Technical problems led to the decision to postpone the screening of the Oscars Shorts Programme at Zawya Cinema in Port Said to Friday, the 22nd of December, at 07:00 pm.

MAD's Oscars Shorts Programme is the first of its kind in the Arab world and 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 Bahiya & Mahmoud by Zaid Abu Hamdan. The programme is scheduled to be launched in Egypt first, to be followed by Lebanon and the UAE soon.

AVE MARIA by director Basil Khalil - 14 minutes
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short

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.

Stop-motion animation film Ayny by director Ahmed Saleh - 11 minutes
The Gold Medal at the Student Academy Awards for the Best Foreign Animation in 2016

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.

Nocturne in Black by director Jimmy Keyrouz - 23 minutes
The Gold Medal at the Student Academy Awards
Shortlisted for the Best Live-Action Short Film at the 89th Academy Awards
The Best Live Action Film Award at the BAFTA L.A.'s Student Film Awards

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 Rifle, The Jackal, The Wolf, and The Boy by Oualid Mouaness - 20 minutes
Shortlisted for the 89th Academy Awards' Best Live-Action Short Film in 2017

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.

Bahiya & Mahmoud by Zaid Abu Hamdan - 14 minutes
Official Jordanian submission to the Academy Awards for the Best Live-Action Short

The film tells the story of an aging married couple 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 Bahiya gone.