The tiny Arab emirate has declared itself the victor in Sunday's Academy Awards.
Octavia Spencer forgetting to thank Abu Dhabi for her Oscar win on Sunday / Reuters
You might have thought that The Artist won biggest at last night's Academy Awards show, by virtue of taking five awards including best picture, but the oil-soaked Arab city of Abu Dhabi wishes to inform you that you are wrong. The real victor, according to government-owned newspaper The National, is Abu Dhabi itself, a region and city in the United Arab Emirates. An article on the Oscars opens, "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."
Their argument is that the The Help may not have won best picture, but it made the most money out of all the best picture nominees, making it the actual winner. And the credit for this success doesn't go to the film's director, the book's author, or even the best-support-actress-winner Octavia Spencer. It goes to the government of Abu Dhabi, of course, which owns Abu Dhabi Media, which produced the film. (Abu Dhabi Media also happens to own The National, by total coincidence.)