We've sat through the Baftas, the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, the People's Choice Awards, and many, many more ceremonies during what can seem like a never-ending movie-awards season.
However, they are all just warm-ups for the big one, the Oscars, which will be handed out in Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles tonight.
The front-runner among the nominees for the 89th Academy Awards is La La Land, with 14 nominations, equalling the record held by All About Eve (1951) and Titanic (1998).
It is followed by Moonlight, director Barry Jenkins's coming-of-age tale about a young black man in Florida, and Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi drama Arrival, which have eight nods each.
Who will win? Who will lose? Check inside to see our predictions for the main categories.
• Coverage of the Oscars Red Carpet begins at 2am tonight on OSN Movies Festival HD. Coverage of the 89th Academy Awards ceremony follows at 5.30am, with several repeats throughout the day
Best Picture
The nominees: Arrival; Fences; Hacksaw Ridge; Hell or High Water; Hidden Figures; La La Land; Lion; Manchester by the Sea; Moonlight
With nine films in the running, there is plenty of competition for the biggest prize of the night – but it is hard to see past La La Land.
There is an outside chance that a wave of guilt about the diversity controversy of recent years could swing some votes towards Moonlight, Hidden Figures or Fences – all of which are deserving – or that Hollywood might want to show it has forgiven seemingly reformed bad boy Mel Gibson by rewarding his war movie Hacksaw Ridge.
But all the buzz and momentum is with La La Land. After cleaning up at every other awards ceremony this year, it would be a brave man who predicts a different outcome here.
Likewise, Damien Chazelle is likely to lift the Best Director award for the film.
Prediction: La La Land
Best Actor in a Leading Role
The nominees: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea; Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge; Ryan Gosling, La La Land; Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic; Denzel Washington, Fences
Some great nominations here, for some wonderful performances – and this category is far from cut and dried. Casey Affleck must be favourite, thanks to a stunning performance in downbeat indie-drama Manchester by the Sea. It is the kind of performance the Academy loves, and he has already picked up a Bafta and Golden Globe, usually reliable indicators.
Denzel Washington – who received the Screen Actor's Guild Award ahead of Affleck – is lurking in the wings and could be a spoiler, while Viggo Mortensen would be a great surprise winner for the quirky Captain Fantastic.
Prediction: Casey Affleck
Best Actress in a Leading Role
The nominees: Isabelle Huppert, Elle; Ruth Negga, Loving; Natalie Portman, Jackie; Emma Stone, La La Land; Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins
It is never wise to completely rule out Meryl Streep, who has been nominated 20 times, and won three Oscars, but this year she is certainly an outside chance at best.
Natalie Portman's beguiling turn in Jackie gives her a decent chance of winning her second Oscar, following her triumph in 2011 for Black Swan.
Her biggest competitor is probably Emma Stone, given the tidal wave of appreciation for La La Land. Ruth Negga is also a possibility, for her role in civil rights-era interracial love story Loving, which is the kind of issue-driven movie the Academy loves to reward.
Prediction: Natalie Portman
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
The nominees: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight; Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water; Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea; Dev Patel, Lion; Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals
The smart choice here is Mahershala Ali. Neither Hell or High Water nor Nocturnal Animals made enough of an impact on mainstream audiences to affect the more peripheral elements of the Academy's voting college (who, in one of Hollywood's worst-kept secrets, just vote for films they have heard of if they are not sure).
Dev Patel picked up a Bafta for Lion, but he had home advantage at the UK's premiere film awards – plus it is a slightly strange nomination, given that in most people's mind, Patel is playing the leading role (albeit he shares it with a child actor in the early stages).
Lucas Hedges could be the one to pull off a surprise, but although the youngster's performance in Manchester by the Sea undoubtedly marks him out as one to watch in future, he will miss out.
