KUALA LUMPUR: A new film titled Aquarium which is both home-made and drone-made, received the top prize at the BLUE2BLUE Drone Festival 2021 held in Australia on April 10.
The annual festival which made its debut last year, aims to promote, encourage and celebrate filmmaking creativity with the use of drones.
Aquarium's director Mohd Zyrul Hafizi, 34, filmed his masterpiece using "70 per cent drone shots".
"Drones are versatile devices. They give directors superb cinematography, adding a lot more colour and style to our films," said Mohd Zyrul in an interview with Berita Harian Online today.
"Filming with drones enables us to look at the world from different perspectives and that enriches the storytelling experience."
Mohd Zyrul also said that he often sent his films to international festivals, and one of his previous short films Pujangga made it to the finals of the Toronto Independent Film Festival last year.
"I am very thankful to a friend who loves flying his drones, for suggesting that I make a film with this versatile machine," said Mohd Zyrul, who also received support from the Professional Film Workers' Association of Malaysia (Profima) and the National Film Development Corporation (Finas).
"Profima's president Khalil Salleh came up with the script for Aquarium, and I got cracking late last year. It's a simple story about a boy who loses his parents in an accident, and learns to be self-reliant," he said.
"Our young hero Amin moves into his grandfather's house, and his grandfather encourages him to stand on his own feet. Along the way, he acquires an aquarium and learns a lot of life's lessons by maintaining it and looking after the fish."
Mohd Zyrul said that Aquarium was based on a foreign film which won an award in the Cannes Film Festival several years ago.
"Aquarium is my first international festival win, and in the years to come, I will do my utmost to win awards in other festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and Venice."
As for aiming for an Oscar, Mohd Zyrul said that "the sky is the limit".
An engineering graduate from Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Mohd Zyrul has made more than 40 short films over the last decade, as well as television dramas such as Jalan Sesat Ke Syurga, Cinta Ternoktah, and the coming Kami Budak Flat.
