19 Jul – In celebration of Cathay Cineplexes' 75th anniversary, a 75 Hour Movie Marathon challenge took place from 9 July at 7:50 am to 12 July at 8:50 am at The Cathay, Singapore, whereby 23-year-old Mr Zac Koh was declared winner out of 75 participants. Having crossed 61 hours of watching 31 movies in a row, he won himself a trip for two to the much-coveted Cannes Film Festival 2011 - an exclusive event which is not usually accessible to the public.
The lucky winner is actually a film writer for the movie portal in Singapore; as part of his work assignment, he was asked to participate in the Marathon for the experience from a film writer's perspective, and of course with movies being his passion, he now gets to go to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time! The Cannes Film Festival prize package is worth S$20,000 and covers accommodation, airfare, transfers, and entrance to the festival.
The prize presentation ceremony was held at The Cathay the next day, where Cathay's CEO Suhaimi Rafdi presented the prize to the winner Zac. On Zac's motivation for staying awake, he said, "My close friends had been my greatest motivation to finish the marathon. Apart from caring SMSes, they also visited me. The marathon would be an unimaginable experience, and they definitely made it easier for me".
On another note, previous movie marathons that took place over the years include "The Lord Of The Rings", "Spider-Man", "Death Note", "Transformers" and "Twilight".