To complement your meal, there are tea and coffee shops where you can warm up with a comforting beverage, perfect for the cooler weather
Updated 1 min 51 sec ago
Rahaf Jambi
Kashtat Tawla is a destination for those who wish to experience a desert picnic vibe right in the bustling city of Riyadh. If you have ever wanted to enjoy the enchanting red sands without the inconvenience of driving an hour outside the city, this is the perfect place to gather with friends and family.
A variety of free board games are available, including classics like Monopoly and the beloved Saudi favorite, Jackaro.
The venue is well organized and run by a team of friendly and cooperative young Saudis who provide a welcoming atmosphere. The entry fee is SR39 ($10), which covers access to the venue and includes free board games. If you would like to enjoy a more private setting, tent rentals are available for about SR49 per person, providing a cozy space to relax and play.
Kashtat Tawla also boasts a diverse range of local restaurants, offering a taste of traditional Saudi cuisine. You can indulge in delicious dishes like jareesh, a hearty wheat and meat dish, kabsa, a flavorful rice dish with spices, and stuffed vine leaves, among other local delights.
To complement your meal, there are tea and coffee shops where you can warm up with a comforting beverage, perfect for the cooler weather.
In addition to food and games, the venue hosts lively activities such as folk dancing, showcasing Saudi cultural traditions. Car enthusiasts will also appreciate the display of classic cars, adding an extra layer of enjoyment for those who admire vintage vehicles.
The thoughtfully designed environment, complete with red sand, tents, and tables, creates an authentic desert atmosphere, allowing you to feel as if you’re miles away from the city, even though you are right in the heart of it.
You will find various activities available, including darts and a headshot game. Local brands also sell clothing, featuring comfortable hoodies and more. For an added touch of ambiance, you can request a wooden fireplace, enhancing the Bedouin experience.
While the entry ticket grants you access to the venue and table, keep in mind that additional fees apply for the fireplace and beverages.
From my personal visits, I have noticed some occasional shortages of board games or mixed decks of cards, so I recommend bringing your own set for convenience. However, it is important to note that there are currently no specific activities designed for children, which may be a consideration for families planning to visit.
DUBAI: Australian actor Guy Pearce donned a pin in support of Palestinians at the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday.
On the red carpet, “The Brutalist” actor donned a pin of a white dove holding an olive branch with the phrase “Free Palestine” written on it.
A best supporting actor nominee for “The Brutalist,” Pearce has worn pins at several public appearances since last year.
Controversy occurred when Vanity Fair France photoshopped his pin out of a photograph taken of Pearce on the Cannes Film Festival red carpet in 2024.
“As the Palestinian people are already suffering great trauma and loss due to the vengeful regime of Netanyahu,” Pearce wrote in an email to CNN at the time, “it is most unfortunate that a reputable publication like VF attempts to eliminate support that I or anyone chooses to offer.”
‘No Other Land’, a collaboration of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, wins Oscar for best documentary
The collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers follows activist Basel Adra as he risks arrest to document the destruction of his hometown
In the film, Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham embeds in a community fighting displacement
Updated 03 March 2025
Arab News and AP
DUBAI/ LOS ANGELES: “No Other Land,” the story of Palestinian activists fighting to protect their communities from demolition by the Israeli military, has won the Oscar for best documentary.
The film’s co-directors, Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham used their speeches to call for an end to the “ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.”
The collaboration between the Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers follows activist Adra as he risks arrest to document the destruction of his hometown, which Israeli soldiers are tearing down to use as a military training zone, at the southern edge of the West Bank.
Adra’s pleas fall on deaf ears until he befriends a Jewish Israeli journalist who helps him amplify his story.
“About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now, always fearing settlers, violence, home demolitions and forcible displacements,” Adra said on stage in Los Angeles.
“‘No Other Land’ reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades and still resist as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people," he added.
Abraham, an Israeli journalist, spoke at length about why their film was a collaboration between Israelis and Palestinians.
“We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together, our voices are stronger,” he said.
“We see each other, the destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end, the Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of Oct. 7, which must be freed.”
In his speech, Abraham added that he and Adra lived “unequal” lives.
“We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control,” he said.
“There is a different path, a political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people.”
Abraham stated that US foreign policy under the administration of President Donald Trump “is helping to block this path.”
“Why can’t you see that we are intertwined, that my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe?” he added.
“No Other Land” came into the night a top contender after a successful run on the film festival circuit.
