Amr Diab, Mohammed Abdo, Ahlam, Nancy Ajram and Najwa Karam to perform at Dubai Shopping Festival

Also, Bollywood movie Jal in the race for Oscars, Robert Bereny's painting auctioned for Dh1 million, German TV show Wetten, dass...? axed after 33 years.

Amr Diab. Courtesy FLASH Entertainment

With the Dubai Shopping Festival set to celebrate its 20th edition next month, the organisers have announced a month-long series of concerts during the event, which will feature 20 superstars of the Arab world. DSF Celebration Nights will be the biggest event of its kind in the region, and the line-up of singers who will perform includes icons such as the Saudi singer Mohammed Abdo, Egyptian pop superstar Amr Diab, Emirati heroine Ahlam, and the internationally renowned Lebanese legends Nancy Ajram and Najwa Karam. The concerts will be held in the 5,000 – capacity Dubai Media City Amphitheatre. The event is being staged in collaboration with Platinum Records, a part of MBC Group, and in association with Dubai Media City. – The National Staff

Bollywood film Jal enters Oscars race

The Indian filmmaker Girish Malik's National Award-winning drama Jal (Water) has found a place on the Academy Awards longlist in two categories – Best Picture and Best Original Score. The film, starring Purab Kohli, Kirti Kulhari and Tannishtha Chatterjee, is about a villager gifted with the ability to find water in the desert. The music and background score has been composed by Sonu Nigam and Bickram Ghosh. The screenplay has also made it to the Oscar library's permanent collection. "Jal is in the race for the final five nominees in Best Picture and Best Original Score alongside path-breaking films such as Interstellar, Exodus, 300: Rise of an Empire and other Hollywood biggies," said Puneet Singh, director of One World Films, the film's production company. The final nominations will be announced on January 15. The Oscars ceremony will be held on February 22 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. – IANS

Long-lost painting sold for Dh1 million

A long-lost avant-garde painting has sold for €229,500 (Dh1million) after a sharp-eyed art historian rediscovered it being used as a prop in the Hollywood kids' movie Stuart Little. Sleeping Lady with Black Vase, by Hungarian artist Róbert Berény, was sold at the Virág Judit Galéria auction house in Hungary on Saturday to an unnamed private Hungarian collector. The price exceeded expectations. The process of finding the painting began in 2009 when Gergely Barki, a researcher at Hungary's National Gallery, spotted it as he watched the 1999 film with his daughter, Lola. "I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Bereny's long-lost masterpiece on the wall behind Hugh Laurie, I nearly dropped Lola from my lap," he said. The painting had disappeared in the 1920s and Barki sent a flurry of emails to the film's makers, Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures, eventually receiving a reply from a former Sony employee two years later. – AFP

Hit German TV show axed after 33 years on air

Germany's most successful TV show has ended after a 33-year-run. Wetten, dass..? – or Wanna bet? – combined celebrity chat and everyday people performing improbable feats like opening beer bottles with steamrollers. The show broadcast more than 200 episodes, attracting more than 20 million viewers in the 1980s. Guests often expressed bewilderment at the antics of the contestants, and a horrific on-air accident in 2010 helped hasten its demise. Guests on the final show included actor Ben Stiller and the German former figure skating champion Katarina Witt. – AP