According to Kamil, the FFM has always been about films in both languages and hence, the decision to have different categories according to the language of a film, should not come as a surprise to anyone.

“However the two categories of best films are judged based on how good the stories are, and the segregation is merely due to the promotion of the country’s official language.”

He was speaking to reporters at the signing of a collaboration agreement between MyCreative Ventures Sdn Bhd (MyCreative) and Finas, here this evening.

He also refuted claims that top local films such as ‘Ola Bola’ and ‘Jagat’ were denied the chance of receiving the recognition they deserved because they were lumped into the non-Bahasa Malaysia category.

“It (the segregation) has nothing to do with one being better than the other,” he added.

Kamil echoed an earlier statement by the Malaysian Film Producers Association (PFM) today, that a movie could only be nominated in the best film category if 70 per cent of its dialogue was in Bahasa Malaysia.

This however may not be the case in the future as according to Kamil, judges for this year’s awards were looking at ways to ensure all movies could be nominated for ‘best film’ irrespective of the language used.

“Maybe we can lower the requirement (the required percentage of Bahasa Malaysia in the film’s dialogue). It all depends on how we work it out.

“But we have to take into account our official language policy.”

Experts and veterans in the local film industry have slammed the PFM and Finas for the segregation which led actor and filmmaker Afdlin Shauki to announce on Facebook that he would be boycotting this year’s festival.