Eight Indonesian short films will compete in the 20th annual Festival Sinema Prancis (French Film Festival) in Jakarta next month.

Marc Piton, director of Institut Français d'Indonésie (IFI) expressed his excitement on Thursday for the festival '€“ the longest running foreign film festival in the country '€“ that will run from Dec. 3 to Dec 6.

'€œI am so glad that the festival has been running for 20 years and has remained one of our most important programs of the year,'€ he told journalists.

The festival receives short-film submissions from across the country, each hoping to be chosen as a nominee for the festival. The winner of the short film competition will travel to France to attend the widely respected Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2016 in February.

Piton said that the IFI had received 183 short films spanning various genres including fiction, animation and documentary, and various themes also. The number of entries was double last years' total of 80.

The 8 nominees are Bid & Run from director Gugun Ekalaya, Iblis Jalanan (Street Devil) from Salman Farizi, Iman (Faith) and The Taste of Fences from Sinung Winahyoko, Simbiosis from Wiranata Tanjaya, Sandekala from Amriy Ramadhan, Sleep Tight Maria from Monica Vanessa Tedja and Return to Sender from director Vera Lestafa.

Meinaputri Wismurti, the coordinator of this year's festival, said that 70 percent of submissions came from filmmakers outside Jakarta.

One of the judges, Dimas Jayasrana, said that qualitative judging methods would most likely be used to choose a winner, considering various film elements including narration and aesthetics. (rin)(+)

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