[FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE]

10th March 2021, Kuala Lumpur – The Kuala Lumpur Eco FIlm Fest (KLEFF) is back for its 14th instalment!

Malaysia is home to South-East Asia’s first and longest-running homegrown environmental film festival for the past 13 years; EcoKnights is proud to announce that the 14th International Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Fest (KLEFF) has launched its call for film submission on the 10th of March 2021 via FilmFreeway, a global digital platform for filmmakers to submit their films to hundreds of film festivals.

With KLEFF’s strong advocacy in climate change, the theme this year is, ‘Climate Change (Yourself)’; whereby the festival seeks for thought-provoking films that explore self-initiated changes that we can make on different levels and capacities, with the right mindsets and habits.

Returning from the 2020 pandemic phase that marked a new beginning for KLEFF as a digital film festival, KLEFF is continuing its role as a media platform for filmmaking, story-telling and knowledge-sharing in the global transformational journey towards sustainability, in society, economy, and environment.

Festival Director Fadly Bakhtiar quoted, “The decision to go on with KLEFF despite the pandemic is motivated by our firm beliefs that environmental advocacy to fight climate change must go on, and the call for climate action never stops, even amidst a global pandemic. Last year’s debut as a digital festival was a huge milestone with a steep learning curve for the team. We received encouraging response and support from our loyal supporters, thus proving that we need to be innovative and dynamic to keep our mission going now that the festival has evolved digitally.”

He also shared his views on this year’s theme, and believes it will shine a spotlight on the important issue at hand for the general public and audience by highlighting the importance of behavioural change in societies, as societal norms are a key factor in addressing climate issues.

Submission is open on the 10th of March until 25th June 2021, whereby the films will stand a chance to be screened in the festival as well as run for various awards in the KLEFF Film Competition, after going through an evaluation process by the festival committee and film panel jury. The festival accepts films of different genres which are long documentaries, feature films, short documentaries, short films, animation and Public Service Announcement (PSA). Chosen films will be screened during the festival via its online screening platform, KLEFFlix.
“For the past 13 years, we have been receiving films with inspiring stories that advocate for various sustainability topics and the call for action to make changes for a better world. That’s the beauty and strength of the filmmakers, they are educators and advocators through their lenses and story-telling. Meanwhile film festivals like KLEFF are the right platform to showcase the filmmakers’ magic,” commented Nabila Shohimi, Festival Manager.

Interested or aspiring filmmakers can submit their films in FilmFreeway: KLEFF 2021 within the timeline and film submission deadlines.

In case both potential filmmakers and the audience would like to have a taste of what is to come, head on down to KLEFF 2020 Films where you can find the past submissions. We recommend filmmakers to read the full Rules and Regulations before submitting your films.

After the launch of film submission, KLEFF will be building up more content and relationships to add more value to the festival’s journey in climate action and other sustainability missions. The festival committee invites those who share the common ground with KLEFF or have impactful collaboration ideas such as outreach efforts, resource mobilization and filmmaking empowerment, to develop partnerships with KLEFF.

The festival has previously collaborated with the International Greentech & Eco Products Exhibition & Conference Malaysia (IGEM) for 5 years in sharing outreach platforms to educate more people about sustainability. Other than that, KLEFF has worked with a few partners to award and recognise winning filmmakers – River of Life (ROL) for the ‘River of Life Award’; and United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and Malaysian Public Work Department (JKR) for the UNDP x JKR Energy Efficiency in Buildings Award.

For more information pertaining to the festival, visit the official KLEFF 2021 website.

Contact details:
General: info@kleff.my
Fadly Bakhtiar: fadly@ecoknights.rog.my
Nabila Shohimi: nabila@ecoknights.org.my

[FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE]

22^nd October 2020, Kuala Lumpur – The 13^th International Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Fest (KLEFF 2020) Award Ceremony is a prestigious event to give recognition to the work of filmmakers, cinematographers, storytellers and concerned experts  from around the globe to shine light on climate crisis issues and distressing environmental problems worldwide.

The digital KLEFF 2020 received a total submission of 118 climate- and environment-themed films from 44 countries globally and out of these, 59 deeply thought-provoking films of various genres and lengths are screened throughout the week-long festival (19-25 October) via KLEFFlix, KLEFF official Digital Streaming Platform.

MEDIA KIT LINK: http://bit.ly/KLEFFMediaKit2020

The call for a digitally-run award ceremony did not come easy for the committee, yet decided necessary, especially now when it is crucial to continue the advocacy for climate justice, in line with this year’s theme of Climate Injustice: Pick a Side.

