2 Oct – The National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia (FINAS) has partnered with four nations, namely China, Russia, India and Indonesia, as a way to promote local films on the international stage in order to ensure that the 'Road to Oscars" mission is achieved. This was announced by FINAS Chairman Zakaria Abdul Hamid, revealing that the cooperation is formed through the nations' embassies. "Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, who was formerly a Foreign Affairs Minister, stated that each foreign embassy has a culture unit. The unit's job is to help promote movies. "Therefore, FINAS will be working together with these units so that the mission to market our movies in foreign nations is achieved. Previously, there have been local production companies that marketed their movies on the international stage or submitted them to film festivals, but it was done on their own. This effort is less effective compared to a government-backed effort," he said, according to BH Online. Zakaria stated that the four nations are selected based on their reputation, aside from their large number of audiences. As a starting point, FINAS will promote a movie with a nationalist or patriotic theme that can introduce Malaysia's identity to the world, before switching to a commercial film. Due to this, starting from this 15 October, FINAS will open a grant application for such films to filmmakers who wish to produce movies based on local history. He also said that FINAS will select a suitable movie to screen in foreign markets starting from next year.
(Photo source: Zakaria Abdul Hamid's Facebook)