30 Oct – Director Ellie Suriaty Omar won the most coveted award at the officiating ceremony of the 26th Malaysia Film Festival (FFM) held at the Empire Hotel Subang as she was named Most Promising Director, with her directorial debut "Penanggal also winning the Best Visual Effects award. "I would like to thank my husband, for letting me go all out," said the director during her acceptance speech at the star-studded event yesterday, not forgetting to thank her cast and production team as well for their hard work and support.
Another movie that showed a promising streak was Datin Paduka Shuhaimi Baba's "Tanda Putera", as the film managed to win in two categories, taking home the awards for Best Costume Design and Best Original Score. Nik Amir Mustapha's "KIL" managed to win Best Poster out of its four nominations of the night. The prestigious film festival also took the chance to reward advocates who contributed to the arts movement behind the scenes, and this year, cameraman Ali Bin Husin was awarded with the special Behind-the-Scenes Advocate Award. The full winner list is as follows: Best Poster – KIL (Primeworks Studio / Grand Brilliance) Best Art Design – "Penanggal" (Nazrul Asraff) Best Costume Design – "Tanda Putera" (Hasnan Yaccob / Fadzillah Abdullah) Best Original Score – "Tanda Putera" (Sharon Paul) Best Sound Mixing – "KL Gangster 2" (Syamsul Yusoff / Hisham Jupri) Best Original Theme Song – "Istanbul Aku Datang" (Tomok / Rafidah Abdullah) Behind-the-Scenes Advocate Award – Ali Bin Husin (Camera Operator) Best Child Actor – Rykarl Iskandar ("Ajiboy") Best Animation Film – No Winner Best Short Film – "Jahit" (Reservoir Productions Sdn Bhd) Most Promising Director – Ellie Suriaty ("Penanggal") Another 14 awards will be given out at the main ceremony of the 26th Malaysia Film Festival, taking place on 1 November 2014 at Tunku Puan Chik Auditorium, Tuanku Muhammad Broadcasting Complex, Seremban, Negeri Sembilan.