The Nashville Film Festival has announced its official programme selections for its narrative shorts competition which includes Egyptian film Henet Ward. The 51st edition of the festival will be taking place virtually from October 1-7, 2020.

Henet Ward takes place in an Egyptian household in a popular neighbourhood in Cairo, capturing the struggles that refugees in Egypt experience in very private and intimate settings.

The film follows Halima, a Sudanese henna painter living in Egypt. She goes to one of Giza’s local areas to prepare a bride for her wedding and her seven years old daughter Ward accompanies her and starts to wander around and discover the place.

Directed by Egyptian director Morad Mostafa, the film was recently announced as the only Egyptian film selected for the Palm Springs International ShortFest.

The festival also includes selections for the shorts programmes, Episodics, NextGen and VR competition programmes from over 20 countries covering diverse genres, including documentary, narrative, and animated shorts.

Additional programming announcements for Nashville Film Festival’s virtual event will continue through early September.

“Short-form filmmaking is an open frontier for filmmakers, often free from the systemic and economic constraints of Hollywood, which allows for greater innovation, personalisation and exploration,” said Robert Torres, shorts programmer for the Nashville Film Festival. “Each year is such a rich process of discovery, and we are deeply honoured to bring our selection of the year’s best short films from around the globe to our Nashville audience.”