The Story Behind Flicks Fiesta

Flicks Fiesta is a student-organized short film festival initiated by degree students of KDU Penang University College in 2015. It started as a general idea introduced by the Corporate Event Planning module tutor, Ms. Sarata Balaya. Since then, Flicks Fiesta has been organized by students, for students.

The initial idea of Flicks Fiesta was to provide a platform for students to showcase their final year productions. It was aimed at young filmmakers to showcase their independent productions, giving them new exposures, and to experience a sense of accomplishment. With this in mind, this opportunity was opened to young filmmakers all over George Town, Penang.

Since then, this short film festival grew from a local event to a national festival. In 2016, Flicks Fiesta received submissions from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), UCSI University College, INTI International College, University Malaysia Sabah (UNIMAS) and many other institutions all over Malaysia. In the same year, a new award - Yasmin Ahmad Award - was introduced to acknowledge young creative filmmakers with multi-cultured submissions.

This year, we added a new category: Photography. We decided to do this because we believe that photography is a great tool for self-expression. Being able to express one's self through a photo is very powerful. Even though anyone could do it, it still takes skills and talent to be able to tell a story through a still picture. We want to recognise these young creatives not just in filmmaking, but as well as in photography.