It did not, however, find a US distributor after being picked up for distribution in 24 countries.
For the Oscar, it beat out “Porcelain War,” “Sugarcane,” “Black Box Diaries” and “Soundtrack to a Coup d’État.”
The documentary was filmed over four years between 2019 and 2023, wrapping production days before Hamas launched its deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that started the current war in Gaza.
In the film, Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham embeds in a community fighting displacement, but he faces some pushback from Palestinians who point out his privileges as an Israeli citizen. Adra says he is unable to leave the West Bank and is treated like a criminal, while Abraham can come and go freely.
The film is heavily reliant on camcorder footage from Adra’s personal archive.
He captures Israeli soldiers bulldozing the village school and filling water wells with cement to prevent people from rebuilding.
Residents of the small, rugged region of Masafer Yatta band together after Adra films an Israeli soldier shooting a local man who is protesting the demolition of his home. The man becomes paralyzed, and his mother struggles to take care of him while living in a cave.
‘Anora’ wins best picture at the 97th Academy Awards
Updated 03 March 2025
Reuters Associated Press
LOS ANGELES: “Anora,” a strip club Cinderella story without the fairy tale ending, was crowned best picture at the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday, handing Sean Baker’s gritty, Brooklyn-set screwball farce Hollywood’s top prize. Sean Baker made Oscar history Sunday at the 97th Academy Awards, becoming the night’s big winner with five statuettes overall, two more than “The Brutalist.”
Baker said his film’s huge Oscar haul was a win for independent films. Mikey Madison won the best actress Oscar on Sunday for “Anora,” a role that catapulted the 25-year-old into a burgeoning film career after achieving initial success on television, while Baker won the best director Oscar.
The night’s first award, presented by Robert Downey Jr., went to Kieran Culkin for best supporting actor. Culkin has cruised through the season, picking up award after award, for his performance alongside Jesse Eisenberg in “A Real Pain.”
Kieran Culkin poses with the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "A Real Pain" in the Oscars photo room at the 97th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on March 2, 2025. (REUTERS)
“I have no idea how I got here,” said Culkin, “I’ve just been acting my whole life.”
Culkin spent most of his speech recalling an earlier, hypothetical promise from his wife Jazz Charton, that they could have a fourth child if he won an Oscar. Culkin used the opportunity to take Charton — “love of my life, ye of little faith” — up on the offer.
The biggest upset early on came in the best animated feature category. “Flow,” the wordless Latvian film upset DreamWorks Animations’ “The Wild Robot.” The win for “Flow,” an ecological parable about a cat in a flooded world, was the first Oscar ever for a Latvian film.
“Flow” was made with Blender, a free, open-source graphics software tool using computer generated animation. The result is a dreamy aesthetic paired with a peaceful, yet post-apocalyptic, fable about a black cat, dog, capybara, ring-tailed lemur and secretary bird trying to survive a catastrophic flood. The film has no dialogue and forces viewers to be mesmerized by the unlikely relationship and understanding between the species trying to escape the rising waters.
It’s only Zilbalodis’ second animated film as a director.
Zilbalodis’ unexpected Oscar contender — and now winner — has been welcomed with open arms this award season. The win Sunday adds to an already impressive resume for the new director, which includes a best animated feature win at the Golden Globe Awards and nominations from Critics Choice Awards, Annie Awards and British Academy Film Awards.
The success of the film is shared with producers Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman. The Latvian, French and Belgian co-production was also nominated for best international feature film, and is the first Latvian film to be nominated at the Academy Awards.
(L-R) Gints Zilbalodis, Mat?ss Kaža, Ron Dyens, and Gregory Zalcman, winners of the Best Animated Feature Film for “Flow”, pose in the press room during the 97th Annual Oscars at Ovation Hollywood on March 02, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
“Thank you to my cats and dogs,” director Gints Zilbalodis accepting the award.
Zoe Saldaña earned her first Academy Award for best supporting actress in “Emilia Pérez,” capping an already accomplished awards season Sunday.
“Mami! Mami!” a tearful Saldaña said. “My mom is here. My whole family is here. I am floored by this honor. Thank you to the academy for recognizing the quiet heroism and the power in a woman like Rita and talking about powerful women. My fellow nominees, the love and community that you have offered to me is a true gift, and I will pay it forward.”
