25 September 2009

Annex C : About Yasmin Ahmad

Yasmin Ahmad (July 1, 1958 - July 25, 2009) was a critically-acclaimed multi-award winning film director, writer and scriptwriter from Malaysia and was also the executive creative director at Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur. Her television commercials and films are well-known in Malaysia for their humour, heart and love that crosses cross-cultural barriers, in particular her ads for Petronas, the national oil and gas company. Her works have won multiple awards both within Malaysia and internationally.

Yasmin was born in Kampung Bukit Treh in Muar, Johor on Jan 7, 1958. A graduate in arts majoring in politics and psychology[2] from Newcastle University in England [3], she worked as a trainee banker in 1982 for two weeks then working for IBM as a marketing representative while moonlighting as a blues singer and pianist by night. Yasmin began her career in advertising as a copywriter at Ogilvy & Mather and in 1993 she moved to Leo Burnett as joint creative director with Ali Mohammed, eventually rising to executive creative director at the firms Kuala Lumpur branch.

Her first feature length film[4] was Rabun in 2002. Yasmin's films have won many international awards and praise from the critics and public alike. Most of her films have been screened at the Berlin, San Francisco, Singapore and Cannes (film market) international film festivals. Her films were featured in a special retrospective[5] at the 19th Tokyo International Film Festival in October 2006. An April 2007 retrospective[6] of her feature films was sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hawaii, and the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

In Singapore, Yasmin is best known for the pro-family commercials she did for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports[7]. Yasmin was inducted into the Malaysian Advertising Hall of Fame by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia in November 2008[8].Yasmin was working on her first feature film to be filmed in Singapore titled, "Go, Thaddeus!" when she passed away. This was to be an inspirational film for the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, based on the book, "Running the full distance: Thaddeus Cheong" by Belinda Wee about Singapore's 17 year old National triathlete who passed away after completing the 2007 SEA Games time trial.

Films
• Rabun (My Failing Eyesight) (2003)
• Sepet (Slit Eye) (2004)
• Gubra (Anxiety) (2006)
• Mukhsin (2007)
• Muallaf (The Convert) (2008)
• Talentime (2009)

Commercials and Short Films
• Petronas TV Commercial (for Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, Deepavali & National Day)
• Yuzy (2000) Petronas Road Safety Campaign
• Vas Dentures (2000) Celcom
• Tan Hong Ming In Love (2007) Petronas Merdeka Day commercial
• Family (2008) for the Singaporean Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports
• Funeral (2009) for the Singaporean Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports
• Chocolate (2009) for 15Malaysia (released posthomously)

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