Sarawak govt to support local filmmakers with incentives

April 26, 2019



City Role Holdings Group Limited chief executive officer Zhao Liang (seated, left) and Aiffa 2019 festival director Livan Tanjang (seated, right) sign the MoU while Abdul Karim, Aiffa executive director Jaffri Amin (left) and City Role Holdings Group Limited chairman Deng QiDan (second right) look on.

KUCHING: The Sarawak government is willing to listen and offer its own incentives to filmmaking companies to develop the local film industry here.

It said such creative content was able the showcase the tourism attractions of the state.

“It falls on you as filmmakers and financiers to unearth the best stories that we have in the Asean region and to give them the spotlight that they deserve,” Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Sarawak Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said in his speech when launching the Asean International Film Festival and Awards (Aiffa) Biz World 2019 today.

Aiffa Biz World 2019 was organised as a key platform for networking business sessions and exhibition for Asean business communities, attracting international movie stars, directors, cinematographers and producers.

“We are organising this event today to fulfil its role in ensuring that the best of Asean films can continue to produced and to cater to the ever growing demand amongst discerning audiences,” he said at the Kuching Old Courthouse here today.

Abdul Karim also said that the advancement of technology today has enabled videos and movies to reach a larger audience without limitation in terms of locality or timezones.

He also witnessed the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Aiffa and City Role Holdings Group Limited from China to seek collaboration in the state film industry and Asean countries in general.

The objective of the MoU is also to enhance the film industry in Sarawak for City Role Holdings Group Limited via Aiffa and the possibility to enhance the film and other creative opportunities in the region.

Exhibition booths were set up at the prestigious event by companies including National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas), Borneo Native, Pungu Borneo, Edaberan Ayak and many more.

Aiffa is a biennial competition for filmmakers from the 10 Asean countries and has 17 award categories covering all major aspects of the creative and technical areas of filmmaking.