Saldaña accepted the award from the reigning winner in the category, Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
The win adds to a collection of successes for the star on the awards circuit: Saldaña won her first Golden Globe in January, and notched wins at the British Academy Film Awards, the Critics Choice Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Zoe Saldana wins the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for "Emilia Perez" during the Oscars show at the 97th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on March 2, 2025.(REUTERS)
“Wicked” stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo kicked off the ceremony with a tribute to Los Angeles following the wildfires that devastated the Southern California metropolis earlier this year. Grande sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” Erivo performed Diana Ross’ “Home” and the “Wicked” stars joined together for “Defying Gravity” from their blockbuster big-screen musical.
Later, “Wicked,” the biggest box-office hit among the best picture nominees, won the award for best costume design, by Paul Tazewell.
“I’m the first Black man to receive the costume design award,” said Tazewell, who couldn’t finish that sentence before the crowd began to rise in a standing ovation. “I’m so proud of this.”
It is his first win and second nomination. He was previously nominated in the category for his work on Steven Spielberg's “West Side Story.”
Before the Oscars, Tazewell won awards at BAFTA, Critics Choice and Costume Designers Guild awards. He's the second Black person to in the category after Ruth E. Carter made history for her work in 2018 for “Black Panther,” which made her the first African American to win in the category.
Paul Tazewell, winner of the Best Costume Design for “Wicked”, poses in the press room during the 97th Annual Oscars at Ovation Hollywood on March 02, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Getty Images via AFP)
Best makeup and hairstyling went to “The Substance” for its gory creations of beauty and body horror.
Host Conan O’Brien, introduced as “four-time Oscar viewer,” opened the ceremony with genial ribbing of the nominees and the former talk-show host’s trademark self-deprecation.
“‘A Complete Unknown.’ ‘A Real Pain.’ ‘Nosferatu.’ These are just some of the names I was called on the red carpet,” said O’Brien.
O’Brien, hosting for the first time, avoided any political commentary in his opening remarks, but the monologue was a smash hit. O’Brien lent on the disappointed face of John Lithgow, a full-throated “Chalamet!” from Adam Sandler and a gag of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos being delivered to the red carpet in a cardboard box.
O’Brien’s most sincere comments were reserved for Los Angeles, itself, in speaking about the enduring “magic and grandeur” of film in wake of the wildfires. O’Brien, whose house in the Pacific Palisades was spared by the fires, then segued into a musical routine, singing: “I won’t waste time.” An unpredictable Oscar year
After a topsy-turvy Oscar season in which frontrunners were constantly shuffled, old tweets hobbled a top contender and space was held for “Wicked,” Sunday’s Academy Awards brought to a close one of the most unpredictable Oscar races in recent memory.
Splashes of color decorated the red carpet — Timothée Chalamet in yellow, Ariana Grande in pink, Colman Domingo in red — as stars streamed into the Dolby Theatre. Some attendees sported pins for Ukraine. Guy Pearce, nominated for his performance in “The Brutalist,” wore a “Free Palestine” pin on his lapel.
For the first time, an actor is nominated for playing the sitting US president. Sebastian Stan is nominated for best actor for his performance as a young Donald Trump in “The Apprentice,” as is his co-star, Jeremy Strong, for playing Roy Cohn. Trump has called those involved with the film “human scum.”
The political tenor of this year’s ceremony could be volatile, with the Oscars coming weeks into the second Trump administration and falling two days after the president’s dramatic rupture with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
This year’s Oscars are unspooling after a turbulent year for the film industry. Ticket sales were down 3 percent from the previous year and more significantly from pre-pandemic times. The strikes of 2023 played havoc with release schedules in 2024. Many studios pulled back on production, leaving many out of work. The fires, in January, only added to the pain.
Last year’s telecast, propelled by the twin blockbusters of “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie,” led the Oscars to a four-year viewership high, with 19.5 million viewers. This year, with smaller independent films favored in the most prominent awards, the academy will be tested to draw as large of an audience.
The ceremony will be taking place days following the death of Gene Hackman. The 95-year-old two-time Oscar winner and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead Wednesday at their New Mexico home. Morgan Freeman is to honor him during the ceremony.
Winners of the gold Oscar statuettes are chosen by the roughly 11,000 actors, producers, directors and film craftspeople who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Jade Thirlwall, UK pop star with Arab heritage, wins first solo BRIT Award
Updated 02 March 2025
Arab News
DUBAI: English pop star Jade Thirlwall, who has Egyptian and Yemeni ancestry on her mother’s side, was named Best Pop Act at the BRIT Awards 2025.
