KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 — Under fire, Datuk Yusof Haslam reiterated today his insistence to resign from the Malaysian Film Producers Association (PFM) to ensure that his children will not be faced with criticism while in the film industry.
The renowned director added he made this decision so his sons would be able to participate in future Film Festivals Awards (FFM) without being faced with allegations of a conflict of interest or bias from his presence.
“I don’t want my children to become victims. I mean, when my children’s films are nominated, they say we used our connections. That’s not true.
“I am the president of PFM. I am not on the jury. Tan Sri Shamsuddin, when he was [Finas] president, it wasn’t an issue when his film was nominated,” he told Malay Mail Online’s sister publication ProjekMMO on Thursday.
Munafik, which was directed by his son Syamsul Yusof, won the three main prizes at the 28th FFM namely the Best National Film, Best Director and Best Actress.
Pekin Ibrahim, the lead in the film Mat Moto, which was directed by his son Syafiq Yusof, won the award for Best Actor.
Both films are produced by Skop Productions which is run by Yusof.
Critics have previously said that Yusof benefitted from the conflict of interest in the FFM after PFM was invited to collaborate with the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) in the event.
However, the former actor and director refuted those claims, saying that he has never known any member of the FFM28 jury as that was handled solely by Finas.
The FFM controversy kicked off after two of 2015’s most critically received films, Jagat and Ola Bola, were excluded from the main Best Picture category for the awards, although both were nominated for the non-Bahasa Malaysia division of the same.
