Cannes, France – Malaysia has invested significantly in up-skilling local talents and facilitating state-of-the-art production facilities that are now attracting globally-recognised production companies to the country.
The two-pronged strategy of providing attractive government assistance and rewarding private investment has reaped significant results as export of content produced in Malaysia has almost doubled in value over the past 24 months.
Speaking at MIPTV in Cannes, Chairman of the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS), Datuk Haji Md. Afendi Datuk Haji Hamdan, said that the government is investing significantly in creative multimedia infrastructure as seen through the recent opening of the US$120 million Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios which is the region’s largest independent integrated studio facility. This is in addition to the renowned KRU Studios in Cyberjaya, which will be premiering its recent production Ribbit a 3D animated comedy story starring an internationally renowned cast (Tim Curry, Russell Peters & Sean Astin) at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.
The value chain extends downstream, where Malaysia is recognised as providing cutting-edge technologies at a fraction of international costs, and offering high-technology film and television studios that include 3D animation and documentary productions. Shooting locations are another significant attraction, thanks to Malaysia’s cultural richness and heritage. These are strong pull factors that are encouraging international buyers, investors and co-production partners to expand its endeavours in Malaysia.
“Earlier last year, we launched the Film in Malaysia Incentive (FIMI) which provides local and foreign producers a 30 percent rebate on audited in-country spend. We are proud to say that we have exceeded our target of US$30.6 million as we achieved US$45.4 million of the total estimated FIMI incentive value by end 2013.”
FIMI has attracted both local and foreign productions in the recent times, including four local projects and six foreign productions that are currently taking place.
“Exports of film content, television programmes, and animation has grown from more than US$100 million to over US$155 million in 2012, which proves our success in expanding our horizon of creative content development, particularly in 3D animation and other forms of digital interactive content,” he added.
In addition, Malaysia’s local talents are recognised for their skills and creativity internationally, as seen over the years with the Oscar winning Life of Pi, War of the Worlds which won the Best 3D Animated Feature Film at the Los Angeles 3D Film Festival, and Bollywood blockbustersDon and Enthiran, among others.
Explaining its offerings at MIPTV, Datuk Haji Md. Afendi Datuk Haji Hamdan said that Malaysia brought together 19 delegates who are showcasing their exceptional creative content at the Malaysian pavilion themed ‘Moving Forward, Exploring Opportunities’.
This year, Malaysia is featuring original content ranging from animation, drama and documentary film producers to an international list of buyers and distributors.
“We have ensured that strategic initiatives are in place to empower the local talent to grow the industry and support foreign productions. Thus, we are actively organising events and working closely with Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Malaysia to turn the creative multimedia industry into one of the main engines of growth for Malaysia by engaging creative multimedia companies and individuals to spearhead the use of digital technologies to produce top quality creative content for the world,” said Datuk Afendi.
