Petaling Jaya – Grand Brilliance’s feature films have swept all the Top 5 nomination spots for Best Film for the upcoming 26th Malaysian Film Festival (FFM 26). Grand Brilliance also dominates all five nomination spots for Best Directing, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Sound. This is the first time in the film festival’s history that such a sweep by a production house has occurred.
The five films nominated for Best Film are KIL, KL Gangster 2, Penanggal, Rock Oo, and Sembunyi: Amukan Azazil. KL Gangster 2 is co-produced with Skop Productions while Penanggal is a collaboration with Astro Shaw. Besides the five categories, Grand Brilliance’s films have received at least one nomination in most major categories including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Story, Best Cinematography, Best Music Score, Best Art Direction, and Best Special Effects, bringing a total of 60 nominations altogether, the most by a studio in the festival’s history.
“We feel honoured with the nominations and it is a testament to the injection of quality that we put in all our projects, be it a heavy drama such as KIL or a light-hearted comedy such as Rock Oo. Some of these films have travelled internationally and now, to be recognised in their own country is an honour. We hope that this tradition will be continued in our future projects, and we would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the individual nominees,” said Tengku Iesta Tengku Alaudin, General Manager of Grand Brilliance.
The Malaysian Film Festival, organised by the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS), is one of the most recognised accolades in the Malaysian film industry. Held since 1980, the 26th edition of the festival this year continues to honour the best film productions in the country with its theme, Malaysian Cinema Transformation. The awards ceremony is scheduled to be held in October.
In September last year, the period horror film Sembunyi: Amukan Azazil made headlines when it clinched a record-breaking 12 out of the 23 film category awards at the Profima Awards in Kuala Lumpur. Besides receiving critical success locally, some of Grand Brilliance’s nominated films have participated in esteemed film festivals globally as well. The 2013 thriller drama, KIL, received its worldwide premiere at Marche du Film in Cannes, France before representing Malaysia at various festivals including Osaka Asian Film Festival in Japan 2014, Southeast Asian Film Festival 2014 in Singapore, and Fantaspoa 2014 in Brazil.
