The Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) and Malaysia Golden Global Awards (MGGA) that concluded recently targeted to create an accessible platform for local and international movie producers to champion new creative talents and generate more opportunities for them to display talent.
MIFFest and MGGA had come at the right time to celebrate and further enhance the Malaysian movie industry. With a diverse and more maturing audience, Malaysia has enjoyed a series booming box office titles and more mature genres in recent years. More popular and high-grossing titles have thrilled the local movie scene in various themes and cutting across many demographics.
MGGA particularly strived to promote Malaysia and international film productions by recognizing and rewarding the outstanding film and filmmakers, while introducing Malaysia’s film, art, and culture to the world, strengthening the country’s tourism industry.
The Awards ended on a high note with Singing in Graveyards – a Malaysian-Filipino co-production, taking home the Best Picture award. The award ceremony summed up the five-day Malaysian International Film Festival.
MIFFest celebrated the best local and international pictures and showcased Malaysian talents to an amplified international audience while promoting the beautiful Malaysian diversity to the global frontiers. The festival also held dialogues, short movie competition and exhibits at the Nu Sentral Shopping Centre while the screenings of participating movies took place at GSC Nu Sentral, TGV Sunway Velocity, TGV KLCC and eCurve’s Cineplexes.
Among the films that competed at the MGGA were The Salesman by Asghar Faradi (Iran), Toni Erdmann (Germany), The Wailing (South Korea), Ma’ Rosa (the Philippines), One Night Only (China), The Road To Mandalay (Taiwan), Apprentice (Singapore), Happiness (Hong Kong), Hema Hema: Sing Me A Song While I Wait (Bhutan/Hong Kong), I Am Not Madame Bovary (China), I, Daniel Blake (the UK), and Mad World (Hong Kong).
The festival’s jury panel was headed by South Korea’s Busan Film Festival top man, Kim Dong-ho along with Andreas Dresen from Germany, Garin Nugroho from Indonesia, Prof. XieFei from China, Yeo Yann Yann from Malaysia and Yeh Jufeng from Taiwan.
MIFFEST also featured two movies directed by Malaysian directors, Dain Said’s supernatural thriller, Interchange and Tunku Mona Riza’s tear-jerking drama on autism, Redha.
Interchange was nominated in three categories - Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay and Best Film, while multiple international award-winning Redha was selected as one of the line-ups for the festival special screening.
Chart toppers like Shamsul Yusof’s RM17million-grossing horror-thriller, Munafik was a big hit. Polis Evo’s action-packed police number hit the top with more than RM16million at the box-office as well as fan-favourite animation, Boboiboy The Movie which captured the hearts of parents and children alike grossing at more than RM15million.
Ola Bola’s inspiring Harimau Malaya story to Moscow Olympics thrilled the audience with its zero-to-hero tale. Ola Bola also won the Best Original Theme Song and Best Costume awards at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival while being nominated for other six categories.
