14 Aug – As a local filmmaker and an activist in the local film industry Ahmad Idham is voicing out to The National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) to take action due to the lack of support for local movies from Malaysians. The famous director and producer who has been observing the statistics for about a year now, came forward to express his concerns about the issue. "As a filmmaker I am only capable of speaking out based on the facts that I have been observing for a year. Not only myself, but other artist and even strangers are able to see for themselves. Unfortunately, Finas is still not acting on the situation," said Idham in an interview with Harian Metro. According to statistics taken from the official website of Finas, it is stated that 13.13 million moviegoers manage to gross RM126.5 million within the 49 local movies that were screened in 2011. Currently, the local box office collection is at an even critical state, collecting only RM40.4 million among the 4.49 million moviegoers.
When asked about the current state of the local film industry, Idham said, "It is a scary situation. Just look at the local box office collection last year, it is shown in the statistics that the number of moviegoers and the proceeds are declining this year. We might be satisfyingly grinning at the statistics in 2011 but the current statistics are just disappointing." Furthermore, Idham believes that it is because of the poor management from Finas that this situation occurred. "As an activist, I am worried if I were to keep mum about the issue and let Finas continue to do what they are doing, it will one day lead to the falling of the film industry. What's the point of Finas existence where they are given the trust of our government to handle our local films? In the future, if there are any film-related problems its best that it is submitted directly to the ministry," said the filmmaker.