“The overall winner will include everybody,” he was quoted as saying today. “Of course the overall winner will be the most prestigious award. If you win that, you are the best in Malaysia,” he said in remarks to Malay Mail Online.

He saw no conflict with an announcement by the national film corporation Finas, which organises the Malaysian film festival, that the “main national award” was that for Best National Film, which is restricted to films in Bahasa Malaysia.

Controversy over this year’s Festival Filem Malaysia (FFM28) broke out when two popular films, Ola Bola, and Jagat, were removed from consideration for best film because they did not contain a minimum of 70 per cent Bahasa Malaysia content.

In the midst of the row, Salleh intervened last week as communications and multimedia minister. Finas comes under his ministry’s purview. He announced that the Best Picture award would be open to all Malaysian-made films, and created a new award for Best Film in the National Language.

On Friday, Finas chairman Mohd Khusairi Abdul Talib said the award for Best National Film would be considered the ”main award” at FMM28.

Salleh said he had no objection, according to Malay Mail Online. He said the local film industry had pushed for it to be considered the main award as recognition of Bahasa Malaysia’s position as the national language.

“Finas considers it as main award and there is nothing wrong. The Best Malaysian Film is a prestigious award and open to all. The only difference, they consider (Best) National (Film) as the main award because of the position of the national language and I have no objection. To me, the overall winner is the prestigious award,” he reiterated, according to the report.