Malaysian director and producer Jin Ong’s debut feature film ‘Abang Adik’ has garnered international acclaim yet again by winning the Uncaged Award for Best Feature Film at the New York Asian Film Festival. It makes history by becoming the first-ever Malaysian film to win an award in the category.
North America’s leading festival of Asian cinema is in its 22nd edition and was held from 14-30 July with the closing night celebration held at Film at Lincoln Center with a red carpet.
According to their website, the award ‘shines the spotlight on filmmakers whose singular cinematic visions that deserves to be internationally heralded, celebrating their passion, imagination and wiliness to take risks’. Abang Adik was up against eight films from other countries including Japan and South Korea.
The 115-minute film stars Taiwanese actor Kang Ren Wu and Malaysian actor Jack Tan with languages spoken including Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Sign Language. The social drama revolves around Abang and Adi, undocumented orphans in present-day Malaysia who may possibly be siblings. The film exposes the hardships faced by the undocumented and impoverished in KL.
Despite it being his first feature film, Jin Ong is an entertainment industry veteran with over 20 years of experience in the record industry and artist management. The 48-year-old founded More Entertainment Co. Ltd. And produced the 2017 film ‘Shuttle Life’, which was the first Malaysian project to win the grand prize at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Project Promotion.
Speaking to Malay Mail, Ong said, “Winning the Best Feature Film Award means a win for our whole team, it’s not an individual honour. I also met many Malaysians living in New York so I felt very at home.”
Ong also added that they have their fingers crossed on winning more awards, “Yes! We have submitted to other international film festivals and some have given us their official shortlists but we can’t make any announcements for now.”
In March, the film scooped up the Audience Award and the Ecumenical Jury Award at Switzerland’s 37th Fribourg International Film Festival, one of Switzerland’s five most established festivals. Then in May, it became the first Southeast Asian film in the festival’s history to simultaneously win the Golden Mulberry audience award, the Black Dragon Critic’s Prize, and the White Mulberry Award for the best first feature. In July, actor Kang Ren Wu has also just won ‘Best Performance’ at the FIRST International Film Festival 2023, a platform for youth in China’s film industry.
Watch the trailer here:
Follow Abang Adik’s official Facebook page here.
Image credit: facebook.com/abangadikthemovie