Title: Three major tasks for D-G
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Blog Entry: THE name of the new director-general of the National Film Development Corporation (Finas) will only be known in November. The current director-general, Mohd Mahyiddin Mustaqim, is still holding the post, at least until Nov 15. Minister of Information, Communication and Culture Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim has extended Mahyiddin's post for another three months. His second-term tenure as director-general ended on Aug 15, this year. He had served for two terms. Mahyiddin, however, has three major tasks to settle before handing over his job to the new director-general. They are: * To successfully organise the 23rd Malaysian Film Festival. The film festival was originally slated for July 16 to 18. However, it was cancelled at the eleventh hour due to "technical" reasons. While the new dates have not been announced, the festival is expected to be held before Nov 15. This year's festival will be held in Kuala Lumpur with its awards night to be held at the Putra World Trade Centre. Since the committee has already been hard at work and handbags r the nominees selected, the only thing to do is to give some hype to the event. The Malaysian Film Festival has always been poorly promoted even though it is a prestigious event. Hopefully, Mahyiddin will change that perception and turn this year's event into one of the best film festivals ever organised. * Last November, he announced that Finas would find ways to assist filmmakers with unfinished films. These are those whose projects are under the Finas Feature Film loan fund. This is to ensure that the filmmakers would be able to repay the loan. Since then, however, there has been no news of this "rehabilitation process". While he mentioned that only two films were in limbo - Aduh Saliha was one of them - there is still no news about other film projects that were made using the loan scheme, such as Misteri Dendam Balan-Balan, Kantoi, Jibam The Movie, Sereem, CE1, Mantera, Uncle Usin, Eee...Hantu, Ancaman Penggondam, Bisikan Puaka and Gentayangan. The films started production between 2007 and 2008 but have yet to be released. He also mentioned that legal action would be taken against two film producers Mulberry Handbags for failing to pay up. But until today, no such action has been taken. * There is no doubt that currently, local filmmakers are not united thanks to the recent Finas' board of directors issue. The issue started when a certain group in the Malaysian Film Producers' Association protested the appointment of its two members - David Teo and Ahmad Idham Ahmad Nadzri - to Finas' board of directors. The matter has been resolved; their appointment was deemed legitimate as they were appointed by the minister. However, problems within the association have not been settled. Other articles: http://philfriendsters.com/blog/view/id_874/title_SHE-sang-about-Poker-Faces/ http://www.greatpinoy.com/blog/view/id_5085/title_iv-transfer-system/
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