Official Press Release: Sly Declared Winner of Yahoo – MAS Cili Padi Awards 2013

Sly Declared Winner of Yahoo – MAS Cili Padi Awards 2013

Kuala Lumpur, December 6, 2013 –  Yahoo’s vision of creating a platform to motivate young filmmakers to use their creative energies in producing three-minute masterpieces has brought attracted a record of 264 entries. 

'Accepted', the top-placed entry for the Yahoo-Mas Cili Padi Awards 2013, has been disqualified. The entry's disqualification has come about due to the fact that the video is too similar to a video titled 'One Step Forward', which was uploaded on Vimeo two years ago. 

As such, Yahoo Malaysia cannot in good conscience allow 'Accepted' to be among the prize winners of the Cili Padi Awards. 'Sly' is now declared the winner of the Cili Padi Awards, followed by 'Tiger'. The 2nd runner-up spot goes to 'Life', created by Dan Khoo. 

Team Sly constituted the young 22-year-old duo of Soo Wei Wen and Nicholas Chin. ‘Tiger’ was produced by four friends – Toh Jia Voon, 25, Chia Sheng Wei, 24, Ong Jun Tien, 24 and Cheng Wei Heng, 22.

Films were judged on the basis of four criteria:

1. Presentation of the core concept

2. Quality of content

3. Originality of the idea

4. Creativity.

Judges allocated scores from 1 to 10 to each criterion. Collation of the number of cumulative scores helped the panel arrive at the total number of marks for each contestant and the winners.

Marc Lourdes, Country Editor of Yahoo Malaysia said, “We are thrilled with the success of the Yahoo-MAS Cili Padi Awards both in terms of quality and quantity. The success reflects the credibility of the Yahoo platform as a creator and facilitator of original content. We are even more encouraged to develop engaging and compelling content to entertain millions of our Malaysian consumers.”

Renowned actress, Sharifah Amani said, “I am very proud and happy at the same time with the quality of entries. While I have complete confidence in the creative talent that exists in Malaysia, I was curious to see how will the aspirants take to the challenges of film length, time provided to produce the film, and possessing the right equipment. The results have been astounding – we were blessed with a noteworthy winner and an abundance of incredibly interesting short films.”

Maria Lorenzo-Yip, CMO, TGV Cinemas said, “TGV Cinemas is extremely excited to work alongside the organisers to provide a cinematic platform for the winners to showcase their story to our audience. We hope this initiative and TGV Cinema’s support will spur filmmakers to continue sharing their craft and thus create a new generation of innovative storytellers and filmmakers.

Renowned actress, Lisa Surihani said, “It is heartening to see the amount of passion and undiscovered talent we have in Malaysia through Cili Padi. As an actress, I identify with their hard work and determination to make a name for themselves. It is my hope that all Cili Padi participants will not give up in their journey to become recognised in this exciting industry.”

The winner takes home RM 20,000 in cash while the second and third place finishers receiving RM 12,000 and RM 8,000 respectively. In addition, the winner will get an internship at leading Malaysian Production Company, KRU Studios and the top three winners’ films will be aired nationwide for a period of three weeks.