Kingdom with director Peter Berg in 2007.