The speeches have been given and the tears brushed away, but the real Oscar winner at the 84th Academy Awards was clear from the box office takings - Abu Dhabi.
The Help, co-produced by Image Nation, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media, which owns and publishes The National, was the highest-grossing film of all those winning awards this year. Total ticket sales for the film since its release on August 10 were US$169.6 million (Dh622.9m), according to Box Office Mojo, a Hollywood research website.
Octavia Spencer received the Oscar for best supporting actress in in the US civil rights-era drama.
The film's combination of box-office success and critical acclaim was one the film production company was eager to repeat, said Mohammed Al Mubarak, the chairman of Image Nation.
"We are extremely proud for Abu Dhabi to be associated with such a successful and recognised film," he said.
Coming second among the Oscar winners for box office take was Rango, which scooped the award for best animated feature film, and recorded receipts of $123.4m.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo came third, with sales of $101.4m and an Oscar for best film editing.
The Artist, the winner of the award for best picture, pulled in $31.8m, the third-lowest among the nominees for the award.
The box-office success of The Help will further Abu Dhabi's goals of developing a movie industry, said Michael Garin, the chief executive of Image Nation.
"Image Nation is 100 per cent focused on building the foundations of a motion-picture industry in Abu Dhabi," he said.
The emirate deserves to be proud of The Help, which without the funding from Image Nation might not have been possible, said Peter Scarlet, the executive director of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.
But just as significant for film makers in the Middle East was the success of A Separation, an Iranian film which won an Academy Award for best foreign language picture, the first time Iran has won an Oscar, Mr Scarlet added.
"At a time of such political tension, that a film from Iran is getting a major award in the US is very good news and cause to believe that people are more important than politics and more important than government," he said.
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