Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) through its foundation arm, Yayasan TM (YTM) has taken the initiative to continue supporting the nation’s creative industry development by organising “Young Filmmaker 2021”, a short film competition. It opens up opportunities for young, local budding filmmakers to express their creative ideas and talents and enhance their potential in professional filmmaking.

The competition, with the theme “Return Stronger”, is open to all students as well as the public from ages 18 to 35 and offers total cash prizes of RM25,000 to nine (9) winners. It is co-organised by Strada Films Sdn Bhd in collaboration with Digital Perak Corporation Holdings (Digital Perak), Multimedia University (MMU) as well a host of other partners to provide digital content, knowledge sharing, live events and masterclasses throughout this three (3) months programme.

The “Young Filmmaker 2021” was officially launched in a virtual ceremony by Zakaria Abdul Hamid, Chairman of National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) together with Izlyn Ramli, Director of YTM; and Mohamad Azlan Norani, Chief Executive Officer, Strada Films Sdn Bhd. The virtual session was also joined by Meor Rezal Fitri Dato' Dr. Hj. Meor Redwan, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Perak; Khir Rahman, President of Malaysian Cinematic Auteurs Guild (MCAG); and Ghaz Abu Bakar, President of Digital Creative Content Creators Associations Malaysia (DCAM) who is also the lead juror for the competition.

Commenting on the launch, Izlyn said, “As a purpose driven social impact based foundation, YTM is committed to human capital development and today, we are unveiling yet another digital platform to unleash the budding talents in the creative industry; particularly filmmaking in Malaysia. The “Young Filmmaker 2021” is a collaborative effort that we hope will further empower them through digital content creation. This is in line with TM Group’s unique role as the enabler of Digital Malaysia and at YTM, we are focusing on three (3) strengthened branches namely Education, Community & National Development, and Tourism, Culture & Heritage. This initiative is part of our third pillar, connecting the dots between youth, talent and creativity to skills development and digital opportunities.”

“Despite the challenges we faced as a nation during this Covid-19 pandemic, there are countless stories, experiences and events that have inspired us. The theme, "Return Stronger" welcomes and celebrates those uplifting stories around us that will give the young filmmakers the freedom to express their creativity based on life and humanity that will hopefully in turn, touch and inspire the audience. We would also like to thank all our partners, and especially our esteemed judges for their invaluable time and commitment to make this the best experience for all participants,” she added.

The Young Filmmaker 2021 competition features a panel of professional jurors comprising renowned film directors and producers such as Ghaz Abu Bakar, Eyra Rahman, Vimala Perumal, Khir Rahman, Aziz M. Osman, Jason Chong, Nik Amir, Razaisyam Rashid and Azhari Zain.

YTM also collaborates with the Malaysian Cinematic Auteurs Guild (MCAG) to provide opportunities for young talents to reach their highest potential in filmmaking. The winner of The Best Director Award for this programme will be selected as a Finalist for the “Rahsia Sutradara” Programme by MCAG under the Malaysia Creative Capabilities Enhancement Programme (MyCAP).  The winner of the award will have a chance to be mentored by a distinguished panel of film directors to produce a fully sponsored film worth up to RM1.2 million. This collaboration will further broaden the young filmmakers’ horizons from short films to full-fledged movies.

Besides MCAG, Digital Perak together with the State’s arts and culture agencies; Perak State Information Department, Perak Tourism, People of Remarkable Talents (PORT) Ipoh and other partners will also host a series of knowledge sharing programmes for the participants of “Young Filmmaker 2021” with industry experts virtually through the PiOR.TV interactive channel. This will provide the young talents with the insights into the art and business of filmmaking.

This is not YTM’s first collaboration in the creative industry. In 2015, YTM and unifi TV organised an ‘I Want To Be A Filmmaker’ (IWTBAF) competition to discover talented young local filmmakers. Azlan Norani was the Grand Prize Winner in the competition and he won a YTM scholarship in Cinematic Arts at MMU. After the competition, Azlan continued his studies in MMU at the Iskandar Puteri campus in Johor and later founded his own film production company, Strada Films Sdn Bhd.

“Young Filmmaker 2021” is calling for emerging and professional content creators to submit their short films around the theme of “Return Stronger”, before the closing deadline of 31 December 2021. To submit your entry and to find out more about the ‘Young Filmmaker 2021’ competition, visit https://www.youngfilmmaker.com.my/  

Don’t miss your chance to win total cash prizes of RM25,000 to kick start your filmmaking career. This is your time to shine!