The last member of girl group Little Mix to launch a solo career, Thirlwall was born to an English father and has Egyptian and Yemeni ancestry on her mother's side.
Jade Thirlwall took to the BRIT Awards red carpet in a baby blue Regency-esque gown designed by Glenn Martens for Diesel. (Getty Images)
Accepting her award at London’s 02 Arena on Saturday night, the singer got emotional, saying, "Oh my God, what?! This is my first solo BRIT Award. Oh my God! I can't cry because I've got to sing later but I did do a little piece of paper in case I won. I know it's cringe!’
Thirlwall — who wore a baby blue Regency-esque gown designed by Glenn Martens for Diesel — ended her acceptance speech with a shoutout to her former Little Mix bandmates. "And finally, of course, my Little Mix sisters. I love you so much. I wouldn't have this award without them and they changed my life. I'm so grateful.”
She later took to the stage to perform her debut top 10 single, “Angel Of My Dreams.”
She later took to the stage to perform her debut top 10 single, “Angel Of My Dreams.” (Getty Images)
Of her Arab heritage, Thirlwall had said in a previous interview with BBC, “My granddad was a Muslim from Yemen. He settled in South Shields and married my granny, who was Egyptian – but I never met her because she died when my mam was four.”
“It was interesting for me, growing up in an Arab community,” continued Thirlwall, who was raised in South Shields, a coastal town in England. “My granddad really wanted me to be Muslim, bless him! My mam made me go to church on Sunday, but I went to Muslim school on Saturdays — it was next to the local mosque where my grandfather went.”
In 2022, the singer did a Q&A session on her Instagram Stories, where she further talked about her Arab heritage. “I love cooking Yemeni food, discovering Yemeni artists and creatives, and I will be continuing to learn Arabic on tour,” she said.
In a more recent interview with Bang Showbiz, the 32-year-old singer talked about cancel culture and her support for Palestine.
She said: “Cancel culture is thriving now. When you’re in the public eye, it’s quite scary. I’ve always been quite vocal, and I’m not always going to get it right. But you can’t be a pop artist right now without speaking out about certain things.
“I have been warned there could be consequences for speaking out about things like Palestine, but these are basic human rights.”
Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio tease intense Daredevil-Kingpin showdown in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’
Disney+ releases 2-episode premiere March 5
Actors highlight characters’ evolving dynamics
Updated 01 March 2025
Shyama Krishna Kumar
DUBAI: Marvel fans are all set for a return to Hell’s Kitchen as Disney+ gears up for the release of “Daredevil: Born Again,” a revival of the beloved “Daredevil” series that originally streamed on Netflix.
The new show brings back Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer who moonlights as the horned vigilante, and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, the formidable crime boss known as Kingpin.
Ahead of the show’s two-episode premiere on March 5, Cox and D’Onofrio shared insights into their characters’ evolving dynamics in a virtual press conference.
Cox assured fans that while Murdock remains fundamentally the same character, he faces new emotional and psychological challenges. “It’s hard to talk about without spoilers,” he said.
“Early on, Matt suffers a trauma that forces him to rethink and rediscover his identity in a way we haven’t seen before. He ends up going down a path that I’d describe as a Band-Aid that has to be ripped off slowly and painfully.”
The revival finds Murdock attempting to leave his vigilante past behind, only to be drawn back into a dangerous game as Fisk reemerges — not as a crime lord, but as a politician running for mayor of New York City.
Their conflicting paths set the stage for a fresh yet intense confrontation between the two.
D’Onofrio highlighted the rarity of direct face-offs between Daredevil and Kingpin, despite their deep-seated rivalry. “We’ve only been in five or six scenes together over the years,” he revealed.
“And that’s because when we do share a scene, it has to mean something — it’s always at the beginning of something, or the end, or sometimes both. It has to be intense.”
This time, the show takes a different approach, bringing the two adversaries together much earlier in the season. Cox explained that this shift creates a fresh dynamic.
“Bringing us together early on is something we haven’t done before,” he said. “It puts them in a position where they have to trust each other’s ability to stay true to who they say they are. That changes the game.”
D’Onofrio also offered a metaphorical take on the characters’ struggles. “We’re both broken men trying to live in the daylight,” he said. “It’s like vampires trying to walk in the sun — it’s a struggle.
“He’s got his thing, I’ve got my plan, and putting us together creates an unavoidable tension.”
