The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has made the CIFF an Oscar-qualifying film festival The film festival’s shorts will be eligible to compete at the 2021 Oscars alongside films from other international festivals DUBAI: The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the governing body that organizes the Oscars, has awarded the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) Oscar-qualifying film festival status in the Short Film category. CIFF took to Instagram to announce the news on Sunday, writing: “It’s a Golden Edition! The Cairo International Film Festival becomes an Oscar-qualifying festival. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has awarded CIFF OSCAR qualifying film festival in the Short Film Category status.” This means that the nine-day-long film festival’s short films will be eligible to compete at the 2021 Oscars alongside films from other international festivals such as Berlin, Cannes and Venice. Indeed, it’s time for films from the Middle East and North Africa to get recognition. The 41st edition of the festival, which kicked off on Nov. 20 and is running until Nov. 29, is showcasing a number of thought-provoking short films, including Saudi Arabian comedic short “Dunya’s Day,” which was directed by Raed Alsemari and follows a young woman named Dunya from Riyadh whose perfect graduation party is set back when her domestic help, fed up with her antics, takes off just hours before her guests are anticipated to arrive. Also showing is a 21-minute Lebanese short directed by Samir Syriani entitled “Contact” that explores the horrors of war and the refugee crisis, in addition to Wisam Al-Jafari’s “Ambience,” a Palestinian film that tells the story of two friends who are trying to record a music video for a competition.