5 Aug – The Director General of the National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia (FINAS), Datuk Kamil Othman, has come forth to explain their reasoning for segregating local films into the Bahasa Malaysia and non-Bahasa Malaysia language nomination categories for the upcoming 28th Malaysia Film Festival (FFM). "FINAS is always striving to showcase the variety of our local film industry and the segregation was done to ensure all the worthy films can compete at the festival." "Even so, that is my personal opinion. The mechanism is temporary as it is a form of transition before eventually not having any kind of segregation in the future," he was quoted as saying on mStar.
According to Kamil, even though "Ola Bola", "Jagat" and "The Kid From The Big Apple" were not nominated in the main Best Film category, however the level of their acknowledgement by FFM is the same. He added that the segregation of categories was also a step to dignify the national language, Bahasa Malaysia. Previously, the entertainment community and netizens were taken aback with the decision made by FINAS and the Malaysia Film Producers Association (PFM), who did not nominate the above-mentioned films in the main FFM 28 Best Film category, instead listing them separately in the newly introduced Best Non-Bahasa Malaysia Film category.
Meanwhile, director and actor Afdlin Shauki had expressed his displeasure towards the whole issue and said that he will boycott the event. There has also been several trending hashtags spotted on social media sites once the FFM 28 nominations were made viral; #BoikotFFM #FFMDivides #FFMPecahBelahRakyat and more. FFM 28 will take place on 3 September 2016 at the Plenary Hall, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC).