Kamil Roxas's Hello World. Roxas has been crowned the winner of ‘The Reel Dubai’ Short Film Contest. Courtesy Dubai International Film Festival
Kamil Roxas's Hello World. Roxas has been crowned the winner of ‘The Reel Dubai’ Short Film Contest. Courtesy Dubai International Film Festival
Kamil Roxas's Hello World. Roxas has been crowned the winner of ‘The Reel Dubai’ Short Film Contest. Courtesy Dubai International Film Festival
Kamil Roxas's Hello World. Roxas has been crowned the winner of ‘The Reel Dubai’ Short Film Contest. Courtesy Dubai International Film Festival

Kamil Roxas wins The Reel Dubai Short Film Contest

Chris Newbould

April 09, 2015

  • English
  • Arabic

Dubai-based filmmaker Kamil Roxas has been crowned the winner of the Samsung/DIFF-sponsored The Reel Dubai Short Film Contest. Roxas will be attending the 68th Cannes Film Festival in May, where the film will screen in the short film corner, as part of the prize.

Reel Dubai was announced at December's DIFF and saw a total of six finalists mentored by local film maker's Nayla Al Khaja (The Neighbour), Mohammad Saeed Harib (Freej) and Ali F Mostafa (From A to B). Roxas' describes his winning film, Hello World, as a poetic narrative on the rise of a city, its cultural landscape, the people and their stories.

Roxas’ mentor, Nayla Al Khaja, commented: “As a filmmaker your dream is to see your film evoke emotions in people and hopefully inspire them. Kamil will have the amazing opportunity to showcase his film at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival to a very diversified international audience and gain access to many industry professionals.”

The competition was judged by a panel consisting of representatives from DIFF, DTCM and Samsung, and Roxas and the runners up also received prizes of film making equipment and gadgets from Samsung.

Shivani Pandya, Managing Director of DIFF, added: “Nurturing filmmaking at the grassroots level is an integral part of developing a thriving film culture in the region. “The Reel Dubai” contest has been a hugely successful initiative, and it has been an absolute pleasure experiencing our home Dubai through each filmmaker’s eyes, uncovering so much fresh talent and passion for the art of filmmaking along the way. All the films are original, moving and entertaining – I hope that audiences enjoy viewing them.”

All six finalists films will also be screened at The Pop-Up Cinema at Dubai World Trade Centre as part of World Art Dubai, between 4:00 pm and 9:00 pm on Thursday, April 9 and 12:00 pm and 9:00 pm on Friday, April 10 and Saturday, April 11.

cnewbould@thenational.ae

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Scene & HeardKamil RoxasADMReel Dubai Short film Contest