Festival Filem Malaysia boots non-Malay films out of Best Director and Best Screenplay, creates separate categories

NATIONAL film awards ceremony Festival Filem Malaysia ke-28 (FFM28) received backlash from the industry today after unveiling its nominees.

Continuing once again to segregate films based on how much Bahasa Melayu is spoken in them, the ceremony was lambasted by writers association PENULIS for dividing viewers by language and for assigning non-Malay films less worth despite claiming to represent the Malaysian film industry as a whole.

The awards ceremony has gone several steps further and this year will split directors and scripts based on whether Malay is the film’s dominant language — now there’s also a Pengarah Terbaik (Filem Bukan Dalam Bahasa Melayu) and Lakon Layar Terbaik (Filem Bukan Dalam Bahasa Melayu).

This effectively rules out any chances of a win for Shanjhey Kumar Perumal, Chiu Keng Guan or Jess Teong for their critically-acclaimed releases this year. Shanjhey and Jess were instead nominated under the Pengarah Baharu Terbaik category.

The most surprising category this year was for best screenplay, which has unexpected titles like Love Supermoon, Suamiku, Encik Perfect 10! and Mat Moto – Kami Mat Moto Bukan Mat Rempit making the cut due to a bulk of the year’s most significant releases making the new category. This year’s most popular titles — Jagat, OlaBola and The Kid From The Big Apple — were also disqualified from the best film category because they did not contain enough Malay language.

There were 27 categories contested these years, but only 28 films received nominations. OlaBola was the biggest nominee with nods in 14 categories, while Polis Evo scored 10 mentions. In third place is a tie between Jagat and Munafik.

This year’s nominees were coincidentally put forward by PFM (Persatuan Penerbit Filem Malaysia), also led by SKOP Production honcho Yusof Haslam. It is understood that FINAS Director-General Kamil Othman was not involved in the nominations.

Check out the full nominees list below.

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FILEM TERBAIK FFM28
NOTA
POLIS EVO
MUNAFIK
MAT MOTO – KAMI MAT MOTO BUKAN MAT REMPIT
JEJAK WARRIORS

FILEM TERBAIK BUKAN DI DALAM BAHASA MALAYSIA
OLA BOLA
MARAVAN
JAGAT
HUAT THE FISH
THE KID FROM THE BIG APPLE

PENGARAH TERBAIK FFM28
GHAZ ABU BAKAR / POLIS EVO
SAW TEONG HIN / JEJAK WARRIORS
SHAMYL OTHMAN / REMBAT
SYAMSUL YUSOF / MUNAFIK
WAN HASLIZA WAN ZAINUDDIN / LOVE SUPERMOON

PENGARAH TERBAIK (FILEM BUKAN DI DALAM BAHASA MALAYSIA)
CHIU KENG GUAN / OLA BOLA
JESS TEONG / THE KID FROM THE BIG APPLE
PUVANENDRAN SELVARAJA / MARAVAN
SHANJHEY KUMAR PERUMAL / JAGAT
YEE KWAN HUAH & SILVER / HUAT THE FISH

PENGARAH BAHARU TERBAIK
FEROZ KADER / SUAMIKU ENCIK PERFECT 10
PEKIN IBRAHIM / MAT MOTO – KAMI MAT MOTO BUKAN MAT REMPIT
SHANJHEY KUMAR PERUMAL / JAGAT
JESS TEONG / THE KID FROM THE BIG APPLE
DAVEN RAGHAVAN / CCTV

PELAKON WANITA TERBAIK
LISA SURIHANI / SUAMIKU ENCIK PERFECT
MAYA KARIN / NOTA
MAYA KARIN / JWANITA
NABILA HUDA / MUNAFIK
NADIYA NISAA / LOVE SUPERMOON

PELAKON BAHARU WANITA TERBAIK
FALISHA CROSLEY / MAT MOTO – KAMI MAT MOTO BUKAN MAT REMPIT
MARIANNE TAN / OLA BOLA
NUR RISTEENA / GIRLFRIEND KONTRAK
RAJA ILYA / SUAMIKU ENCIK PERFECT
ZARA ZYA / REMBAT

