FINAS Promoted An AI Tool That Assists Filmmaking, Malaysians Say It’s Ruining The Film Industry

Generative AI has been on thin ice within the creative industry.

In Brief

FINAS promoted Morphyx Cinema Studio, an AI filmmaking tool, sparking backlash from Malaysians concerned about its impact on the local film industry.
Critics highlighted that using AI could disqualify Malaysian films from Oscar nominations, undermining the government's Road To Oscars initiative.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is still in its infancy, but many individuals and even companies are already using it extensively — from mundane tasks such as looking up a recipe to creating content for social media.

When Generative AI burst into our lives, it was already met with resistance, especially from the creative community.

Painters, graphic designers, musicians, and other types of creatives discovered that AI-generated content actually draws material from existing artwork. This could possibly include their own artwork that has already been published online. Even if it wasn’t, many were not happy with the idea of a computer taking artwork from human artists and fusing it together to make “art”.

Because of this, the use of AI in any sort of creative work is generally not taken seriously, whether by the creative community or the public.

A Malaysian generative AI company

Malaysian AI company Morphyx.io describes itself as an all-in-one creative studio for AI image generation, video generation and audio production.

In practical terms, it is designed to help creators, marketers and brands produce content using generative AI, including:

AI images: creating visuals from text prompts.
AI videos: turning text or images into video content.
AI audio: generating voiceovers, sound effects and music.
Creative analysis: analysing existing creative works, including composition, lighting, characters, mood and style.
Digital Twin and other AI-assisted creative tools.

The company has been working with Alibaba Cloud to integrate generative AI models into its platform. Alibaba Cloud says Morphyx.io is using models including Wan2.7, HappyHorse and Qwen for video generation, script generation, translation and speech-related workflows.

FINAS and Morphyx Cinema Studio

The National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) recently posted about a new product by the AI company: Morphyx Cinema Studio (MCS).

According to the post, MCS was launched at Aurum Theatre in The Exhange TRX in Kuala Lumpur.

“The MCS ecosystem leverages multimodal AI technology and visual generation models such as Happy Horse and Wan to support cinematic visual creation, scene consistency and more structured character animation development,” said the national film corporation.

During the launch, FINAS Chief Executive Officer Dato’ Azmir Saifuddin Mutalib shared his perspective and support for the continued growth of Malaysia’s creative and filmmaking ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Founder and Creative Tech Director of Morphyx.io Sham Yunus also shared the creative vision, direction and possibilities behind MCS at the launch event.

Guests at the launch were presented with a showcase of short films produced through MCS.

Earlier in July, Morphyx.io uploaded a video on social media to showcase MCS’ cinematic concept capabilities, which featured clips of AI-generated movie scenes.

Malaysians say “Thanks, we hate it”

The response for MCS from Malaysians were less than favourable, with many disagreeing with the product.

Some also highlighted that The Academy Awards would automatically disqualify films that employ the use of AI.

“Film plus AI? How will Road To Oscars be possible now? Does FINAS understand that one of the conditions for a film to be nominated for an Oscar says AI cannot be used?” said one user on Threads, who reshared a post of FINAS promoting MCS which has since been taken down due to overwhelming criticism.

FYI: Road To Oscars is a strategic initiative launched by the Malaysian government and FINAS in June 202. Its goal is to elevate local cinema, nurture world-class production standards, and successfully secure an Academy Award (Oscar) nomination or win for a Malaysian film.

View on Threads

Criticism on generative AI is nothing new in Malaysia. In fact, it has been widely used in many promotional materials recently, including by the Ministry of Tourism and national broadcasting company Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM).

A video promoting Citrawarna 2026 uploaded on Instagram by Tourism Malaysia earlier this year generously employed generative AI, and received major backlash from the public for not hiring local talents to do the job. The video has since been removed from its social media accounts.

Back in February, the Music Authors’ Copyright Protection (MACP) Berhad published official guidelines on the use of AI in creative work. This came after an AI-generated cover of a 1999 song by Anis Suraya topped Apple’s iTunes charts.

The ethical use of generative AI is constantly being debated, as it could potentially breach copyright laws and may also harm the creative community in Malaysia.

Share your thoughts with us via TRP’s Facebook, X, Instagram, or Threads.

Shahril Bahrom

Shahril Bahrom is a Malaysian digital journalist known for his work with The Rakyat Post and World Of Buzz, covering social issues, technology, pop culture, and viral online trends. His writing combines accessible storytelling with strong awareness of Malaysian internet culture, often focusing on topics that resonate across social media and public discourse. Known for a conversational yet informative style, he specialises in digital-first journalism, human-interest stories, and trend-driven reporting that bridges mainstream news with contemporary online conversations.