In its bid to expand and accelerate the Malaysian animation industry, the Kre8tif! Conference 2017 – a long running animation industry event from Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) – has been given a wider range of activities and engagement capabilities.
For this year, a total of 572 delegates attended the conference, featuring attendees hailing from around Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines, as well as from countries as far as Japan, India, China, and South Korea. Most in attendance are creative professionals – animator/VFX artists, business development managers, educators, and those who work in related fields.
The conference featured several eminent speakers from various industries sharing valuable thoughts. Among the notable ones are Dan Sarto from Animation World Network, Shazia Makhdumi of Google Play, and Malaysian animation veteran, Hassan Muthalib, who shared valuable insights about the ins-and-outs of this still fast-growing industry.
Major keynotes presented on the mainstage and breakouts include ‘From Mousedeer to Mouse – Seven Decades of Animation Storytelling in Malaysia’ by Hassan, ‘Forging a Friendship – The Malaysian Disney Story’ from Multiplatform Content Services executive director Leslie Lee, The Walt Disney Company SEA; and ‘Garage to Global: Let Your Ideas Fly!’ by Giggles Garage managing director Juhaidah Joemin.
The exhibitor turnout accounted 25 exhibitors, inclusive of four country pavilion consisting of China, Philippines, South Korea, and Japan. Fourteen per cent from the total delegates were international, all hailing from Singapore, Japan, India, Indonesia, Philippines, China, and South Korea.
Among international buyers present at the event include SK Broadband (Korea), Nippon Animation (Japan), Dalgona (Korea), En-Pop (Korea), Saban International (US), Taktoon Enterprise (Korea), Cartoon Network Asia, and Disney Asia.
In addition to the Kre8tif! Conference 2017, a public event – Kre8tif! Festival 2017 – opened its doors for the first time, screening animated feature films at the event. These include Malaysia’s most current and still popular Boboiboy: The Movie, Bola Kampungs and Cerita-Cerita Didi and Friends.
IPCC was originally introduced in 2006 to provide a platform for local talents to hone their creativity and accelerate their development and commercialisation of innovative, world standard digital content. This also included increasing the creation of intellectual property. In short, IPCC acts a catalyst for local talents to penetrate both local and global digital content market.
One major highlight for Kre8tif! Conference 2017 had been Hassan, a self-taught artist, designer, film-maker, and author of Mousedeer to Mouse, being present for all event days and always willing to share his insights about the animation industry.
To-date, he has been involved in with film and animation for 50 years. Hassan is most fondly known as the director of the popular animation series Sang Kancil and Silat Legenda, Malaysia’s first animated feature film. He is also officially recognised as the ‘father of Malaysian animation’ and is conferred the title of an animation pioneer by Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
Hassan is also a film historian and a film critic, as he has writings appear in many books and academic journals overseas. His book, Malaysian Cinema in a Bottle, published in 2013, is a history and analysis of Malaysian cinema from the first film screening in 1897 right up to 2013.
Tied to the Kre8tif! Conference 2017 is the MDEC Intellectual Property Creative Challenge (IPCC). As many as 15 winners will be declared for IPCC this year. These winners will be paid handsomely, depending upon the following categories:
- Digital Games category – each winner receive RM 50,000 (Rs. 7,60,500) to develop a commercial ready game.
- Animation Series category – each winner will receive RM 50,000 to develop a three-minutes sizzle animation, including full character bible.
- Short Animation category – each winner will receive RM 75,000 (Rs. 11,40,750) to develop a five- to seven-minutes completed animation.
All 15 projects will undergo mentorship sessions with a panel of trainers and advisors within six to eight months to develop their respective projects. The concepts are targeted to be completed by mid-2018.
