Mohd Noor returns his FFM awards in garbage bag

Mohd Noor returned his two FFM awards which he won in 2009 and 2011 to the Director General of FINAS, Datuk Kamil Othman.

9 Aug – Famed local cinematographer, Mohd Noor Kassim who is the winner of two Malaysia Film Festival (FFM) awards under the Best Cinematography category has returned his awards.

Having won them via the films, "Setem" and "Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa", Mohd Noor decided to return the awards as part of his protest towards the segregation controversy currently faced by the organising committee of FFM.

Three main categories of the festival have been segregated into Bahasa Malaysia and non-Bahasa Malaysia language films.

The categories in question are; Best Bahasa Malaysia Film and Best Non-Bahasa Malaysia Film, Best Director for a Bahasa Malaysia film and Best Director for a Non-Bahasa Malaysia Film, Best Screenplay for a Bahasa Malaysia Film and Best Screenplay for a Non-Bahasa Malaysia Film.

Apart from returning the awards which Mohd Noor had chucked into a garbage bag while attending the #tanyaFINAS session held at Platinum Sentral, Kuala Lumpur yesterday, he had also pulled out from participating as a nominee for the upcoming 28th edition of the festival which will take place this 3 September 2016.

"I am still not satisfied as we are all Malaysians. Why do we need the segregation?"

"I am a Malay, but looks like Malays are afraid to compete with other races. As a Malay, this makes me feel ashamed," said Mohd Noor when met yesterday at the event.

He added that we need not differentiate the Chinese and Indians as the most important language is the language or message delivered by the film itself.

As soon as the two-hour long #tanyaFINAS session ended last night, Mohd Noor had walked up to the Director General of FINAS, Datuk Kamil Othman to hand him the awards.

The National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia (FINAS) and PFM (Malaysia Film Producers Association) via Datuk Kamil, PFM's president Datuk Yusof Haslam and PFM CEO N. Pansha, had stressed the importance of Bahasa Malaysia to classify a film as a national film, however Mohd Noor disagrees.

Mohd Noor had criticised the ruling and said that this year's nominations were all based on favouritism and is a political game. He said that the country might be advancing into the future, yet the mindset of some are still backwards.

(Photo Source: Hasbullah Awang Chik YouTube)