Grace Hutasoit, a student, said Jakarta needed events like JiFFest just like other major cities around the world.

Such festivals would render the capital more artistic, classy and civilized, she said.

"The festival definitely offers an alternative fare to the public and helps broaden our cinematic experience. We're normally too exposed to Hollywood films," she said.

Grace said she wanted to watch Everlasting Moment, a Swedish film about how photography changes a woman's life of, but ended up watching the German film Jerichow because it was the only film with available tickets.

"I wanted to watch Everlasting Moment after reading a positive review about it. It's about photo-graphy, a topic I'm interested in. I also wanted to watch Around The world with Joseph Stiglitz, but I couldn't get tickets for these films," she said.

Grace did not book in advance because she thought that would require a membership card. She suggested the festival's organizing committee provide a clearer ticketing system.

"The ticketing system is a bit confusing for people new to the festival. It should be better explained," she said.

In fact, the public can buy JiFFest tickets in advance through online reservations or directly from the box office. Online reservations, however, are limited membership cardholders.

Unbeknown to Grace, this information is included in the booklet issued by festival organizers.

Grace said she hoped JiFFest organizer would screen her favorite films more than twice.

"I think the festival should screen films from Arab countries," she said, adding that she supported the decision of the organizer to hold the event in one venue.

Dita Ramadhita, who has been a regular JiFFest attendee for the past four years, said this time she only managed to watch Soundtrack for Revolution, a US documentary on the civil rights movement.

Dita also enjoyed that short films, which were notoriously difficult to find on video, were screened at the JiFFest.

"I think this year's selection has less variety than last year. JiFFest used to have categories such as human rights and women emancipation. I hoped there would be more variety on offer," she said.

Festival director Lalu Roisamri said he realized certain films would be fan favorites, but that film distributors had limited the screening of each film to only two.

"Apart from The Headless Women, At The End of Daybreak, Sang Pemimpi *The Dreamers* and New York, I Love You, other JiFFest films will not be screened in film theaters," he said.

This year's festival, Lalu continued, broke new ground. Organizers had for the first time selected an Indonesian film (Sang Pemimpi) to open the festival.

The festival also had an Islamic film section by Madani Film Festival and a forum discussing film financing.

The audience for each screening reached 70 to 80 percent of maximum capacity as of Friday, according to Lalu.

Among the festival's more popular offerings were Coco Before Chanel, (500) Days of Summer and Departure.

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