Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani's feature film debut, Goodbye Julia, leads nominations for the prestigious Critics Awards for Arab Films with a total of eight.
Overseen by the Arab Cinema Centre in Cairo and adjudicated by 209 critics from 72 countries, the awards will be given to winners during a gala ceremony on May 18 on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival.
Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous prelude to South Sudan's 2011 secession, Goodbye Julia has garnered acclaim for its timely exploration of morality and reconciliation. The film is also the first from Sudan to be screened as part of Cannes Film Festival's official selection.
It tells the story of the relationship between two women from contrasting backgrounds – one from the north, the other from the south. Fate brings the two together as they witness the real-life events of 2011 unravel.

Goodbye Julia's eight nominations include best feature and best director. Actresses Eiman Yousif and Nazar Goma, who play the lead characters, have also been recognised for their performances.
Other frontrunners include Jordanian Amjad Al Rasheed's dark social comedy Inshallah a Boy, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania's hybrid documentary-drama Four Daughters and Abu Bakr Shawky’s Saudi film Hajjan, all of which scored six nominations. Tunisian actress Hend Sabry nabbed two nominations in the same category, Best Actress, for Kira & El Gin and Four Daughters.
Films from Egypt, Syria and Palestine were also nominated. All nominees were films that had their premiere at an international festival outside the Arab world in 2023.
Previous winners of the coveted best film award at the annual ceremony include Tamer El Said’s The Last Days Of The City, Omar El Zohairy’s Feathers and Ahmed Yassin Aldaradji’s Hanging Gardens.
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Released: 2017
Peak chart position: No.1 in more than 47 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Lebanon
Views: 5.3 billion on YouTube
Sales: With 10 million downloads in the US, Despacito became the first Latin single to receive Diamond sales certification
Streams: 1.3 billion combined audio and video by the end of 2017, making it the biggest digital hit of the year.
Awards: 17, including Record of the Year at last year’s prestigious Latin Grammy Awards, as well as five Billboard Music Awards
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
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- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
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More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
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- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
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Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
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• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil