Press Release: KLEFF 2019 Announces General Film Award Finalists
August 15th 2019, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – The 12th International Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival 2019 (KLEFF 2019) have announced that 236 films were submitted from 48 countries with 86 films selected to be screened in the festival. Out of the submitted films, 25 films made it to be the finalists of the 5 main film categories of KLEFF 2019 based on the them ‘Climate Action…Now!’.
The 5 main film categories are Best Feature Film/Full-Length Documentary, Best Short Documentary/TV Documentary, Best Short Film, Best Public Service Announcements (PSA), as well as Best Animation.
Below are the finalists for the 5 main film categories of KLEFF 2019:
- Best Feature Film / Full-Length Documentary Award (In Alphabetical order)
| Film Title | Film Maker | Country |
| #Powerplant | Robert van Tellingen | Netherlands |
| 67 49 32 North | Ece Soydam, Mathieu Dumond | Turkey |
| Beyond Climate | Ian Mauro | Canada |
| Coral Woman | Priya Thuvassery | India |
| Engineering with Nature – An Ode to Water, Wood and Stone | Shelly Solomon | United States |
| Messages From The End of The World | Matteo Born | Switzerland |
| TCCON Philippines | Malcolm A. Velazco | Philippines |
| What To Do About Climate Disruption? | Eric Simon | United States |
- Best Short Documentary / Tv Documentary Award (In Alphabetical order)
| Film Title | Film Maker | Country |
| Education on The Boat – A New Hope For Tomorrow | KM Taj-Biul Hasan | Bangladesh |
| In The Dire Straits of Ujung Beting | Dony P. Herwanto | Indonesia |
| Sustainable Visionaries: The Ecovillage | Jorge Sanchez Arias | Costa Rica |
| Tayo Tayo | Patrick Chadwick | United Kingdom |
| The Sea and The Land | Ines Reinisch | Germany |
| Ze Wants To Know Why | Diogo Cardoso | Portugal |
- Best Short Film Award (In Alphabetical order)
| Film Title | Film Maker | Country |
| Bedtime Stories for The Brave | Ipek Sertöz | Germany |
| Legacy | Barry Mitchell | Australia |
| Sleepless | Sean Lin | Malaysia |
- Best Animation Award (In Alphabetical order)
| Film Title | Film Maker | Country |
| Barely Alive | Chan Ming Chun | Hong Kong |
| Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime | Stuart Taylor | United Kingdom |
| Mni Wiconi: Water is Life | Miguel Antonio Genz, Jeremias Galante | United States |
| Or Else Everybody Dies | David Nast Cole | United Kingdom |
| The Wooden Dancer: Climate Action…Now | Mohammed Ebrahim | Yemen |
- Best Public Service Announcement Award (In Alphabetical order)
| Film Title | Film Maker | Country |
| Carbon: Building Blocks of Life | SCM Asia | Malaysia |
| Moyang | Farhan Umedaly | Canada |
| Tunggu Sekejap | Women Association for Development & Innovation (WADI) | Malaysia |
| Ekzos Raya | Syaqeer Haris | Malaysia |
The 12th Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival committee would like to congratulate the finalists of each categories of KLEFF 2019!!
Other than the main film categories, KLEFF 2019 will be announcing the finalist for the special awards – Special Jury Award, ASEAN Young Film Maker’s Award and MNS MyForest Award on 21st August 2019.
This year’s 12th KLEFF jury committee and judges are Fadly Bakhtiar, Festival Director of KLEFF 2019 (Head Juror); Dr. Chen Pelf Nyok, turtle researcher, conservationist and co-founder of Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia (TCS); Elina Jani, Head of Division of Strategic Communications, Malaysian Green Technology Corporation and Mr Nabil Ifwat @ Kyopropaganda, Malaysian Youtuber and online content creator.
The general film award winners will be announced at the official KLEFF 2019 website on 26th August 2019 at 6:00PM (GMT+8). Whereas special award winners as well as the Special Merit Award winners (for Malaysian filmmakers) will be announced on 28th August 2019 6:00PM (GMT+8).
The KLEFF 2019 Award Ceremony will be held on the 10th October at IGEM 2019 in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. This year, KLEFF 2019 will be held at 2 different venues:
- Publika Shopping Gallery, Solaris Dutamas Kuala Lumpur from 7th – 13th October 2019
- IGEM at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre from 9th – 11th October 2019
In conjunction with the festival’s 12th Anniversary, the KLEFF committee will be choosing a number of films as the Official Selection films which will be announced soon in the website. Film makers of the Official Selection films will be notified via email.
For more information about the Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival or its organizer, EcoKnights, please contact info@kleff.my.
About the Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival (KLEFF)
The KLEFF is run and organized by local environmental NGO, EcoKnights. Now in its 12th year, the goal of the festival is to provide the Malaysian community with environmental films, workshops, talks, forums, discussions, and eco-vendors in an effort to improve awareness for environmental issues. The KLEFF 2019 is supported by a variety of corporate sponsors, NGO’s, vendors, media outlets, and members of the public. Detailed information about the KLEFF, along with a complete list of sponsors and partners, can be found on their website www.kleff.my
About EcoKnights
EcoKnights is a not-for-profit environmental organization with the Malaysian Registrar of Societies. Founded in 2005 by Yasmin Rasyid, the organization focuses on community based environmental education and awareness projects that help Malaysians to understand and deal with environmental issues that affect them. EcoKnights offers a variety of programs for the community including Sentinels of Time photography competition, Knights of Nature Sustainability Camp, Anugerah Hijau youth competition, and the Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival (KLEFF), which is now in its 12th year. EcoKnights also provides community films screenings, organizes environmental talks and workshops, and provides consultation and programming for environmental corporate social responsibility efforts.
For more information about EcoKnights and their programs, visit their website at www.ecoknights.org.my.