13 Aug - Yes, the 21st Malaysian Film Festival (FFM 21) is over! The curtain has fallen and the winners have walked home with pride, joy, satisfaction and of course, their trophies. Inevitably, each year after the most prestigious film festival ends, there are always talks here and there touted about the RM 2m event, which was held last Saturday night, 9 August 2008 at Putrajaya International Convention Centre. The awards night kicked off with a red carpet arrival of guests at 7.45pm, where local celebs paraded themselves. The show-stealer was definitely the gorgeous model-actress Nasha Aziz, who was Best Actress nominee for "Otai". Aside from Nasha, Malaysian drama queen, two-time Best Actress Erra Fazira, also stunned look stunning, accompanied by hubby Engku Emran. Ida Nerina and hubby were also caught at the red carpet despite being not nominated for any categories. Besides the familiar faces, the festival was also peopled with loads of newcomers who found no fault in maximising their exposure, including nominees Farid Kamil, Lisa Surihani, Fazura, Diana Rafar, Syamsul Yusof, Diana Danielle and many others.
As the clock struck 9 pm, the event began with an opening performance, which included the theme song to upcoming Mamat Khalid movie, "Estet". The main cast like Farid Kamil and Sashi Tharan were dancing but half of the front seats, which were reserved for the nominees and other bigwigs, were noticeably empty. It looks like some of our stars were too busy with other commitments to be on time! A throng of celebs were caught stuck near the hall entrance next to the stage as the show went on, wondering where to sit. Were they trying to be fashionably late? What a shameful scene to see!
Never mind the attitude of some of our movie stars, the show went on with the presentation of awards, one after another. However, this year's festival felt slightly slow and dull. Perhaps it was the sideshows in between that spoilt the mood. The selection made by official broadcaster Astro seemed to favour only the Akademi Fantasia (AF) alums – from unprepared AF6 winner Stacy (who completely spoiled the intro of Ogy's Wajah Rahsia Hati) to Riz (also from AF6, didn't hit the right notes for Jamal Abdillah's Azura), not to mention the time-wasting performance from Burn and Karen who seemed to ruin the grandeur of the occasion. Nonetheless, the performance by Melissa Saila and Ahmad Fauzee for Sireh Pinang Muda from P. Ramlee's "Anakku Sazali" put some decency to the event. Saiful Apek's crowd-pleaser Aspalela (from box office winner "Duyung") and Datuk Siti Nurhaliza singing Hati from "1957: Hati Malaya" brought some fun and prestige to an otherwise rather boring night. There was almost a boo-boo when Best Newcomer Actress Lisa Surihani had her dress apparently stuck to the stage stairs when coming up to receive her trophy. Thankfully, nothing worse happened.
The event went on until we were finally given the jury's choice - Mamat Khalid and his stylish neo-noir "Kala Malam Bulan Mengambang" were announced as Best Director and Best Picture respectively. The night ended with yet another unsightly look at the audience, who including the winners and celebs, rushed to leave the hall even though the closing performance was still playing onstage. What disrespect to the performers! Still, despite the hiccups, the results didn't cause any uproar from the public this time. The 'glamour' feel of the night did come off quite classy and the celebrities were generally dressed up to standards.
So Au revoir to FFM21 but there's a long way to go to improve and expand the filmmaking scene. Hopefully, more and more films will be produced and some improvement in the coordination of the upcoming festival can be seen in Kota Kinabalu next year!