THE National Film Development Corporation (Finas) will give the creative industry a shot in the arm to produce quality and competitive works on an international level with an allocation under the Digital Content Fund (DKD) initiative.
In a recent interview on the Kuppa Kopi talk show on RTM's TV1, Finas chief executive officer Professor Dr Md Nasir Ibrahim said the DKD amounting to RM19 million would be divided into four categories.
"This DKD will comprise RM10 million for a Feature Film Fund, RM5 million for a First-Time Amateur Filmmakers Fund, RM3 million for the Marketing and Distribution Fund, and RM1 million for an International Promotions and Participation Fund.
"The DKD is crucial in our efforts to aid in the development of the local film industry.
"This is because it is one of the strategies to increase the competitiveness of the creative industry as a catalyst to stimulate the national economy and to uphold the nation's culture," said Nasir.
He added that this incentive also played a role in encouraging creative industry players to create, produce and disseminate high-quality content with the capability to penetrate not just local but international markets as well.
"The fund would also develop quality human capital in a sustainable way to optimise the potential of the creative content industry.
"Other benefits that can be achieved through this initiative include fulfilling the objective of creating competitive Malaysian intellectual properties." Nasir said the DKD also served as an ecosystem enhancer that not only benefitted producers but also provided jobs for related personnel such as the behind-the-scenes crew.
"With this DKD, industry players, especially producers, would be able to provide opportunities to creative industry practitioners like directors, assistant directors, camera operators, sound engineers, makeup artistes and artistes.
"With this capital, they can tap into and bring about the expertise to create better work."
Nasir said the government's efforts to assist filmmakers through the DKD initiative for the past eight years had yielded good results.
Many of these achievements have then served to provide good exposure for Malaysia on an international level.
"There have been accomplishments not only for films but also via locally produced documentaries."
Among them is the documentary, Malaysia's Last Tigers, which was screened on the well-known National Geographic Channel.
"The success of the movie Mat Kilau: Kebangkitan Pahlawan, which was also a DKD recipient, saw it break the box office with a collection close to RM100 million. This is indeed a significant achievement.
"The acceptance of local films by foreigners has added value to our national film industry as well."
Nasir added that the movie Jagat was another example of a local production that had received international recognition when it was screened at the New York Asian Film Festival in 2016, as well as at other film festivals in Japan, Australia, Poland and India.
"Aside from that, DKD recipients from Sarawak had achieved a measure of success as their works were made available on digital and over-the-top (OTT) platforms. These included Tilit-Tilit Cinta, produced by TVS, which was streamed on Netflix, and the programme MISI (Sarawak), which was aired on Astro First."