KUCHING: A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Asean International Film Festival and Awards (Aiffa) and City Role Holdings Group Limited from China.
The objective – to look for filming locations in Sarawak for City Role Holdings Group Limited via Aiffa, and promote business opportunities, collaborations and networking.
Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said Asean has a large and diverse database of creative talents.
“I hope both parties (Aiffa and City Role) can work together on movie productions in Sarawak,” he said at a press conference after launching the Aiffa Biz World and Film Talk here yesterday.
City Role is considered a big group in China and Karim hoped that the company would make Sarawak its preferred location for making films.
“Sarawak is actually not an alien place to production houses from China. There was one movie made in Miri two years ago titled ‘River of Tears’ and I went to China to launch the movie.
“Hopefully, we can encourage something like this. Production houses from any parts of Asia are welcome to make Sarawak as a shooting location,” he said.
“At the same time, they are also welcome to participate in other forms of industries beneficial to them and the state – a win-win situation.”
This year is the fourth edition of Aiffa in which filmmakers from 10 Asean countries are competing for honours in 17 categories, covering all major aspects of filmmaking.
Amidst that, the Aiffa Biz World was held as a key platform for networking sessions and exhibitions.
The second day saw producers and directors pitching for content financing to the Southeast Asian Audio-Visual Association (Saava). This is a continuation of Aiffa’s collaboration with Saava to realise and develop the Asean film industry.
Also present were City Role Holdings Group Limited chairman Regina Deng Qi Dan and chief executive officer Danny Zhao Liang as well as Aiffa director Livan Tajang.
