DIFF should be awash with Oscar-winners this year. But don't start practising your screams until you've read our handy guide with facts to impress your friends.
Cate Blanchett
Probably one of the most celebrated actors of her generation, this multi-award-winning (including an Oscar) Australian joins us fresh from having donned the famed elven ears of Galadriel one last time for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (which goes on general release next Thursday). She comes to DIFF as head of the jury for the IWC Schaffhausen Filmmaker Award. Ask her to say "Frodo of the Shire" in that whispy voice - we dare you.
Films: Elizabeth, The Lord of the Rings, The Aviator, Babel, I'm Not There
Fact: Blanchett was such as fan of Shaun of the Dead that she was given an uncredited cameo role as Simon Pegg's ex-girlfriend Janine in Hot Fuzz.
Colin Firth
Just try keeping Firthy away from DIFF - you can't. Two appearances in three years isn't bad for the man who has had the knees of numerous women knocking since his Mr Darcy first flung himself into the water in 1995's Pride and Prejudice.
Last time he was here, it was with The King's Speech (and we all know what happened with that). This time it's with his wife Livia to support the One Night to Change Lives charity evening in support of Oxfam and Dubai Cares.
Films: Bridget Jones's Diary, The King's Speech, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Fact: In 2010, Firth commissioned a study into politicians' brains, and is credited as a co-author of an academic paper that suggested conservatives have greater volume in the amygdala and liberals have greater volume in the anterior cingulate cortex. Thought so.
Kevin Spacey
Keyser Söze is no stranger to the region, having been in Dubai early last year with his Kevin Spacey Foundation and to Qatar last December for two performances of Richard III and several acting workshops.
He hasn't been quite so prolific of late, last appearing in the short Envelope by the Russian director Aleksey Nuzhny and 2011's Chinese dramedy Inseparable (reportedly as the first Hollywood actor to star in a Chinese production), but we'll always remember him as The Usual Suspects' Verbal Kint.
Films:The Usual Suspects, LA Confidential, American Beauty
Fact: Kevin's older brother Randy Fowler is a Rod Stewart impersonator.
Cuba Gooding Jr
"Show me the money! Show me the money!" That's right, Jerry Maguire's Rod Tidwell is scheduled to jet into town (not for a film; he's just a "friend of the festival", apparently).
Since earning an Academy Award as Tom Cruise's prize wide receiver, Gooding Jr's output hasn't been quite so celebrated. He's had five Golden Raspberry nominations and in the past few years many of his films have gone directly to DVD. But we're looking forward to seeing him in the forthcoming Machete Kills alongside Lady Gaga.
Films: Jerry Maguire, Men of Honor, Norbit, Red Tails
Fact: As a young breakdancer, Gooding Jr performed with Lionel Richie at the closing ceremony of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Rooney Mara
From her brief stint as the inspiration behind Facebook in The Social Network, Mara was thrust into our conscious as the "troubled" computer hacker Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. While there's no firm news yet regarding its sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire, Mara has been filming Terrence Malick's next film, Lawless, and has also signed up to appear in Steven Soderbergh and Spike Jonze projects. Being somewhat white of face, she might want to remember the suncream for her Dubai visit.
Films: A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Social Network, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Fact: Rooney's mother founded the Pittsburgh Steelers NFL team and her father's family founded the New York Giants.
Amr Waked
A regular at regional film festivals, the Egyptian superstar has also become an increasingly frequent face in Hollywood titles, starting with Syriana and more recently in Contagion and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. He comes to DIFF this year with the politically charged Arab Spring drama Winter of Discontent, in which he plays an activist blogger detained by Egyptian security forces.
Films: Ashab walla Business, Dail el Samakah, Syriana, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Fact: Waked was one of the leading names trying to boycott last year's Cannes screening of 18 Days, in which he starred, because some of those involved with the film had previously supported Hosni Mubarak.
aritman@thenational.ae
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
The team
Videographer: Jear Velasquez
Photography: Romeo Perez
Fashion director: Sarah Maisey
Make-up: Gulum Erzincan at Art Factory
Models: Meti and Clinton at MMG
Video assistant: Zanong Maget
Social media: Fatima Al Mahmoud
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ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
if you go
Getting there
Etihad (Etihad.com), Emirates (emirates.com) and Air France (www.airfrance.com) fly to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, from Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively. Return flights cost from around Dh3,785. It takes about 40 minutes to get from Paris to Compiègne by train, with return tickets costing €19. The Glade of the Armistice is 6.6km east of the railway station.
Staying there
On a handsome, tree-lined street near the Chateau’s park, La Parenthèse du Rond Royal (laparenthesedurondroyal.com) offers spacious b&b accommodation with thoughtful design touches. Lots of natural woods, old fashioned travelling trunks as decoration and multi-nozzle showers are part of the look, while there are free bikes for those who want to cycle to the glade. Prices start at €120 a night.
More information: musee-armistice-14-18.fr ; compiegne-tourisme.fr; uk.france.fr
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The Al Barzakh Festival takes place on Wednesday and Thursday at 7.30pm in the Red Theatre, NYUAD, Saadiyat Island. Tickets cost Dh105 for adults from platinumlist.net
RESULTS
5pm Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner Thabet Al Reef, Bernardo Pinheiro (jockey), Abdallah Al Hammadi (trainer)
5.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner Blue Diamond, Pat Cosgrave, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6pm Arabian Triple Crown Round-1 Listed (PA) Dh230,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner Hameem, Adrie de Vries, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6.30pm Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner Shoja’A Muscat, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7pm Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
Winner Heros De Lagarde, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 (T) 2,400m
Winner Good Tidings, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
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.”
Tips for entertaining with ease
· Set the table the night before. It’s a small job but it will make you feel more organised once done.
· As the host, your mood sets the tone. If people arrive to find you red-faced and harried, they’re not going to relax until you do. Take a deep breath and try to exude calm energy.
· Guests tend to turn up thirsty. Fill a big jug with iced water and lemon or lime slices and encourage people to help themselves.
· Have some background music on to help create a bit of ambience and fill any initial lulls in conversations.
· The meal certainly doesn’t need to be ready the moment your guests step through the door, but if there’s a nibble or two that can be passed around it will ward off hunger pangs and buy you a bit more time in the kitchen.
· You absolutely don’t have to make every element of the brunch from scratch. Take inspiration from our ideas for ready-made extras and by all means pick up a store-bought dessert.
