ABOUT 300 films from 56 countries were submitted at 6th Malaysia International Film Festival (MiFFest), which will take place at Lalaport BBCC between July 23 and July 29, 2023 revealed founder and president Joanne Goh, at a press conference held at Parkroyal Collection.
Out of the 300 movies that were submitted, only 40 will be selected for screening at the festival, Joanne told the media. Top ten movies out of 40 movies will be selected, and a grand winner will be announced during a star-studded award ceremony, the Malaysian Golden Global Awards (MGGA), at Zepp Kuala Lumpur on the last day, July 29.
At the same event, MIFFest announced its partnership with BMW Shorties for short film programming, a new creative initiative by BMW Group Malaysia to discover emerging talents in film and digital content.
The BMW Shorties competition will officially open for entries on April 1, 2023, and the grand prize winner of the competition will receive RM80,000 in production grants.
Joanne said that for the first time, MIFFest is partnering with BMW Shorties. The participants, who will be submitting their short films for the competition this year will get a chance to screen their movies at the festivall, along with top winners of BMW Shorties in 2022.
BMW Group Malaysia’s managing director, Hans de Visser, in his speech said the BMW Shorties thrive on challenging today’s common conventions with creative thinkers who dare to bring forward to the present the breakthroughs of tomorrow. He also revealed the theme for this year is “Evolve.”
MIFFest continues its collaboration with the Udine Far East Film Festival (FEFF) in Italy with special screenings of Malaysian films and exchanges between filmmakers. The two festivals hope to bring new sparks through the “From East to West” concept.
At the press conference, actor Bront Palarae was announced as its ambassador for the fourth time. Bront expressed that he felt honoured and grateful for the position. “We are heading in the direction of forging strong ties with new partners. Hopefully, it’s bigger and better than last year,“ said Bront.
Apart from the announcement of the collaborations, the names of MIFFest Board of Committee members were announced to the public, at the press conference. They were: honorary chairman, Kim Dong Ho; president, Joanne Goh; vice president, Ho Hock Doong; programmer of MIFFest non-competition, Datuk Kamil Othman; advisors, Aron Koh, Shamin Yusof, and Tuan Syed Yahya.
Besides this, the names of the selection committee for the 6th MIFFest Competition were announced while MIFFest sponsors and collaboration partners were presented with a souvenir.
After the event, Joanne hoped that the festival would attract local viewers and inspire new film-makers. “This year, viewers are in for a surprise,” she revealed. In addition to indoor cinema, viewers will get a new experience: watching a movie at an outdoor cinema for the first time since the festival started in 2017.
“We are also sending our Malaysian film to Italy. This is my mission all the while; to help the local industry by bringing local movies to an international audience. We are also collaborating with Tiktok Malaysia to reach out to a larger audience,” added Joanne.
TikTok Malaysia is the official part of MIFFest. – by S. Tamarai Chelvi