Prediction: Mahershala Ali
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
The nominees: Viola Davis, Fences; Naomie Harris, Moonlight; Nicole Kidman, Lion; Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures; Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea
This is possibly the toughest of the big categories to call. As the only one with a majority of black nominees, it would be very surprising for Nicole Kidman or Michelle Williams to edge them out. Viola Davis's character in Fences, like Patel's in Lion, is to all intents and purposes a lead role, so on the plus side, she gets more screen time to impress – but on the other, voters might be confused about what she is even doing in this category.
Choosing between Naomie Harris and Octavia Spencer is a tough call – both are deserving based on their performances, but we will go for Harris, if for no other reason than she is English and was in a Bond movie. Admittedly, Academy members might use different criteria.
Prediction: Naomie Harris
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh132,000 (Countryman)
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo hybrid
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 390bhp
Torque: 400Nm
Price: Dh340,000 ($92,579
The specs: 2018 Maserati Levante S
Price, base / as tested: Dh409,000 / Dh467,000
Engine: 3.0-litre V6
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 430hp @ 5,750rpm
Torque: 580Nm @ 4,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 10.9L / 100km
The biog
Favourite book: Men are from Mars Women are from Venus
Favourite travel destination: Ooty, a hill station in South India
Hobbies: Cooking. Biryani, pepper crab are her signature dishes
Favourite place in UAE: Marjan Island
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
Salah in numbers
€39 million: Liverpool agreed a fee, including add-ons, in the region of €39m (nearly Dh176m) to sign Salah from Roma last year. The exchange rate at the time meant that cost the Reds £34.3m - a bargain given his performances since.
13: The 25-year-old player was not a complete stranger to the Premier League when he arrived at Liverpool this summer. However, during his previous stint at Chelsea, he made just 13 Premier League appearances, seven of which were off the bench, and scored only twice.
57: It was in the 57th minute of his Liverpool bow when Salah opened his account for the Reds in the 3-3 draw with Watford back in August. The Egyptian prodded the ball over the line from close range after latching onto Roberto Firmino's attempted lob.
7: Salah's best scoring streak of the season occurred between an FA Cup tie against West Brom on January 27 and a Premier League win over Newcastle on March 3. He scored for seven games running in all competitions and struck twice against Tottenham.
3: This season Salah became the first player in Premier League history to win the player of the month award three times during a term. He was voted as the division's best player in November, February and March.
40: Salah joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush as the only players in Liverpool's history to have scored 40 times in a single season when he headed home against Bournemouth at Anfield earlier this month.
30: The goal against Bournemouth ensured the Egyptian achieved another milestone in becoming the first African player to score 30 times across one Premier League campaign.
8: As well as his fine form in England, Salah has also scored eight times in the tournament phase of this season's Champions League. Only Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 15 to his credit, has found the net more often in the group stages and knockout rounds of Europe's premier club competition.
WORLD RECORD FEES FOR GOALKEEPERS
1) Kepa Arrizabalaga, Athletic Bilbao to Chelsea (£72m)
2) Alisson, Roma to Liverpool (£67m)
3) Ederson, Benfica to Manchester City (£35m)
4) Gianluigi Buffon, Parma to Juventus (£33m)
5) Angelo Peruzzi, Inter Milan to Lazio (£15.7m
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.”
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Wallabies
Updated team: 15-Israel Folau, 14-Dane Haylett-Petty, 13-Reece Hodge, 12-Matt Toomua, 11-Marika Koroibete, 10-Kurtley Beale, 9-Will Genia, 8-Pete Samu, 7-Michael Hooper (captain), 6-Lukhan Tui, 5-Adam Coleman, 4-Rory Arnold, 3-Allan Alaalatoa, 2-Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1-Scott Sio.
Replacements: 16-Folau Faingaa, 17-Tom Robertson, 18-Taniela Tupou, 19-Izack Rodda, 20-Ned Hanigan, 21-Joe Powell, 22-Bernard Foley, 23-Jack Maddocks.
MATCH INFO
Liverpool 2 (Van Dijk 18', 24')
Brighton 1 (Dunk 79')
Red card: Alisson (Liverpool)
