PETALING JAYA, April 1 — The results of the 30th Malaysian Film Festival (FFM 30) on Saturday night marked a renaissance for local films, with the diversity of winners taking to the podium.

After all, just three years ago, the industry was fuming when the National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia (Finas) justified segregating films by language medium, with non-Bahasa Malaysia films competing in separate categories.

The industry raged as Ola Bola, Jagat and The Kid From The Big Apple were isolated into separate "non-Bahasa Malaysia” categories supposedly "to level the playing field, and dignify the national language, Bahasa Malaysia” — a move done away with the following year.

Last weekend, as crime thriller One Two Jaga which focused on the theme of corruption in the police force hauled in six wins.

Sharing the spotlight was Mandarin-language movie, Guang, that took home four trophies.

Nods for the likes of Jaya Ganason for Most Promising Actress for Tamil film, The Farm: En Veettu Thottathilas and a special jury award for Vedigundu Pasangge for becoming the first Malaysian Tamil language film to collect more than RM1 million, gave Malaysian filmmakers a real reason to celebrate.

Umie Aida beat out stiff competition to once again pick up her second Best Actress Award.

The identity of a Malaysian film was focused on the storytelling of Malaysians, evident from Guang’s win for Best Art Direction, Most Promising Actor (Male) for Kyo Chen, Best Cinematography and Most Promising Director for Quek Shio Chuan.

The decision of the FFM 30 has given a much-needed shot in the arm for the Malaysian film industry amidst grouses that Finas messed up with the supposedly rushed organisation of the event and failure to heed calls to address many industry issues.

Actress and director Sharifah Amani had been vocal in not attending the show as a plea for attention towards the welfare of film industry woes while Afdlin Shauki playfully mocked the populist approach of recognising only popular offerings, marking more and more outspoken players desperate to hail a change in the industry.

"A work of art must have a voice, and I hold on to that principle when making films,” said filmmaker Shahili Abdan, better known as Nam Ron, by the end of FFM 30.

And his voice rang loud and clear when One Two Jaga took home Best Film, Best Director for Nam Ron himself, Best Original Story (Nam Ron, Pitt Haniff, Muhammad and Syafiq), Best Screenplay (Nam Ron, Amri Rohaiyat and Fared Ayam), Best Actor (Rosdeen Suboh) and Best Poster.

The 49-year-old said it was understandable that it will not be an overnight effort for local filmmakers to garner the strength and bravery to come up with works that were not necessarily the themes demanded by producers or audiences.

"I had many of my works fail to garner the support when I was doing more independent releases because they were rarely about good-looking heroes and heroines.”

What festival?

Still, despite the positive results, it was glaringly obvious there are many issues for Finas to deal with.

With the theme of My Cinematic Inspiration, the Astro-produced show held at the Plenary Hall of the Putrajaya International Convention Centre, was an amateurish attempt at best.

Despite a list of week-long activities, nothing could have justified FFM deserving to be called a festival, as opposed to a mere awards show.

There were no public screenings of nominated films, nor were there adequate publicity efforts to hype up the event, which should be used to educate and elevate the film industry among the masses.

Filmmaker Nam Ron was the star of the night, with personal three personal wins for ‘One Two Jaga’ for Best Original Story, Best Screenplay and Best Director.

The night itself was draggy despite the best attempts of hosts Adibah Noor and Nabil Ahmad to try salvage the show.

The opening gambit was an uninspired attempt, like almost all the scheduled performances that had no real cohesion to the theme of the celebration.

Technical issues were aplenty from the get-go, with cryogenic smoke cannons not firing on cue, hosts given the wrong scripts, and even a recorded voice-over announcing the first winner of the Box-Office Award in Syamsul Yusof as "Syamsul Yunos” for Munafik 2.

The production also appeared to not have a budget for scriptwriters, as every presenter uttered a templated introduction and winners were cut off in their acceptance speeches.

But the greatest insult of the night was having nominees were left to fend for themselves in searching for a place to sit while society-schmoozers and D-listers crowded the choice seats.

‘One Two Jaga’ was a critical success, but failed to make it to the list of box-office big-earners list last year.

This was seen when award-winner Jaya Ganason struggled to make her way to the stage from her seat at the back of the hall.

While it would be easy to place the blame entirely on Astro’s production, Finas is not without blame.

Sources indicated endless 11th-hour changes to various aspects of the show.

It’s time for Malaysian films to rise, and like the amazing stories on screen shared by filmmakers, Finas has to inspire the industry.

One Two Jaga will be rescreened from April 4 to April 10 for just RM5 at selected TGV Cinemas.