Yes, the Jakarta International Film Festival (Jiffest) has ended, but one question remains: Will we see the event again next year?

It is a question on the mind of everyone who knows of the financial difficulties that have almost put an end to the annual festival, known as the country’s biggest international annual film event.

Two months before the event, the organizer of the festival shocked the public by announcing that this year’s festival might be postponed due to a lack of Rp 1.5 billion (US$ 166,500) in the budget from the estimated Rp 2.5 billion needed.

In a desperate call, the organizer then launched a “Save Jiffest” movement, pleading people to make donations to cover the shortfalls.

Despite huge support from the public that was generated more than Rp 200 million within two weeks, the event still could not

run, knowing that the amount was hardly enough to support the one-week festival. Until support from major cell phone producer Nokia came and saved the day.

Covering more than a third of the total budget, the Finland-based manufacturer helped the organizer to run the event that entered its 12th year in 2010.

Overall, the festival was deemed a success despite its financial problems, still managing to amuse
movie buffs across the country with award-winning films screened during the festival.

“The film selection is good. It still showed high quality films even though it suffered budget deficits. This did not seem to affect the films presented,” said 26-year old Ferdi Salim, an audience member
of the event that lasted from Nov. 25 to Dec. 3.

A line of good films such as Waiting for Superman, Biutiful and award-winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives were among the highlight films of the festival.

 

Almost extinct: Indonesian filmmakers Riri Riza (left) and Mira Lesmana give a speech at the 11th edition of the Jakarta International film festival at the Blitz Megaplex Grand Indonesia last year. JP/J. Adiguna Getting these movies on the local screen is regarded as an achievement, realizing that the collections are on high demands among international film festivals around the world.

Local movie directors have also praised this year’s Jiffest movie selection.

“The movies are still great. I don’t see that the lack of fund impacted on the films’ quality,” local documentary director Ucu Agustin said.

She also lauded the organizer for being able to have an almost balanced proportion between fiction and documentaries for the first time in this year’s event.

Jiffest festival director Lalu Roismari told The Jakarta Post that it was the main intention from the film organizer to maintain film quality despite the financial hurdles.

“The limited funds have allowed us to become more selective in choosing films. We never want to sacrifice content. We still give the audience the films they have been waiting for,” Lalu said.

Lalu added that the impact of the financial problem only took into account the number of movies being screened. The organizer had to cut from 150 films to only 91, less than 110 movies at last year’s event.

But even good films cannot hide the real problems. A lot of disappointment came from the audience.

Loyal movie buffs have admitted that they did not feel the same strong enthusiasm and passion present during this year’s festival.

Different from the previous event, the organizer decided not to choose any specific theme for the festival this year but chose to dedicate the event for the public and select “And Jiffest for All” as a theme as an appreciation for all people that had given support for this year’s event.

However, film director Yosep Anggi Noen felt that the organizer had failed to meet the mission.

“It feels somehow very luxurious. The selection of the venue in a fancy mall, where you can see displays of expensive car brands like Maserati or Ferrari, means it is not very down to earth. I would feel much more comfortable if it was held in a small theater,” said the director who has participated in Jiffest since 2006.

But putting the nostalgic feeling aside, a number of audience members showed more disappointment toward festival management.

“They make sudden changes in the schedule and there are some tickets that cannot be exchanged,” media freelancer Galih Wismoyo, 26 said.

Movie buff Ferdi also said he encountered the same experience as Galih, as he had to face a sudden cancellation on movie screenings a few times.

“The organizer finally decided to make an exclusive preview one day after the festival ended as a compensation for the audience,” the man, who works as a freelancer, said.

Time to kill: People queue to enter one of the cinema theaters during the film festival. But apart from positive and negative things happened during the festivals, everyone still hopes that Jiffest will last forever.

“Hopefully, Jiffest will still be running next year, because it is the only festival in Indonesia where we can watch films that are not screened in the public theaters,” Ferdi said.

But with the prolonged financial difficulties that attack festival management, no one is sure whether Jiffest will continue in the long run as in the end it is money that will do the talking.

Many believe that the current financial affair has put Jiffest’s reputation as the country’s biggest film festival under threat, especially with the appearance of a series of festivals in the country such as the Bali International Film Festival or the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival in Yogyakarta that has begun stealing the public’s attention.

“It is difficult for us, because in major film festivals abroad, they are all supported by the government.

Almost 60 percent of funding comes from the government. But we cannot do that here,” Lalu said, explaining major challenges in festival management.

Therefore, Lalu said the festival management must have a number of plans to raise funds for next year’s festival because they realized it would be useless to count on the government, which had not yet prioritized the arts.

The big plan is to find additional and sustainable sources of revenue for management. Therefore, Lalu said Jiffest would run a number of events or operations that could generate money aside from sponsorship. Among those plans, Lalu says, are running a distribution unit for imported films for local theaters, managing smaller and thematic film festivals and holding master classes with international speakers in the movie industry.

When asked if Jakarta would have another film festival next year, however, Lalu could not give a definite answer.

“That’s what we want. We will try…Hopefully,” Lalu told the Post in a recent interview.