By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, Dec 11: The horror film ‘Sumpahan Jerunei’ (Curse of The Totem), based on ancient Melanau traditions of Sarawak, has received 17 accolades to date.
Officially released in July 2023, the film was written and directed by Jason Chong and stars Bront Palarae, Uqasha Senrose, Syafie Naswip, Amerul Affendi, Daiyan Trisha, Tony Eusoff, Ruminah Sidek, and Yuyun Hikmah.
At the Florence Film Awards in Italy this year, the film was inducted in the February winner list for Best Feature Film (Gold Award), Best Producer (Gold Award) — Wendy Wong and Nancie Foo, Best Director Feature Film (Silver Award) — Jason Chong, Best Cinematography (Silver Award) — Harris Hue Abdullah, Best Original Music Score — Sharon Paul.
Subsequently, the film bagged the Silver Award for Original Music Score (Sharon Paul) at the Florence Film Annual Awards (from March 2022 to February 2023).
Meanwhile, at the Paris Film Awards 2023, the film was announced as the January winner for Best Feature Film.
Actress Uqasha Senrose also won ‘Best Actress in Feature Film’ at Canada’s Toronto Independent Film Festival of Cift under the October winner list.
The film also won three New York Cinematography Awards (NYCA) under the September list, with Uqasha securing the Best Actress, followed by Tony Eusoff (Best Supporting Actor) and Harris Hue Abdullah (Best Feature Film Cinematography).
Under the September list for the European Cinematography Awards (ECA), Uqasha won the Best Actress Award, followed by Daiyan Trisha (Best Supporting Actress), Jessie Jok See Yeow (Best Costume Design) and Harris Hue Abdullah (Best Film Lighting).
The film was also nominated (official selection) for the Paris Art & Movie Awards 2023 for Best Feature Film. France’s ‘Croissance’ film, directed by Beni Jean-Claude, was selected as the final winner.
Apart from bagging 15 international awards, ‘Sumpahan Jerunei’ received its first award in Malaysia at the Greatest Award Night organised by MAD Branding Group last month, whereby the film producers Datuk Nancie Foo and Datin Wendy Wong were awarded the Greatest Outstanding Film Producer Award.
Today, the two producers paid a courtesy call to Sarawak’s Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry, and Performing Arts, Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, at his office in Baitulmakmur II, Petra Jaya, to hand over some of the trophies and plaques won by the film.
“We presented five awards to the Ministry, which were from Paris Film Awards, Florence Film Awards, Toronto Independent Film Festival of Cift, NYCA and ECA,” Wendy told DayakDaily earlier. — DayakDaily