PELAKON LELAKI TERBAIK
AARON AZIZ / SUAMIKU ENCIK PERFECT
ANIU / REMBAT
PEKIN IBRAHIM / MAT MOTO – KAMI MAT MOTO BUKAN MAT REMPIT
SHAHEIZY SAM / POLIS EVO
ZIZAN RAZAK / POLIS EVO

PELAKON BAHARU LELAKI TERBAIK
ADAM SHAHZ / JUVANA 2 – TERPERANGKAP DALAM KEBEBASAN
CHE AMAR / CHOWRASTA
KEITH FOO / GIRLFRIEND KONTRAK
MAS KHAN / BIASAN
SARAN KUMAR / OLA BOLA

PELAKON PEMBANTU WANITA TERBAIK
ADELINE TSEN / GAMATISME
AMINAH RHAPOR / CHOWRASTA
ANNE NGASRI / LOVE SUPERMOON
CHRISTINA SUZANNE / JWANITA
FAUZIAH DATO’ AHMAD DAUD / LANGIT CINTA

PELAKON PEMBANTU LELAKI TERBAIK
RAMLI HASSAN / NOTA
AZAD JAZMIN / GIRLFRIEND KONTRAK
HASNUL RAHMAT / JUVANA 2 – TERPERANGKAP DALAM KEBEBASAN
HUSHAIRI HUSAIN / POLIS EVO
SRI  BALASUBRAMANIAM / OLA BOLA

PELAKON KANAK-KANAK TERBAIK
ALIFF FIRDAUS / JEJAK WARRIORS
HARVIND RAJ / JAGAT
RYQAL ISKANDAR / CICAKMAN 3
SHIVATHARAN NAMBIAR / OLA BOLA
TAN QIN LIN / THE KID FROM THE BIG APPLE

CERITA ASAL TERBAIK
OLA BOLA
REMBAT
MAT MOTO – KAMI MAT MOTO BUKAN MAT REMPIT
JAGAT
THE KID FROM THE BIG APPLE

LAKON LAYAR TERBAIK FFM28
NOTA
SUAMIKU ENCIK PERFECT
POLIS EVO
MAT MOTO – KAMI MAT MOTO BUKAN MAT REMPIT
LOVE SUPERMOON

LAKON LAYAR TERBAIK (FILEM BUKAN DI DALAM BAHASA MALAYSIA)
OLA BOLA
THE KID FROM THE BIG APPLE
HUAT THE FISH
MARAVAN
JAGAT

SINEMATOGRAFI  TERBAIK
POLIS EVO
BRAVO 5
MUNAFIK
MAT MOTO – KAMI MAT MOTO BUKAN MAT REMPIT
JAGAT

PENYUNTING TERBAIK
OLA BOLA
JAGAT
THE KID FROM THE BIG APPLE
POLIS EVO
MUNAFIK

PENATAAN SENI TERBAIK
JAGAT
BRAVO 5
OLA BOLA
HUAT THE FISH
THE KID FROM THE BIG APPLE

PENATAAN BUNYI TERBAIK
REMBAT
POLIS EVO
MUNAFIK
MAT MOTO – KAMI MAT MOTO BUKAN MAT REMPIT
VILLA NABILA

KESAN VISUAL KHAS TERBAIK
KAPSUL
OLA BOLA
MUNAFIK
CICAKMAN 3
THE NOISE

PEREKA KOSTUM/BUSANA TERBAIK
OLA BOLA
CICAKMAN 3
BRAVO 5
THE KID FROM THE BIG APPLE
POLIS EVO

SKOR MUZIK ASAL TERBAIK
CHOWRASTA
JWANITA
PILOT CAFÉ
OLA BOLA
MUNAFIK

LAGU TEMA ASAL TERBAIK
NUR ZAIDI ABD RAHMAN – LANGIT CINTA (DAYANG NURFAIZAH)
SYAMSUL YUSOF – KALAH DALAM MENANG (SYAMSUL YUSOF & MAWI)
EDRY ABDUL HALIM – ADIWIRA (ZIZAN RAZAK & KRU)
NUR ZAIDI ABD RAHMAN – UNTUK CINTA (DAYANG NURFAIZAH)
ZEE AVI & RENDRA ZAWAWI – ARENA CAHAYA (ZEE AVI)

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What do you think?

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