Golden Network Asia Limited has confirmed during the 10 day Marche du Film in Cannes, France that Malaysian-made Feature Animation — SeeFood has successfully signed multiple distribution deals worldwide, worth over USD 2 Million.

Golden Network Asia has officially reported to the Malaysian Pavilion in Cannes, which is hosted by the National Film Development Corporation (FINAS) in association with the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and managed by the Global Creative and Media Agency (GCMA) at Marche du Film that their cumulative total so far since its introduction in the American Film Market towards the end of last year has concretized distribution deals worldwide to multiple nations in Asia, Latin America and Europe.

These include: Select Media Holdings for India, China Lion (Beijing) Cultural Media and Beijing Bona Film & Television Culture co. for China, Ciptu Mutu Entertainment for Indonesia, K& Entertainment for South Korea, Wild Side for France, Splendid for Germany, Duka Film for Turkey, California Filmes for Latin America, Luxor for Russia and former CIS regions, Kino Swiat of Poland, MT Entertainment of Indonesia, etc. Golden Network is in talks with distributors from other regions worldwide in Cannes and expect to secure more deals later this week.

SeeFood, supported partially by Malaysia’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), is an animated feature film co-produced by Silver Ant (Malaysia) and Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC), and was only recently launched in April during MIPTV 2011. This high-quality 3D animation production is 100% Made-in-Malaysia. This will mark JCC’s second major co-production with Malaysia, after its co-production with Malaysian Government-owned Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) on Saladin: An Animated Series.

The story follows the adventures of a bamboo shark named Pup. When human poachers steal egg sacs from him reef, Pup makes it his mission to save his brothers and sisters — and ends up leaving the sea and entering the beautiful but dangerous world of humans.

Carrie Wong, Managing Director of Golden Network Asia said: “This is my first time distributing Malaysian contents and I was impressed by the refreshing, novel and high quality animations that were produced by Malaysian talents. In the near future, I would be honoured to represent many more Malaysian programs, both animation and live action contents, as it has proven that Malaysian contents are acceptable worldwide.”

Mahyidin Mustakim, Director General of FINAS said: “Over the past 3 to 4 years, Malaysia has successfully made its name for its world-class animated TV series such as Bola Kampung, Supa Strikas, Mustang Mama, Flea-Bitten, Upin & Ipin, Boo & Me, just to name a few, and now the Malaysians can proudly say that we are also starting to be successful in animated features.” WhenSeeFood is released this summer, it will be the third Malaysian animated movie ever to be completed and released, after Les’ Copaque Production’s Geng: The Adventure Begins, which was a hit in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, India, etc and Animasia Studio’s & Cartoon Network Asia’s Bala Bowl (70 mins tele-movie). The other Malaysian animation features to look out for would be Tripod Entertainment’s War of the World: Goliath, expected to be released during ComicCon 2011 (San Diego, CA) in July and Shock3D’s Alamaya: Garden of Beautiful Creatures, expected to be completed later this year as well.

Adam Ham, Executive Director of GCMA, the agency appointed by the Malaysian Government to create marketing campaigns for the Malaysian Creative Content Market Access Trade Mission programs worldwide, also added: “As a result of this, I am pleased that Malaysia has reached yet another milestone for its Creative Content Industry, where SeeFood managed to penetrate so far 50% of the world population and we now hope that this will open the international market for other Malaysian animation producers with quality Malaysian contents.”

Chris Arrant

Latest News from Cartoon Brew