Malaysia: Last News

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Taiwan Creative Content Agency and Singapore’s public broadcast group MediaCorp, Tuesday, used the opening day of the Taiwan Creative Content Fest as the occasion to sign a memorandum of understanding. Signatories includes TAICCA chair Homme Tsai and MediaCorp’s chief content officer Virginia Lim. The speakers said that the agreement is intended to facilitate co-production in the film and TV space, increase skills training and expand the volume of content that is of a quality to play in international markets. Tsai said that he hopes Taiwanese companies will send production and management staff to Singapore for training.

Naman Ramachandran A comprehensive trends analysis of Southeast Asian media markets reveals significant digital advertising growth and streaming platform expansion, with Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam emerging as key territories for content development and format adaptation. According to K7 Media U.K. analysis presented by the firm’s associate director, operations, Michelle Lin at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF), Indonesia stands out as the region’s most promising market, with an 8.5% annual growth rate in entertainment and media revenue.

Alex Ritman The humble hippopotamus is finally getting its chance to shine on the big screen thanks to an upcoming project being launched at the American Film Market. Survival thriller “Hungry” — being sold by Signature Entertainment — pits a hungry hippo against a group of tourists, and comes from James Nunn, behind the “One Shot” action thriller franchise.

Marta Balaga Malaysian director Tsai Ming-liang might be done with his semi-retirement. “I have a strong desire to make another feature film,” he tells Variety at Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival. “With my actors, we’ve been working together for such a long time.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Small Hours of the Night,” by Singapore director Daniel Hui, has been removed from the lineup of the Singapore International Film Festival. The city-state’s authorities have refused the film a release certificate, meaning that it is effectively banned and that the festival cannot go forward with the docu-drama’s planned screening in its Undercurrents section. The festival has made no public statement, but its website shows the film as not available for screening. In the early years of Singapore’s independence (from the British Empire in 1963 and from Malaysia in 1965), Tan Chay Wa had been an armed activist, possibly a Communist, who rejected the two countries’ separation.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Purin Pictures, a non-profit film fund supporting independent cinema in Southeast Asia, has unveiled $170,000 of grants in its autumn funding round. Its reading committee chose three fiction and two documentary projects for production support and one fiction project for post-production support. The fiction films are “Daughters of the Sea,” a story of three intertwined lives, to be directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar (“Leonor Will Never Die”) and produced by Monster Jimenez and Rajiv Idnani, through Philippines company Arkeo Films; writer-director and editor Daniel Hui’s “Other People’s Dreams,” about two runaways who become invisible thieves in Singapore, produced by Tan Si En at Momo Film; and “Sitora,” by Diffan Sina Norman, a drama about the oldest member of a village community which is about to be consumed by the urban sprawl. The project is to be produced by Tara Ansley, Armen Aghaeian, Zurina Ramli through Malaysian firm Rangka Pictures. The two documentaries receiving production support of $15,000 each are “Black River,” directed by Tran Phuong Thao, and “When a Poet Goes to War,” by Myanmar’s Aung Naing Soe. With production by Swann Dubus through Varan Vietnam, “Black River” follows merchants who use old boats to set up temporary markets in the territories of Vietnam’s ethnic minorities.

Carole Horst Kicking off Nov. 13, the Asian World Film Festival sports features from 27 countries with its main competition screening 16 films submitted for the international feature Oscar. The festival runs through Nov.

Day6 have announced new stops for their ongoing world tour ‘Forever Young’, with shows in Oceania, US and more.On October 30, Day6 announced six new 2025 shows added to their ongoing ‘Forever Young’ world tour. The Korean band added shows in the Oceanic region, specifically Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland, as well as two shows in Los Angeles and New York in the US on top of a remaining Asia show in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.The tour kicked off late last month with a three-night residency at Incheon’s Inspire Arena from September 20 to 22.

The fall out continues from the wildly controversial Donald Trump rally at Madison Square Garden continues two days after the event – and the woman of ABC’s The View are among those not quite ready to let bygones be bygones.

