Riri Riza's road movie 3 Days To Forever was named best Indonesian film as the 9th Jakarta International Film Festival (Jiffest) came to a close.

Deddy Mizwar bagged best Indonesian director for his comedy hit Nagabonar (Becomes) 2. Each was awarded a cash prize of US$5,000.

To nurture young filmmakers, Jiffest ran a script development competition workshop from Dec 8-12 for shorts, documentaries and feature films. The Hubert Bals Fund, Jan Vrijman Fund and Astro Kirana gave away cash prizes to a total of six winners.

This year, the festival was under the helm of new director Lalu Roisamri after the departure of Netherlands-born Orlow Seunke. Asian programming was obviously pumped up with the launch of a new sidebar on ASEAN cinema, including a gala premiere of Royston Tan's musical 881. Chants Of Lotus also became the first local film to close the festival.

'We offer 75% of the entire programme free to the audience. Not everyone can afford to go to the cinema and they are also not sure which foreign films are good. We hope to build an audience base for festival film goers,' said Roisamri.

Blitz's new cinema at Grand Indonesia and 21's Djakarta XXI, both located in downtown Jakarta, were the two main venues.

With a lack of media advertising, the result of a budget cut of about 25% compared to last year, Roisamri said that admissions dropped by about 15% to 54,000.

However, a bigger budget is expected for the 10th anniversary in 2008. The new Governor of Jakarta Fauzi Bowo pledged to extend more financial support to the festival when he attended the premiere of Persepolis on the opening night.

Full winners list:

Best Indonesian film:
3 Days To Forever
Dir: Riri Riza

Best Indonesian director:
Deddy Mizwar
Nagabonar (Becomes) 2

Movies that Matter Human Rights Award for Best Human Rights:
Playing Between Elephants
Dir: Aryo Danusiri

Script Development Competition:
Feature Script Category:
Surat Opa by Dinna Jasanti
A Beautiful Thing by Andibachtiar Yusuf

Documentary Category:
Life and Death of Dogel Cinema by Endah WS
Justice for all by Masrur Jamaludin

Short Fiction Script Category:
Traffic Jam by Tam Notosusanto
The Visit by Erwin Indrawan

Topics