Yesterday, the team from Double Vision and their counterpart ABS CBN of the Philippines were in the States, presenting their case for A Time for Us (Kahit Isang Saglit), to win the telenovela category in the International  Emmy Awards. Today, some people in the industry are waiting with bated breath if a production from this country can clinch the gong tomorrow morning (Malaysian time).

“We are nominated, which is an honour,” said Double Vision CEO Low Huoi Seong. “It doesn’t mean that we’ve won anything yet.”

The International Emmy Awards is presented by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to the best television programmes produced, and initially aired outside the States. The International Emmy’s gala night is the world’s most prestigious international television event. Held each year in November at the Hilton Hotel, New York City, a cast of international celebrities present International Emmy Awards to winners in 10 categories as over 1,000 television professionals, 200 journalists and photographers representing the world’s leading media outlets, gather to celebrate excellence in television produced outside of the US.

These are the programme categories for the International Emmy Awards — Arts Programming; Best Performance by an Actor; Best Performance by an Actress; Children & Young People; Comedy; Current Affairs; Documentary; Drama Series; Interactive Channel; Interactive Programme; Interactive TV Service; News; Non-Scripted  Entertainment; Telenovela; and TV Movie/Mini-Series.

Low and co filled in forms and never thought the small collaboration between Malaysia and the Philippines would ever be mentioned by the International Emmys, because of the steep competition from traditional powerhouses in the telenovela category such as the South American countries as well as Asian giants Japan, Korea, Taiwan and many others as well as tens of thousands of other production houses. This is like Malaysia qualifying for the World Cup.

“What is interesting,” said Low, “is that we are competing with productions from other countries with bigger budgets. Say, in Malaysia we go for RM40,000 for one hour of content — in Indonesia, it’s US$30,000 (RM101,657). Not to mention other countries such as Japan, Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, etc. They can go for millions in producing one episode. The fact that our co-production with ABS CBN of the Philippines managed to get nominated is really amazing.”

Low also commented on how low prices for production in Malaysia has led many companies to make do with whatever they have.

“We worked with ABS CBN and other production houses from the Philippines, as well as Indonesia, because they are good partners and they have bigger budgets as well as access to bigger markets. It is one of the ways that we can do something more with our creative industry,” he said.

There are many challenges doing production in Malaysia, he admitted. The small market, the (comparatively) low advertising money which leads media entities to purchase productions at cheap prices. This, in turn, erodes the opportunity to do bigger productions as well as better quality stuff. Production houses in this country have to be really creative and careful when they juggle their small budgets. Sometimes, the shows don’t even get good timeslots.

“This is great enough for us, to be part of something like this. We do not ask for anything, but maybe if the powers that be can just re-screen A Time for Us in its entirety, then perhaps more Malaysians can enjoy the telenovela again and find out what is so good about it that it has received some form of recognition internationally. Again, this is a real case of being nominated is definitely a big honour in itself.”

Imagine if they win. Check out Malay Mail tomorrow for any possible updates. In the meantime, perhaps it would be good if RTM would screen the telenovela again. Many may have missed it, and getting nominated for a prestigious international award warrants at least some closer attention and inspection from the Malaysian
public.