KUALA LUMPUR: The National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) has recently teamed up with Asia's biggest international film festival, the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) and Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) for its programme Malaysian Development Lab for Fiction Feature Films (mylab).
The partnership will see mylab conducting the final workshop session onsite in Busan, South Korea and hopes to benefit from the international profile and attendance of key filmmakers, producers, sales and distribution executives as well as media representatives at the international and most influential film festival in Asia.
Mylab is an incubator programme for Malaysian scriptwriters, directors, producers to work on developing scripts and film projects under lectures and the guidance of regional and international experts in scriptwriting, directing, producing, distribution, and markets/festivals.
Projects must be at an early stage of development, with a team of scriptwriter, director and/or producer attached, and aimed for regional or international audiences.
mylab strives for each project to deliver a package of script, budget, financing plan, dossier and pitch-ready materials at the end of the programme.
In addition, mylab also revealed the names of the confirmed script mentors and group leaders for the programme from Europe and Asia Pacific, some of whom have been involved in the various fiction feature development industry across programmes such as Venice Biennale College, EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs), SEAFIC (South East Asian Fiction Film Lab), Torino Film Lab, Berlinale Talents, Film Bazaar India and many other training and mentoring programmes across the globe aside from having been involved in award winning films as producers or script consultants.
In a statement today, Finas chief executive officer Prof Dr Md Nasir Ibrahim who was thrilled over the partnership with Busan said: "This international collaboration between Finas and Busan would contribute greatly in the impact and success of mylab and it will not only be about development of feature film projects but promote a crossover of knowledge."
Lorna Tee, the curator and founder of mylab added: "Partnering with Busan is an important step for the participants of mylab to bring their film projects to the international audience. In addition, the inclusion of the esteemed list of mentors, who are among the most prolific professionals working in the film industry, is part of the design of mylab to bring the best partners and people together."
BIFF and ACFM have been actively supporting the development and promotion of films from across Asia and for Malaysia, BIFF has supported and screened films by a sizable list of filmmakers including Yasmin Ahmad, Ho Yuhang, Tan Chui Mui, Woo Ming Jin, Zahir Omar, Lau Kek Huat, Liew Seng Tat, Chris Chong, Amir Muhammad, James Lee, Deepak Kumaran Menon and U-Wei Haji Shaari.