Colin Farrell and Bill Nighy are both in the running to receive their first Best Actor Oscar nominations.
If nominated, the pair are expected to come up against US heavyweights Austin Butler and Brendan Fraser, who have also won acclaim for their performances in Elvis and The Whale respectively.
Nominations for the 95th annual Academy Awards are due to be announced on Tuesday from 5.30pm UAE time, and will be read out by Riz Ahmed and Allison Williams.
Nighy and Farrell have already picked up nods for their performances at other award shows, with Farrell winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy.
Scroll through the gallery below to see the Golden Globes 2023 winners
The Irish star appears opposite long-time friend and colleague Brendan Gleeson in Martin McDonagh's dark comedy, The Banshees Of Inisherin, which is set on a remote island off the coast of Ireland.
Nighy has previously been recognised for his turn in Living, in which he portrays a veteran civil servant who is inspired to make the most of his remaining days, following a life of tedium.
Paul Mescal, who stars in coming-of-age drama Aftersun, also stands a chance of scooping an Oscar nomination in the Best Actor category, boosting chances of homeside success.
The Best Supporting Actor category may also be stacked with British and Irish talent, with Gleeson, Barry Keoghan and Eddie Redmayne all already having been recognised.
If all receive nods, they will likely have to contend with Ke Huy Quan, star of Everything Everywhere All At Once, who has led the field thus far with both nominations and wins for his performance.
The sci-fi thriller, also starring Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu, is about a family caught up in a scramble across the multiverse, following an inter-dimensional rupture.
The film dominated at the Critics Choice Awards, with wins including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor for Quan.
Scroll through the gallery below to see winners of the Critics Choice Awards 2023
Yeoh won Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, at the Golden Globes, and if nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, is likely to face stiff competition from Cate Blanchett.
Blanchett's performance in Tár, which follows the unravelling of star conductor Lydia Tar, has already earned her both a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award.
Following their previous successes, The Banshees Of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All At Once are also expected to be nominated for Best Picture overall, along with Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans.
That film follows young filmmaker Sammy Fabelman, played by Gabriel LaBelle, and his burgeoning career in the movie-making business — based in part on Spielberg's own life story.
If nominated, the trio may come up against blockbuster sequels including James Cameron's Avatar: The Way Of Water and Tom Cruise's high-octane Top Gun: Maverick.
Spielberg and McDonagh may also be set to continue their rivalry for Best Director accolades, both having received nominations in the parallel categories at other award shows.
Nominations in all 23 categories will be read in a live presentation from the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theatre and via a global live stream on Tuesday.
The star-studded Oscars ceremony, due to be hosted by US talk show host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel, will take place on March 12, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
Zayed Sustainability Prize
French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
The%20specs
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Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
PRISCILLA
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDate%20started%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202020%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Khaldoon%20Bushnaq%20and%20Tariq%20Seksek%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%20Global%20Market%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20HealthTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20100%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20to%20date%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2415%20million%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The biog
Name: Maitha Qambar
Age: 24
Emirate: Abu Dhabi
Education: Master’s Degree
Favourite hobby: Reading
She says: “Everyone has a purpose in life and everyone learns from their experiences”
Eyasses squad
Charlie Preston (captain) – goal shooter/ goalkeeper (Dubai College)
Arushi Holt (vice-captain) – wing defence / centre (Jumeriah English Speaking School)
Olivia Petricola (vice-captain) – centre / wing attack (Dubai English Speaking College)
Isabel Affley – goalkeeper / goal defence (Dubai English Speaking College)
Jemma Eley – goal attack / wing attack (Dubai College)
Alana Farrell-Morton – centre / wing / defence / wing attack (Nord Anglia International School)
Molly Fuller – goal attack / wing attack (Dubai College)
Caitlin Gowdy – goal defence / wing defence (Dubai English Speaking College)
Noorulain Hussain – goal defence / wing defence (Dubai College)
Zahra Hussain-Gillani – goal defence / goalkeeper (British School Al Khubairat)
Claire Janssen – goal shooter / goal attack (Jumeriah English Speaking School)
Eliza Petricola – wing attack / centre (Dubai English Speaking College)
Villains
Queens of the Stone Age
Matador
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
UAE SQUAD
Ahmed Raza (Captain), Rohan Mustafa, Jonathan Figy, CP Rizwan, Junaid Siddique, Mohammad Usman, Basil Hameed, Zawar Farid, Vriitya Aravind (WK), Waheed Ahmed, Karthik Meiyappan, Zahoor Khan, Darius D'Silva, Chirag Suri
The five pillars of Islam
Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin
TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
Reputation
Taylor Swift
(Big Machine Records)
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.