I told them there was so much to things write about. It is of course in my personal opinion the weakest ever festival in the history of MFF. It is even as bad if not worse than when A. R. Badul won the best director award for Oh Fatimah! over a decade ago.
Even the fact that a movie entitled Papadom - a movie that no one has seen (apart from the Jury members) won Best Film award, Best Comedy Film Award, Best Actress award, Best Actor Award, Best Song Award amongst others, made the festival surreal.
I think in that aspect, our film industry made history. Apart from International Film Festivals like Cannes, most national film festivals only allow films that have been screened in the year prior to the awards to participate. Films that were not screened during the eligible period of time were not allowed to participate - which makes sense.
For example, how can we be excited at the awards night when a movie none of us had the chance of viewing won? It's like , "huh? so what? kinda feeling" when Papadom won many awards that night.
Don't get me wrong. I respect Afdlin Shauki and I believe Papadom deserved the awards but then again I haven't seen it, so I really don't know.
But then again, in a field of cow manure, a single flower or two stand remarkably alone and attracts attention. That's what the festival was about. Imagine Talentime and Papadom (and maybe Setem) going against titles like Abalasa, Jin Hutan, Momok, Syurga Cinta, Bohsia, Jangan Tegur, Skrip 7707, Maut, Histeria, Sifu dan Tonga, Brainscan and
Cicakman 2. It's like a crazy bad year for local cinema. What's worse, the theme for the festival is Malaysian Films To The International Arena and yet none of the films that participated could better a film not yet shown.Now, the good thing about the festival was that Sabah played hosts. And they were great hosts. I cannot fault them for the little screw ups that happened ( what event doesn't have minor screw ups right?) and really the Sabahans were excellent hosts.
Forget that the participants were ensconced in the One Borneo shopping center for five days. Forget that taxi cabs in Sabah are expensive - costs you about Rm50 bucks return from One Borneo to the city and back.
So, for most participants, apart from the various events that they attended, all they saw of Sabah was the inside of the shopping Mall - One Borneo.
I was lucky that I had work to do at the same time the festival was held in Sabah. I was producing my Merdeka documentary and interviewed Datuk Harris Salleh, Tan Sri Herman Luping Datuk Ayoub Aman and Tan Sri Ghani Gilong. So the trip to Sabah was quite fruitful for me.
At the end of the day, what did the Festival achieve? In terms of bringing Malaysian films closer to Sabahans I think they succeeded somewhat. At least the hundreds of students from UMS who turned up for the Awards night at the Dewan Canselor, got to meet their local heroes.
But in terms of recognising and celebrating excellence, I think the festival was a dismal failure.
4 comments:
About the comments for Anwardi’s on winning withouth ‘tayangan’, it a big HAHAHAHA! it’s a joke, bro. I was cursing and asking my self, how come I’ve missed ‘Papaddom’ in local theatres? Actually it was NOT even had a premier yet.
>
What are the criteria to enter a film in our FFM? Or is there any? Bro, since we have a ‘VERY’ successful LOW IQ producer (who can’t differentiate HD camera’s resolutions), so what to expect from PFM, (who were FFM AJK’s)? They are also a bunch of TOP level of LOW IQ producers.
>
If somebody in the working committee of FFM22 came out with idea to permit ‘PAPADDOM’ contesting in FFM22, why the other committee members agreed? What was the rational behind it? Can’t the film wait for FFM23? What was so special about the film? The public also should know, right? If not, why the FFM22 didn’t do a free show of the film nationwide for a day, for it to qualify? Is it so special that it had to win this year, in order for it to contest in Cannes, Oscar or BAFTA?
>
Luckily the festival was in Malaysia, if it was in 1st world countries, the organisers probably would’ve been sued by the losers (because of illegal entry in proper competition), and the winner would’ve been stripped from having the ‘award/s’.
>
• I hope the world film fraternity will not know about this fiasco which we have done again since last A.R.Badul film winnings.
