The Introduction

There was also a movie from an independent Malaysian filmmaker, Amir Mohammad. He was a judge for the BLINK5 Filmmakers’ Competition and also a panelist for the Sabah Film Forum, an addition to the festival line-up.

BLINK5, the second filmmakers’ competition, was launched in January, 2011. In total, 27 entries were received for this year’s competition (up from 6 in 2010).

The Sabah Film Forum was a new development in the KKIFF 2011 and had as its theme: Building a Foundation for a Sabahan Film/tv Community. It divided into two parts:

1. 5 workshops run concurrently in the morning – led by invited panellists
2. An open discussion in the afternoon

The KKIFF 2012 movie nights included 2 French, 2 Japanese and 1 German film. We also had the Malaysian premiere of ‘Halaw’, the first feature film by the Filipino director, Sheron Dayoc.

The third filmmakers’ competition had 43 entries, some of them from overseas, as the competition went international for this year.

The Sabah Film Forum included 5 workshops by invited professionals from KL. The workshops were about: the work of the producer; the work of the cinematographer; story-telling; scriptwriting; and the highlight screening of entries for the filmmakers’ competition where mentors speak about the movies.

For the first time, the KKIFF had the Malaysian Short Film Showcase – a platform for young moviemakers in Malaysia – and received 21 submissions of which six were selected for screening and comments.

The KKIFF 2013 celebrated the 5th year of this film festival in KK. There were 5 international movie nights, the 4th Filmmakers’ Competition, the 3rd series of workshops, the 2nd Malaysian Short Film Showcase and the first-ever Sabah Film Academy. This exciting new development provided a dynamic, hands-on learning experience for teams of young filmmakers – who worked through the filmmaking process from scriptwriting to screening with guidance from a team of experts.

In 2014, the KKIFF included the following activities:

1. International Movie Nights – in 2014 the KKIFF screened movies from France, Germany, the USA, Romania and Japan.
2. The Sabah Film Forum – an opportunity for workshops on movie appreciation, viewing a variety of short films and talking about movies – includes a filmmakers’ competition and a short film showcase
3. The Sabah Film Academy – intensive workshops for young Sabahans with the guidance of international and regional mentors from the filmmaking industry to develop a firm foundation for a filmmaking industry based in Sabah There were two exciting new developments in the KKIFF 2014 that were open to filmmakers in the ASEAN region:
4. DOCS+ was for screening shorts and feature-length films by ASEAN filmmakers. These were a mixture of documentaries, plus other genres.
5. The Sabah Pitching Forum was also open to filmmakers in the ASEAN region. This was a 2-day training event for filmmakers pitching their documentary movies at various stages of development.
6. The Filmmakers’ Competition continued, with the length being increased to 10 minutes. It was also open to filmmakers from the ASEAN region.

The KKIFF 2015 continued to offer a range of movies from the ASEAN region and countries around the world, as well as provide training and development opportunities for young filmmakers.

1. The Sabah Film Academy – 9 participants made two 10-minute documentaries, working with mentors from Germany, France, the USA and Malaysia.
2. The Sabah Pitching Training & Awards programme – 12 documentary film projects were selected from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines, involving 19 participants. The trainer was from the Philippines and the tutor was from Germany, with the panel members from Korea, New Zealand and Germany.
3. The Sabah Film Forum – 3 presentations, including the screening of short films from New Zealand
4. Rolling10 Filmmakers’ Competition – attracted 35 entries and included 3 categories: documentary, indigenous language and narrative
5. DOCS+ – The five nights of screenings included a total of 10 films (shorts and feature-length) from Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Brunei and Philippines. There was Q&A with directors, producers or actors after 7 of the screenings.
6. World Movie Nights – featuring films from Germany, Brazil, Spain, Georgia and Romania
7. World Movie Day – Movies from Argentina, Malaysia, France, Colombia and USA were screened.

The KKIFF 2016 established both its range (South-East Asia, including Taiwan and Korea), as well as its structure.

