Palestine yesterday received its second Oscars nomination in the foreign language category, once again for its most high-profile director Hany Abu-Assad.
The Nazareth-based filmmaker’s latest feature, Omar was named on the final list of five at yesterday’s Academy Awards nominations announcement in Los Angeles, following on from Paradise Now, which earned Abu Assad a nod in 2006.
Shot in both Israel and the West Bank, Omar follows the story of a young Palestinian baker – played with passion by rising star Adam Bakri – who must deal with issues of love, trust and betrayal while fighting Israeli occupation. It opened the Dubai International Film Festival in December, going on to win its biggest honour, the Best Film in the Muhr Arab feature competition, along with Best Director for Abu-Assad.
Speaking at the festival, Abu-Assad admitted he was doubtful Omar would follow Paradise Now’s footstep in making it to LA, claiming that this year his film faced far stiffer competition than before.
“This time we are up against Wadjda and the Chilean film Gloria,” he said. But both Gloria and Haifaa Al Mansour’s celebrated Saudi drama, Wadjda, controversially failed to make the cut for the Oscars.
Omar will now face Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium), The Great Beauty (Italy), The Hunt (Denmark) and The Missing Picture (Cambodia) for the coveted gold statuette in the Dolby Theatre.
Having picked up a Golden Globe earlier in the week, Paolo Sorrentino’s Felliniesque homage to Rome, The Great Beauty, is now arguably the favourite in the category
Whether it wins or not, Omar’s deserved accolade marks the first time Dubai will get its name attached as producer to an Oscar nomination, with the film partly financed by DIFF’s own Enjaaz fund.
“We have been privileged to open two editions of DIFF with Hany’s films and for such a remarkable film as Omar, which we helped support through our post-production funding programme Enjaaz, to open our 10th edition was an honour, and the perfect tribute to Arab cinema,” said DIFF’s managing director Shivani Pandya.
“It’s wonderful to see Hany Abu Assad and the Omar team getting the recognition they so truly deserve and we wish them all the best.”
Adding to the Middle East presence at the 86th Academy Awards, The Square became the first Egyptian film to get an Oscars nomination, being named in the documentary category. Having already won numerous international awards, Jehane Noujaim’s slick chronicling of Egypt’s recent history was already among the favourites, and had been praised by critics for offering the most comprehensive and well produced of the many documentaries to have come out since the 2011 revolution. But where the film truly excelled was in a conclusion that brought it up to date with the 2013 uprisings, with Noujaim having raced back to Tahrir Square last June (the first cut of The Square ended with Mohammed Morsi’s election).
“It’s a long time coming,” said Noujaim about the Middle East’s increasing recognition at the Academy Awards. “This region has incredible stories to tell. It has an incredibly rich culture. It’s about time that these stories entered the global stage in the way that they should.”
foreign.desk@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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