The Road to Celebrating Indonesia’s Film Industry: Here are the Nominees!

Last night (10/10) I received the opportunity to attend this year’s Citra Award Indonesian Film Festival Nominee Announcement Night 2021 through Zoom.

The event was broadcasted live from Dome Park Senayan by their official streaming service partner, Vidio. This year the event was organized by the Indonesian Film Festival Committee headed by actor and one of the nominees for Best Leading Actor, Reza Rahadian.

Head of the 2021 FFI Judging Division, Garin Nugroho, states in his opening speech that this year’s movie selection judging system was carried out with three important aspects in mind: respect for the film profession organization with a basic judging process carried out through the associations of the film profession, the final judging system to choose the best winner using the previous jury system established by the FFI, and wider community participation for categories film critics and the audience’s favorite category of films, actors, and actresses.

Mr Nugroho stated that the Judging Committee is enthusiastic and satisfied this year’s selection for being able to showcase a myriad of different themes, genres, visuals, and also the emergence of new names appearing on the list of nominees.

“This describes the tenacity of Indonesian filmmakers who continue to grow in different ways even in the era of the pandemic, it’s not easy.” said Mr Nugroho.

The movies nominated for Best Full-Length Film include: Ali & Ratu Ratu Queens, Bidadari Mencari Sayap, Cinta Bete, Paranoia, Penyalin Cahaya, Preman, and Yuni. Meanwhile, the movies nominated for Best Short Film include:

You can see the full list of nominations here.

The nominations for the 22 FFI Citra Cup award categories were announced by four ambassadors from FFI 2021: Tissa Biani, Jefri Nichol, Angga Yunanda, a Pndrilly Latuconsina.

Penyalin Cahaya received the largest number of nominations, being included in 17 categories, Ali & Ratu Ratu Queens came in close with 16 nominations. Yuni — a movie that was recently featured in the Toronto International Film Festival 2021— received 14 nominations in total, including Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Leading Actress.

The FFI added four new categories for this year’s nominations, which are Film Review, Favorite Film, Favorite Actor, and Favorite Actress as voted for by audiences and film enthusiasts alike.

Director General of Culture, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and
Technology (Kemendikburistek), Hilmar Farid, congratulated the works that passed the selection.

“”This the second time The 2021 FFI Awards are held in the midst of a Covid-19 pandemic . Nevertheless, the Indonesian film industry is still struggling to
produce their best works despite the limitations.” said Mr Farid.

The winners will be announced on The Citra Trophy Award Night for the Indonesian Film Festival that will be held on November 10, 2021 which will be broadcast live online through the YouTube account of the Indonesian Film Festival, the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, and My Culture.