Congratulations to Issa Touma, Thomas Vroege and Floor van der Meulen! 9 Days – From My Window in Aleppo is among the 15 nominees for the European Short Film Award 2016! At each of the 15 participating film festivals, an independent jury presented one European short film in competition with a nomination in the short film category of the European Film Awards. 9 Days was selected at the Encounters Short Film & Animation Festival in Bristol.

Other nominees are: 90 Degrees North (Detsky Graffam), A Man Returned (Mahdi Fleifel), Amalimbo (Juan Pablo Libossart), Edmond (Nina Gantz), Home (Daniel Mulloy), I’m Not From Here (Maite Alberdi & Giedrė Žickytė), In The Distance (Florian Grolig), Limbo (Konstantina Kotzamani), Shooting Star (Lyubo Yonchev), Small Talk (Even Hafnor & Lisa Brooke Hansen), The Fullness of Time Romance (Manon Coubia), The Goodbye (Clara Roquet), The Wall (Samuel Lampaert) and We All Love The Sea Shore (Keina Espiñeira). Congratulations to all the nominated film makers!

The nominated shorts will soon be submitted to the more than 3,000 EFA Members to elect the winner. The European Short Film 2016 will then be presented at the European Film Awards Ceremony on Saturday 10 December, in Wroclaw, European Capital of Culture 2016.

The European Film Awards, presented jointly by the European Film Academy and EFA Productions, honour the greatest achievements in European cinema. The awards are presented in 22 categories, including the European Short Film.

Photo: EMA Awards 2015, Latvia 

About 9 Days – From My Window in Aleppo

On the morning of August 19 2012, Syrian photographer Issa Touma noticed young men from the Free Syrian Army lugging sandbags into his street and building a barricade under the window of his apartment. The civil war had reached the streets of Aleppo. The following nine days, Touma stayed inside with his camera, filming the situation down the street from his apartment window. 9 Days – From My Window in Aleppo captures the changing nature and dynamic of the situation outside, as T-shirt-wearing partisans gave way to the heavily armed militants of the al-Tahwid Brigade.

The film was directed by Dutch filmmakers Floor van der Meulen and Thomas Vroege.

Still from 9 days - From My Window in Aleppo
Still from 9 days - From My Window in Aleppo
© Issa Touma
Still from 9 days - From My Window in Aleppo
Still from 9 days - From My Window in Aleppo
© Issa Touma
Still from 9 Days - From My Window in Aleppo
Still from 9 Days - From My Window in Aleppo
© Issa Touma
Still from 9 days - From My Window in Aleppo
Still from 9 days - From My Window in Aleppo
© Issa Touma

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