Reel honours
Penanggal leads the 26th Malaysia Film Festival with 15 nominations.
AHORROR film about black magic is taking the lead in the nominations for this year’s Malaysia Film Festival (FFM). Penanggal directed by Ellie Suriaty has 15 nominations including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actor.
Actress-turned-director Ellie also received a nomination for Best New Director. This hotly–contested category will see Ellie going up against favourite Nik Amir Mustapha whose film KIL received 11 nominations including Best Film.
Nik Amir is probably looking to repeat KIL’s award-winning streak after dominating the Anugerah Skrin event last year. The independent film swept top honours for Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay at that event.
Actress Cristina Suzanne who won Best Actress at Anugerah Skrin missed out on FFM’s Best Actress nomination. Instead, Cristina will be competing against the likes of Siti Saleha ( Kerat 14) and Nelydia Senrose ( Cinderella) for Best New Actress.
Apart from the young guns, veteran director Mamat Khalid also received a nod for Best Director and Best Film for his musical comedy Rock Oo. In 2008, he won Best Director for his film noir effort Kala Malam Bulan Mengambang.
“Getting the nominations for Rock Oo means all my hard work is paying off. I’m glad the industry is paying attention to my work and I hope to continue producing better films in the future,” said Mamat Khalid.
Actress Nell Ng received her first FFM nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role as Gienna in anthology film Kolumpo. Ng greeted the good news with a laugh. She said: “I’m very happy. I have to admit I’m quite surprised as well because I rarely do films. But it is nice to receive this nomination.”
Ng has another reason to celebrate as her co-star Ruminah Sidek, 68, is also nominated in the same category.
“Ruminah is a wonderful co-star and friend. Though, I believe she rightfully deserves a Best Actress nomination instead of a Supporting Actress one. I had a great working experience with her. On set, we spent a lot of time chatting about life and work. So we developed our on-screen chemistry from there,” Ng added.
Faizal Hussein was equally jubilant about his Best Actor nomination for Longkai. Last year, he won the same award for his role as hired killer Ilham in Dain Said’s criticallyacclaimed Bunohan.
“I feel very grateful to get the nomination again. When I got the script for Longkai, I felt that Bada was a well-developed character. I had a feeling I would get nominated for this. And I was right,” he said with a chuckle.
He shared his experience playing a role like Bada: “It was a physically demanding role. There was a fight scene on top of two moving trailers. I’ve never done anything like that before throughout my career. I was glad that I got the chance to play a highly-engaging and emotional character like Bada.”
Meanwhile Datuk Rosyam Nor was happy to hear he was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category.
“I have not received a nomination for a long time now and to be the only actor from KL Gangster 2 to get one is definitely something to be happy about.”
The 47-year-old actor’s last nomi-
He stated: “Due to my age, good acting roles are limited. I hope to send a message to the film industry that age should not be a factor from getting good roles. Having my name in the company of nominees who are also newcomers in the industry proves that I still have what it takes to act.”
Rosyam will be competing against Azad Jazmin ( Kolumpo), Khir Rahman ( Rock Oo), Sharnaaz Ahmad ( Juvana) and Zizan Nin ( Tanda Putera).
In the Best Non-Malay film category, Stanley Law’s Paper Moon is up against The Collector and The Wedding Diary II. Tamil film Dhusrajanam is also competing in this category alongside Ah Niu’s The Golden Couple.
Dhusrajanam star Kalpana Sundraju received a Best Actress nomination, making her the first Indian to be nominated in this category.
Tragically, 44-year-old Kalpana died in an accident in Seputeh, Kuala Lumpur last week.
The 26th edition of FFM is scheduled to take place in October.
Visit www.finas.gov.my for more information.