1. The Sabah Film Academy – had two streams: narrative (new) and documentary. The 12 participants made 4 films which were screened on Awards Night. There were 7 mentors from Germany, Spain, USA, Japan and Malaysia.
2. Sabah Pitching Training & Awards – involved 12 new documentary film projects from Philippines, Malaysian, Myanmar, Taiwan and Singapore, with 15 participants. The trainer was from the Philippines and the panellists were from Korea, Spain and Malaysia.
3. ACTION10 Filmmakers’ Competition – carried on with three categories: documentary, indigenous language and narrative. There were 26 entries and Hassan Muthalib, our judge for the 5th year, said that the standard was higher than ever.
4. CINEBALU was the new name for movies submitted by South-East Asian directors. Shorts and feature-length films were screened from Malaysia, Philippines and Myanmar. Directors, actors and others involved in the films took Q&A after 7 of the screenings. Opening Night and Closing Night featured Malaysian films – these were Jagat and Nota.
5. World Movies – Movies were screened from Spain, USA, Japan, France, Argentina, Georgia, Germany and Brazil.

This festival took place under the newly-formed Kinabalu Film Association Sabah.  Due to funding issues, the KKIFF 2017 did not include the Sabah Pitching Training & Awards.  We will resume it at the next festival.

1. The Sabah Film Academy – with narrative and documentary streams. The 14 participants made 3 films to be screened on Awards Night.  There were 4 mentors from Germany and Malaysia (3).
2. BUZZ10 Filmmakers’ Competition – with three categories: indigenous language, documentary and narrative.  There were 39 entries, with 26 from Malaysia.
3. CINEBALU – had 41 submissions; 18 have been selected for screening from Malaysia (3), Philippines (4), Myanmar (2); Thailand (1); Indonesia (1); Korea (2); Singapore (1; Vietnam (1); Taiwan (1); and Taiwan/Philippines (1); Opening Night features Malaysia’s selection for the Academy Awards, Redha, and Closing Night is the world première of Mencari Rahmat.
4. World Movies – from Germany, Denmark, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, France, Georgia, Spain and New Zealand

On 13 December, 2018, the KKIFF held a pre-launch event, heralding the 10^th anniversary of the KKIFF to be held in September 2019.

In 2019, the KKIFF was held in September.  We combined the movie screenings as the CINEBALU programme and included a seminar (SPECIAL SERIES10) as part of the 10^th anniversary celebrations.

1. The Sabah Filmmaking Course (new name for the Sabah Film Academy) – with narrative and documentary streams. The 17 participants made 3 films to be screened on Awards Night.  There were 6 mentors from Germany, New Zealand, Japan and Malaysia (3).
2. The Sabah Pitching Training & Awards– involved 11 new documentary film projects from Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysian with 15 participants. The trainer was from Australia and the panellists were from Germany and Malaysia
3. PESTA10 Filmmakers’ Competition – with four categories: indigenous language, documentary, narrative and Malaysia Day.  There were 284 entries from throughout the ASEAN region.
4. CINEBALU Screenings (included World Movies) – had nearly 300 submissions; 20 were selected for screening from: Malaysia (5), Philippines (4), Singapore (3), Cambodia (2), Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.  Films were also screened from New Zealand (2), Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France, Japan and USA.  The Opening Night movie was Brio from France and the Closing Night film was Shadowplay from Malaysia.
5. SPECIAL SERIES10 – a day of talks, panels and a masterclass about movie-making; 19 attendees
6. Presentation:  DON’T FIX IT IN POST.  FIX IT IN PRE. – by Isazaly Isa; 19 attendees

This was due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. CINEBALU ON-LINE – 36 submissions from 12 ASEAN countries – 3 one-day programmes available for 5 days to subscribers from around South-East Asia – including 20 films from Brazil, New Zealand, Laos, Hong Kong, Philippines, Italy, Argentina, Malaysia (with three from Sabah), Portugal, Viet Nam, Germany, Indonesia, Singapore
2. Number of registrations for CINEBALU ON-LINE = 74
3. Webinars – also hosted 5 on-line discussions; 6 moderators; 20 panellists; from 192 to 1.8k views; videos of the webinars are up on the KKIFF facebook page
4. Other KKIFF Activities – were postponed to 2021