The ceremony was graced by Guests of Honour – Royal Patron of IGEM; Yang Amat Mulia Tunku Zain Al-Abidin Ibni Tuanku Muhriz, Dr. Nagulendran Kangayatkarasu from the Ministry of Environment and Water (KASA), KLEFF Festival Founder and Honourary Advisor; Dr Yasmin Rasyid and KLEFF Festival Director; Fadly Bakhtiar, with members of media, fellow KLEFF filmmakers, supporters and viewers tuning in from the comfort of their home – made possible with KLEFF official Digital Platform Partner, the Virtual International Greentech & Eco Products Exhibition & Conference Malaysia (IGEM) 2020.

In this current situation where people are staying at home to curb the spread of Covid-19, the call for action for climate justice has never been more convenient and pertinent.  

“I am immensely grateful to the works of filmmakers who provide us with entertainment and enlightenment when we are stuck at home, even more so, the talented people of the cinematic world who also strives for a more sustainable world”, praised Yang Amat Mulia Tunku Zain Al-Abidin during his opening speech.

“For the past 13 years, EcoKnights has been immensely productive, from getting huge interest from the public with over 1,000 environmentally films being submitted to the festival from over 100 countries, in the past years,” he added.

Founded and initiated by non-governmental environmental organization EcoKnights, KLEFF is Malaysia’s longest-serving platform that promotes the notion of sustainable living through the power of audio/visual materials.

“KLEFF started with a crazy vision [that] I had in 2008, where we required a more creative approach to open up the mindsets of Malaysians to understand what sustainability is all about… Films make profound impact on people – it changes mindsets, shapes perspectives, gives you knowledge and information, and more importantly it motivates you to take actions,” shared Dr Yasmin Rasyid, KLEFF Festival Founder and Honorary Advisor.

This year’s line-up of films was none like the committee has ever seen before. Carefully evaluated by KLEFF 2020 juries – Elina Jani, Iedil Dzuhrie Alauddin, Dr Chen Pelf Nyok, Dr Kendy Mitot, Justin Wong, headed by KLEFF Festival Director, Fadly Bakhtiar, five (5) major categories were awarded to the winning filmmakers; Best Feature Film / Long Documentary, Best Short Film, Best Short Documentary, Best Public Service Announcement, Best Animation – with the annual Special Jury Award.  

“I, as one of the juries for this year’s festival, I have watched the films and I am deeply moved, inspired and motivated by all of the filmmakers hard work and we, the KLEFF committee hope that more people, if possible all of Malaysians and everyone in this world can at least manage to watch this films once in their lives or more and that they will be empowered as how these films have empowered us here at KLEFF,” commends Fadly during his opening remark.

Evolving with the digital trend and adapting to the new norm may be grappling to some during these unprecedented times. Nevertheless, one thing that EcoKnights as the organizer of KLEFF discovers is that digital advocacy must continue – especially in the current era of The Information Age, where news travel faster and important messages can be shared to a wider mass digitally.

This year’s KLEFF 2020 Award Recipients go to:

1. Best Feature Film / Long Documentary awarded to The Future of Flight by Larissa Klinker (Germany)
2. Best Short Film awarded to It’s Look Sunshine by Kim Seunghwan (South Korea)
3. Best Short Documentary awarded to From Kurils with Love by Taylor Reese (United States)
4. Best Public Service Announcement awarded to USLP Shower by Bauddhayan Mukherji
5. Best Animation awarded to Gon, The Little Fox by Takeshi Yashiro (Japan)
6. Special Jury Award awarded to From Kurils with Love by Taylor Reese (United States)

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ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL KUALA LUMPUR ECO FILM FEST (KLEFF)

The International KLEFF is Malaysia’s first and longest-serving platform promoting sustainable living through showcases of environment-themed films, workshops, talks, exhibitions, Green Market, local performances and other engaging activities. KLEFF features ground breaking films that kindle important dialogues, traversing the relationship between humans and their environments, challenging the way people think about the natural world and inspiring them to discuss, explore and act on important environmental issues.

KLEFF 2020 is still on-going till 25 October with more line-ups of sustainability-themed activities from film screenings, workshops and talks, a fundraising musical gig and moreFurther information may be found at kleff.my or KLEFF social media pages @kleff_my. 

ABOUT ECOKNIGHTS®

EcoKnights® is a not-for-profit environmental organisation that provides and delivers development and environmental interventions to communities, government agencies, learning institutions, and companies to mobilise and catalyse the stakeholders towards sustainable development across trans- and interdisciplinary fields to build bridges towards achieving sustainable communities and companies across five main pillars. 

The pillars are CSR and Partnership, Public Outreach, Community Development & Education (CDE), Rehabilitation, Restoration and Conservation (RRC) as well as Youth Development & Volunteerism (YDV), supported by Sustainability Communications. Each pillar helps to strengthen the legacy of EcoKnights as it empowers the Knights to ideate, create, run and organise meaningful projects to impart long-lasting sustainable and economic impact to the country.

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*For any media inquiries, kindly contact Festival Media Manager, Ms. Fara at fara@ecoknights.org.my