Awarding and Closing Night of Festival Film Dokumenter 2018

— Newsletter
FFD 2018
12

The annual Festival Film Dokumenter (FFD) in the year 2018 is officially ended last night (12/12) at Societet Militair Taman Budaya Yogyakarta. Began on the December  5th until December 12th, 2018, FFD has been held with a series of agendas including film screening program, competition film screening, discussion, the launch of new program, film critic workshop, and exhibitions in two locations: Taman Budaya Yogyakarta and IFI-LIP Yogyakarta.

The awarding and closing night were FFD’s last agenda, which has been held since last Wednesday (12/5). Located at Societet Militair, Taman Budaya Yogyakarta. The event began with an opening remark delivered by FFD 2018 Program Director, Sazkia Noor Anggraini. In her greeting, Sazkia said that throughout eight days of the event, 94 films have been screened in 19 programs. Since 2002 until now, FFD consistently receiving films for competition programs.

The greeting was continued with Sarah Camara, the director of IFI-LIP. “After 16 years, FFD that was held at IFI-LIP didn’t stop to offer qualified program to the audience with a thematic and various way, thus open bigger opportunities in documentary making,” she said.

Through this opportunity, AsiaDoc also grant appreciation in the form of Akatara Award, presented by Amerta Kusuma as the representative of Forum Film Dokumenter. AsiaDoc is a program of Forum Film Dokumenter, the collective that held Festival Film Dokumenter. AsiaDoc is a medium for documentary script development for Asian filmmakers. Out of 12 participants, the award was given to the script of The Ant vs. The Elephant, by Linda Nursanti, an Indonesian participant.

The main event of this awarding night was the awardee announcement of the three competition categories, presented by Henricus Pria Setiawan as the director of Forum Film Dokumenter. In this moment, Henricus mentioned that film competition is a platform for filmmakers to share their perspective and critical view towards the issues around them. This year, FFD received 118 in feature-length category from various countries, 100 films in short category from Indonesia’s filmmakers, and 23 films in student category from Indonesian students.

The following are the awardees of Festival Film Dokumenter 2018:

The Best Student Documentary Award bestowed upon Tarian Kehidupan (2018) by Naira Capah and Fauzam Syam Adiya. Alexander Matius, one of the juries in the category said a few notes for the finalists. According to the juries, generally, the topics chosen in this student category are diverse and interesting, but still requires focus, directness, and effectiveness in a deeper documentary. “The winner was chosen because they were successful in responding the nearby issue and done in an explorative and interesting approach. In addition to an appealing and appropriate picture, the filmmakers also paid attention to the sound played throughout the movie,” he added.

This year, there are no winner in the short category. Adrian Jonathan Pasaribu, as the representative of the juries, delivered a few notes regarding the participants: “The juries found similarities in the storytelling style, and inadequate exploration of cinema narrative in the five nominated films. All of them have an interesting topic, but still unable to deliver the story thoroughly. The filmmakers also need to consider the exploration of narrating style in the creative process. Therefore, the Best Short Documentary Award this year will not be granted,” he explained. However, the juries decided to grant another award, the Special Mention, to the film The Nameless Boy (2017) by Diego Batara. This was based on the consideration that The Nameless Boy is the only one to attempt a different storytelling style; although this film still needs to strengthen the way they’re delivering the issue chosen.

The Best International Feature-Length Competition Award presented to the Philippine film, In The Claws of Century Wanting (2017) by Jewel Maranan. Representing the juries who were unable to attend the awarding night, Amerta Kusuma delivered a jury note for the winner of Feature-Length Competition Award. This film captured the reality of the people who live bravely despite living in the verge from access to their livelihood. The other side of reality is presented through the director’s ambitions and obsessive point of view and radical editing.

As the closing, festival director of FFD 2018, Ukky Satya Nugrahani delivered things that need to be underlined in this year’s FFD. First thing, the existence of this festival as a discussion space and meeting point of various discourses and vision will not exist without the enthusiasm of many parties. The next thing, evaluation will continue both in the organization and festival committees and every program carried out this year or later on, FFD will be more specific in targeting the audience so the program will hit right on target.

This closing night also play a screening from the winner of student documentary category after all the winner has been announced. The film screened is from The Province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Indonesia, titled Tarian Kehidupan (2018) directed by Naira Capah and Fauzam Syam Adiya. This 17-minute film tells the story of a junior high school student who has to make dancing as his source of economic support.

FFD 2018 Competition Awards


Jury Special Mention FFD

The Nameless Boy

Diego Batara


Best Student Documentary FFD

Tarian Kehidupan

Naira Capah dan Fauzam Syam Adiya


Best Feature-Length Documentary FFD

In The Claws of Century Wanting

Jewel Maranan