'Siti' Wins Top Prize at FFI 2015
Jakarta. "Siti," a black-and-white feature about the struggle of a Javanese woman who is her family's main breadwinner, won three Citra awards, including for best film, at the Film Festival Indonesia gala on Monday night.
Producer Ifa Isfansyah called the top award a "nice homecoming present" for the film, which was released December 2014 and has been screened in more than 20 international film festivals since. Prior to the FFI's Citra awards, the film by Eddie Cahyono also picked up honors for best performer for actress Sekar Sari at the Singapore International Film Festival, best screenplay and cinematography at the Asian New Talent Awards in Shanghai, and special feature mentions in Toronto and Warsaw.
Eddie and Ifa, who co-founded the independent film community Fourcolours Films in 2001, said that while the international response to "Siti" had been great, they never considered showing their low-budget film in Indonesia. According to Ifa, the fact that the FFI jury voted for their film was a sign that the oldest film award in Indonesia was finally starting to recognize independent film production.
"This gives us the confidence to set up a theater release, most likely early next year," Ifa said.
For Eddie, who also won best original screenplay at the awards ceremony, "Siti" is an important tale to voice women's struggles. "I made this movie because I wanted women to have choices," he said.
The film's third award went to Krisna Purna for best musical arrangement.
Other Citra awards this year went to Joko Anwar for best director and Tara Basro for best lead actress ("A Copy of My Mind"); Deddy Soetomo for best lead actor ("Mencari Hilal"); and Jenny Jusuf for best adapted screenplay ("Filosofi Kopi").
Christine Hakim's turn in the martial arts epic "Pendekar Tongkat Emas" won her the best supporting actress gong and Mathias Muchus in "Toba Dreams" won best supporting actor.
"A Copy of My Mind" and "Guru Bangsa Tjokroaminoto" each took three Citra awards. "Tjokroaminoto" won for best cinematography, art direction and costume design. Joko's film won for best sound arrangement.
Producer and scriptwriter Salman Aristo said the nominations this year varied richly, especially in the best film category.
"This is more than just progress for me. I would never imagine I could watch films like 'Siti' and 'A Copy of My Mind' in the best film category," he said.
"Mencari Hilal" director Ismail Basbeth proclaimed 2o15 a good year for Indonesian film.
"Indonesia is represented in major international film festivals worldwide, from Moscow to Toronto, Busan and Venice, and they were curious what suddenly changed in our film industry," he said. "It is a good turning point for Indonesian films and especially the FFI as an institution to set the standard for national production."
Actor and FFI head of media relations Lukman Sardi said the organizing committee was serious about improving the awards show next year.
"We are hoping we can start working to prepare the festival by March at the latest, so we can have more screenings outside Jakarta," he said.
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