>
Salim Haji Saifuddin
Are Our Films In Concept Of 'Filem Kita - Wajah Kita'? - PART 1
Assalamu-Alaikum and Congratulations to PFM, successfully organising the 22nd Malaysian Film Festival which were held in Sarawak. I hope it will be successful in creating awareness to mass public of Malaysia to our film products and ultimately raise the percentage of filmgoers which will raise significant collections that can be turned into a significant income of our local investors (film producers).
>
Malaysian Film Festival title should be changed to Malay Film Festival. It’s sad to say that we can hardly see participants of Non-Malay artiste in Malay films. Only few directors have able to assimilate it; the notable ones are Sir Othman Hafsham and Late Yasmin Ahmad. We can obviously see that the non-Malay actors have either utter significant roles or just as extras. Even I have brought this matter to some of our local Malay notable filmmakers in the industry but they have just sneered and brushed of the grievances of local public especially the Chinese and Tamil community.
>
The formula of 1Malaysia film concept can easily be implemented. How? It is very is simple, make it compulsory to have 30% of the star cast and storyline of non-Malay characters n cultures highlighted, either in Malay TV dramas/films. And it same goes to local Chinese and Tamil TV dramas/films, make them to use 30% of other races and cultures than theirs.
>
Its psychological, as an example; just imagine if 'Erra Fazira' acts in a Bollywood or Hollywood film, it'll be an honour to Malaysian especially for Malays to watch the film. And same goes to Malaysian Chinese and Tamil communities; they will feel honoured to see their favourite drama artistes appear and has significant roles in Malay drama/films. Thus, it will increase in percentage of non-Malays watching a Malay film and vice-versa.
>
END OF PART 1
Nukilan ;
SALIM HAJI SAIFUDDIN
Are Our Films In Concept Of 'Filem Kita - Wajah Kita'?
- PART TWO
To regularly achieve collections up to Rm15-20 million, would not be impossible. A Hollywood film recently collected Rm20 million. And believe it or not, the last Tamil film of Rajnikant, collected a whopping Rm13 million!!! And that was nearly 3 years ago. Just imagine it was from viewer ship of just 17% of Tamil speaking population in Malaysia! That means it has significantly attracted the non-speaking Tamils to watch the movie. How and Why? That’s the question should be asked and researched. Once a Jacky Chan film, included an top artiste from Bollywood as a star cast in his film, I was surprised to see many Sikhs, Bengalis, Tamils and Gujratis went to see the film. Why? Just because they feel proud to see their Bollywood star, acts in a ‘foreign’ film, even though it’s Chinese. Just imagine the collection of extra income the producer might have got around the world. How and Why? That’s the question should be asked and researched.
>
PFM should sit down with our relevant authorities especially with Kementerian Penerangan and formulate a system of muhibbah (1Malaysia) concept, in our drama/films as I have suggested above (30% quota). Currently we can obviously see that it is missing in Malay@Chinese@Tamil drama on our local Terrestrial or Satellite TV channels. As an example: In Chinese dramas..., we can hardly see there are other races characters are involved actively in the stories, as if it is made-in-Hong Kong or Taiwan. This same goes to Tamil and Malays tele-serials or tele-films.
>
And back to our local film scenario, we should make a 'pure' Filem Kita, Wajah Kita' not 'Filem Kita berWajah Melayu'. And the world could recognise 'Hey that's the Malaysian Film, lets watch!', We have to create a concept or a theme or an identity, that world will accept it in a glance. Just as we automatically accept in a glance, films from Hong Kong, Japan, Hollywood and Bollywood. They all have an identity. To assimilate certain percentage of racial harmony in our films/drama, will automatically create an identity of a Malaysian film. As it is Malaysia is famously known as 'Malaysia Truly Asia' due to its wide range of culture, races, religions and languages.
>
>
Hopefully one day we live to see a wide range of films/dramas of 1 Malaysia concept which will be a showcase to the world, how to live harmoniously with multiple culture, race and religion.
>
Nukilan;
SALIM HAJI SAIFUDDIN
FFM22 committee members - participants and jury
http://www.sinemamalaysia.com.my/ffm.php?mod=commitee
post-ffm22 mini forum
http://www.sinemamalaysia.com.my/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=523
Post a Comment