20th Mini Film Festival celebrates outstanding talent at Unimas

BY JACQUELINE DAVID

KOTA SAMARAHAN: The 20th Mini Film Festival (MFF) organised by Universiti Sarawak Malaysia (Unimas) Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts Cinematography Programme, ended on a high note on Sunday (July 21) with 18 awards presented to the winners.

The event, which began at 8pm, was launched at the La Promenade Multi-purpose Hall and attended by around 200 people.

With its theme ‘Search’, the award categories were Best Script; Best Actor; Best Actress; Best Production Design; Best Sound Design; Best Editing; Best Cinematography; Best Director; Jury’s Award (Student Category); Jury’s Award (Open Category); Jury’s Award (Borneo Category); Best Documentary; Best Short Film and Best Jury Award Category.

It also includes Best Short Film (Student Category); Best Short Film (Open Category); Best Short Film (Borneo Category) and Special Mention (Open Category).

Award winners for Best Script, Belana (by Miqaeel Mukhalis); Best Actor (Taufiq Hidayat for Love on Screen); Best Actress (Michelle Lungan for Senandika; Best Production Design (Farah Farhana Hasim for Love On Screen); Best Sound Design (Mohamad Danish Lud for Di Kala Senja) and Best Editing (Mohammad Anas Mohd Sadon for Senandika).

Other award winners also included Best Cinematography (Arazee Imran for Senandika); Best Director (Mohammad Anas Mohd Sadon for Senandika); Jury’s Award (Student category) Sesak by Putri Hurriyah;Jury’s Award (Open Category) The Missing Trophy by Wong Ga Dong; Jury’s Award (Borneo Category) The Lady in White by Angkasa Ramadhan; Best Documentary (Pak & Me by YLT Production); Best Short Film (Senandika by The Owls Studio) and Best Jury Award (Payback by The Liberte).

Award winners also included Best Short Film (Student category) The Next Stop by Chun Chuan Cha; Best Short Film (Open Category) Please Hold the Line by Tan Ce Ding; Best Short Film (Borneo Category) Pawadi Jihad and Special Mention (Open Category) A Misfit Tiger by Bennial Soo.

This ‘Search’ showcase, supported by the Sarawak Arts Council (MSS) and National Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) saw a strong dedication to bring together filmmakers, artists, films and audiences.

The annual festival was first organised in 2004, and this year marks its 20th anniversary.

Known for Malaysia’s longest running short film festival, showcasing the best films and arts in Sarawak, promising an unforgettable experience for film fans and art lovers in Sarawak.

Along with renowned actors/directors Dato’ Afdlin Shauki and Rashid Salleh, Nik Amir, Nadira Ilana, Prisca Wong, and Emma Kawawada, were among those present as workshop facilitators, judged the competition films, or screened their films during the festival.

The event was also supported by the Japan Foundation, where one of the country’s top film directors, Emma Kawawada was flown in from Japan to meet her audience and conduct a storytelling workshop.

Adding to the excitement of the festival is a series of musical performances by local musicians including Elizabeth Bungan with a ‘sape’ performance, TaDan from Miri who performed modern jazz fusion ethnic music, as well as award-winning Adruce Azman, JayC Ho and Roxy Ixzy. All of which are Sarawakians.

Also present at the event were Elizerbeth Patterson (represented the MSS chief executive officer Dayang Mariana Abang Bolhassan), Finas chair of Sarawak Filmmaking Ecosystem Development Committee, Gregory Wee (represented Dato’ Kamil Othman Chairman of Finas), Unimas deputy vice chancellor Prof Dr Fitri Suraya Mohamad Hapni Joblie, Finas Sarawak senior assistant director Maffizan Saupie and Kyoko Kugai (JFKL) from Japan Foundation KL among others.