EXCLUSIVE: Comedian Nigel Ng‘s first stand-up special, The Haiyaa Special, is set to premiere on Hulu on February 21.

Jermaine Jenas was spotted working at Arsenal vs Liverpool on Sunday, marking his first TV appearance since his BBC dismissal. The ex-Newcastle and England midfielder, aged 41, was released by the BBC in August after a controversy involving inappropriate texts to female colleagues.

Naman Ramachandran The Philippines‘ QCinema International Film Festival has locked its 12th edition lineup, with Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Cloud” — Japan’s submission for the 97th Academy Awards — set to close the November event. The festival opens with “Directors’ Factory Philippines,” an eight-filmmaker omnibus collaboration with Cannes Directors’ Fortnight that pairs Filipino directors with counterparts from across Asia.

EXCLUSIVE: Thai hit How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies will open across cinemas in the UK and Ireland on December 26.

Southeast Asia content makers have had it tough in recent times. Not only was the streamer money that briefly flooded the region reduced as global cuts bit, but they’ve seen demand for Japanese and Korean content reach new heights, while the rise of streaming in India has become a major narrative across the continent. Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video have all committed large funding pots to Asia, but the question is, how much can Southeast Asia specifically score? 

EXCLUSIVE: Luke Evans will star in Emergency, a thriller series based on real events and set during a guerilla war that took place in 1950s Malaya. The Nine Perfect Strangers and Fast and Furious actor will also exec produce the series. It hails from Sympatico, the co-production label established in 2023 by Richard Johns’ Argo Films and Double Vision, the Malaysian prodco headed by Min Lim.

Jamie Lang All3Media has unveiled four new adaptations of Two Brothers Pictures’ format “Liar,” bringing the number of territories producing local versions of the show to 15. Botswana Ignite will produce one of the new adaptations, marking the first time the IP will be seen in Africa and the first time that one of All3Media International’s scripted formats will be adapted in Sub-Saharan Africa. Executive Producer and Project Director of Botswana Ignite, Duncan Irvine, (former founder and owner of Rapid Blue) said he’s “incredibly happy to be bringing this compelling drama to the Botswana Ignite project.

911 singing star Lee Brennan has posted a video on Instagram to celebrate his 51st birthday, surprising fans with the way he looks as he appears much younger than his age. In the video, he thanked everyone for their birthday best wishes and said: “I’m always overwhelmed with it all, but it is really appreciated, so take care and thanks again.” He added: “We’re off to Malaysia, come on!” before he signed off, referring to the band’s current tour.

Naman Ramachandran Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing has offered insights into her character in “Mother Bhumi,” the upcoming Malaysian-Italian co-production being directed by Chong Keat Aun. At a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, Fan discussed the challenges and rewards of portraying Hong Im, a farmer grappling with loss and the supernatural on the Malaysia-Thailand border. “My career is to be a performer, that’s what I’m doing,” Fan said.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Two films by women directors, Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light” and Dea Kulumbegashvili’s “April” lead the nominations for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Both films will compete in five categories – best film, best director, best screenplay, best cinematography and best performance – it was revealed Wednesday in a nominations announcement. Also competing for best film are Yoko Yamanaka’s Tokyo-set story of a young woman’s mental illness, “Desert of Namibia” (Japan); Neo Sora’s future Tokyo tale of perilous social surveillance “Happyend” (Japan, U.S.); and Jiang Xiaoxuan’s “To Kill a Mongolian Horse” (Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, U.S.), a portrait of a Mongolian horseman turned performer, based on a true story. Four of the five films nominated for best film are from female directors, and in an APSA first, all five best film contenders are first or second features. In addition to Kapadia, Kulumbegashvili and Jiang, the nominees for best director include Tato Kotetishvili for “Holy Electricity,” alongside veteran French Cambodian auteur Rithy Panh for “Meeting with Pol Pot.” For the first time since the acting category became an ungendered best performance award, all five nominations go to women.

Max is to launch in seven markets across Asia on November 19.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Warner Bros. Discovery has confirmed that its streaming service Max will launch in seven territories in Southeast Asia next month. From Nov.