KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — Petron Malaysia awarded today 18 gifted young Malaysians winners of its fifth Vision Petron Art competition this year with cash prizes and more.

The art competition themed "Rediscovering the Ingenuity of Youth” covered the traditional medium of painting as well as photography and videography. The contest also drew over 900 participants from 20 universities nationwide.

Welcome speech by Faridah Ali, Petron Head of Retail Business.

Sze To Joe Yin from the Malaysian Institute of Art took the grand prize out of 334 submissions in painting with his artwork titled "The Best Time In Life” that depicted the transition between childhood and adulthood.

Mohammad Syamil Mohd Rasli from the Multimedia University took the photography top prize from with his silhouette of a group of youngsters exploring titled "Youth in Action”.

A group photo of all winners together with judges and Petron representatives.

The videography grand prize was won by three University Teknologi Mara (UiTM) students at its Puncak Perdana campus, Nursyafiq Zahin Zamri, Afiq Naqiuddin Mohd Fauzi and Mohd Syarafi Saadon. Their submission, titled "Runpost”, tells the story of a boy who loves to run and becomes an inspiration to a local courier company. Each grand prize winner took home RM3,000 in cash while second and third place winners received RM2,000 and RM1,000 each respectively. Winners in fourth, fifth, and sixth place were each awarded RM500.

All winners were also presented with trophies, vouchers from Sony Music and art supplies Premier Art, and certificates of participation.

"Vision Petron is the only art competition in the country to give tertiary students the opportunity to showcase their talents in the fields of painting, photography, and videography. At the same time, it empowers the youth to uphold the values of hard work, passion for excellence, and love for country.

"This is another way for us to contribute to nation-building by promoting arts and culture among the youth of Malaysia,” Faridah Ali, the Malaysian oil company’s head of retail business, said in a statement.

She congratulated the winners and universities, saying their participation "inspires us to continue to collaborate with universities to further the creativity of our budding artists”.

The winners were chosen by a panel of judges based on originality, composition, and creativity.

Past judges include prominent national artists Awang Damit Ahmad, Bayu Utomo Radjikin, and Bibi Chew for the art painting category; Amri Ginang, Zainudin Arshad, and Ng Kok Leong for the photography category, and renowned filmmakers — Datuk Yusof Haslam, Datin Paduka Shuhaimi Baba, and Tan Chui Mui for the video category.

The top 20 artworks will be on display at the 1Utama Shopping Mall in Petaling Jaya, Selangor for an entire week starting September 12.

From February to July this year, Petron embarked on a number of roadshows at 14 local and private universities. More than 1,000 students participated in order to gain more insights on each category in the competition.

Among the universities that had participated in the Vision Petron Art competition this year are UiTM, Saito College, Dasein Academy of Art, Malaysian Institute of Art, Universiti SEGI, Universiti Multimedia, Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan, Universiti Selangor and Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris.

Vision Petron has produced young local artists such as Koo Yein Ni of Dasein Academy of Art, Nik Shazmie Nik Shairozi of UiTM Perak and Lee Teng Chiew of Saito College, photographers Abdullah Amirulamin Bin Hamid of Multimedia University, Leong Sheng Yung of The One Academy, and Koh Jia Ying of Taylor’s University College, and videographer Khor Zhen Yee of the University of Science Malaysia.

Vision Petron is open to students aged 18-28 who are studying in local universities and colleges.