The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the most prestigious and most important film events in the world. Its red carpet has the biggest stars and international filmmakers, from Ryan Reynolds to Quintin Tarintino. TIFF has a proud history of showing amazing films like 'Room', 'The King’s Speech' and '12 Years a Slave'. The festival has always been about showcasing the world’s best talent in film and bringing together diversity and culture to a single platform and this year’s lineup is a perfect example of that. This year’s international short film competition includes pieces from all over the world and even one from Egypt.

'Fifteen' (Khamastashar) is the first independent short film by Egyptian director Sameh Alaa. Omar Halwany, the film's assistant director, tell us "The entire film was self-produced and distributed, and it was all a very new experience for us. It was the main actor's first experience other than a few commercials and we did the entire film without a written script." This is the first ever Egyptian short film to be nominated at the Toronto International Film Festival and it's going to be premiering there this September. And we certainly can't wait to see it.