Many prestigious film festivals in Indonesia present as a form of appreciation and motivation for young people to produce competitive local films. But, before discussing the prestigious film festival awards in Indonesia, did you know that the Indonesian film world has enormous potential for economic revival?

Welcoming National Film Day on March 30 would be incomplete if we did not discuss the achievements of the Indonesian film industry. The film industry is one of the sub-sectors of the creative economy experiencing rapid growth.

According to data in the Indonesian Tourism and Creative Economy Outlook 2023/2024, the number of Indonesian film viewers in cinemas exceeded expectations or reached a record high, namely around 54 million viewers in 2022. This number surpassed the achievements in 2019, reaching only 52 million viewers.

The latest success story in the Indonesian film industry is the "Agak Laen" movie. It was released in 2024 and became a massive hit, reaching the second spot in the Indonesian box office with over 7 million viewers. This success demonstrates that the film sub-sector is an attractive market with ample opportunities for further growth.

There is a prestigious film festival awards event in Indonesia to support Indonesian film people. The existence of various film festivals will encourage people in the creative economy, especially the film sub-sector, to produce the best and most competitive works.

For more details, here are the awarding events for prestigious film festivals in Indonesia:

FFI (Piala Citra)

If you follow the development of Indonesian films, you are undoubtedly familiar with the Indonesian Film Festival (FFI) or more familiar with the name "Piala Citra" (Citra Cup). According to festivalfilm.id, the word "Citra" is taken from the title of a poem created by Usmar Ismail on September 20, 1943, in Malang. Until now, the Piala Citra is still one of the prestigious film awarding events in Indonesia.

One reason is that the FFI or Citra Cup symbolizes Indonesia's highest supremacy of cinema. This awarding event can ignite the fire of enthusiasm for Indonesian film people. Thus, they will always be enthusiastic about creating the best quality Indonesian films and be competitive at home and abroad.

Photo: Illustration of local filmmaking (Shutterstock/Frame Stock Footage)

Bandung Film Festival

Another prestigious Indonesian film awards event is the Bandung Film Festival (FFB). As the name suggests, FFB is a film festival awards event formed by the Bandung Film Forum. The aim is to create a form of appreciation for the work and achievements of national film personnel.

The Bandung Film Festival has been on the list of film awards events in Indonesia for quite a long time, since 1987. Uniquely, the FFB does not directly mention the "Best" or "Most Favorite" categories like other award events. On the other hand, it gives the title "Praiseworthy" in each award category.

Indonesia Movie Actor Award

The Indonesia Movie Actor Award (IMA Award) is an annual event first held in 2007. No less popular than other prestigious award events, the IMA Award is a form of appreciation to all film industry people for the works they have created, be it for the actors, actresses, or the best films.

This awards event gives a trophy called the "Piala Layar Emas" (Golden Screen Cup). The winner is determined based on two categories: the best selected by the jury and the most favorite winner chosen directly by the Indonesian people.

Piala Maya 

Slightly different from other awards events, the "Piala Maya" (Maya Cup) was formed by Indonesian film fans through the X (Twitter) account "@FILM_Indonesia", and was first held offline in 2012 in Jakarta. The Piala Maya awards event has four fields competing for awards: the Film and Video Clip Field, the Film and Scriptwriting Field, the Technical Field, and the Acting Field.

Monthly Film Festival 

Another prestigious film awards event in Indonesia that is no less popular is the Monthly Film Festival. The Monthly Film Festival is a national film awards event, especially indie films, part of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy/Tourism and Creative Economy Agency (Kemenparekraf/Baparekraf) program.

During its two years of implementation, the Monthly Film Festival has received around 15,000 film submissions from 1,200 film communities in various regions of Indonesia. Interestingly, the six best films from the 2023 Monthly Film Festival have the opportunity to be screened at the 2024 Film Market Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France.

Cover: llustration of popular and best film festivals in Indonesia (Shutterstock/Jag_cz)