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ndonesia’s answer to the Academy Awards, the Indonesian Film Festival (FFI), has returned for its 2018 iteration with some tweaks and tuning from last year’s edition.

This year’s theme, “Finding the Masterpiece: Quality is the Limit”, reflects the FFI’s quest to discover the finest productions offered by Indonesia’s diverse film industry.

One of the changes for the FFI is the creation of a committee that would operate year-round, as opposed to only on the night of the awards ceremony.

For a three-year period from 2018 to 2020, actor and director Lukman Sardi will serve as chairman of the FFI committee, along with Catherine Keng as secretary, Edwin Nazir for finance and business development, Lasja F. Susatyo for programming, Coki Singgih at the helm of communications and Nia Dinata heading the judging team.

“This is a great breakthrough for us all, because when we talk about festivals, it’s all about quality [...] These committee departments will also have their own staff who will implement their plans. We designed all of these so that after three years, they [new committee members] would only have to follow in our footsteps,” Lukman said.

He added that this year’s judging system would not differ too much from last year’s, as the committee felt that the previous system was sufficient enough in involving film associations.

“Every association will recommend films to the judging team, and they do not need to register. Every movie that was shown in theaters from Oct. 1 last year to Sept. 30 this year will be eligible for selection,” Lukman said, adding that each association typically recommended 20 to 25 films.

This year’s selection period started on Tuesday and will end on Oct. 25, after which nominations for all 23 categories will be announced on Nov. 6.

A new requirement for feature-length movies to be nominated was also introduced, where the film must receive a certification from the Film Censorship Board (LSF).

A minor controversy surrounded the film Posesif last year, as the movie had yet to receive an official censorship certificate by the time the nominations were announced. As films without certificates were allowed in a bid for inclusivity that year, Posesif went on to land Best Supporting Actor and Best Director.

Lukman said the FFI would also start recognizing film critics this year.

“Of course, film critique is important, so we thought that we should help train film critics to offer filmmakers proper feedback,” Lukman said, noting that details for the film critic category would be announced on the FFI’s social media accounts.

After last year’s stint in Manado, North Sulawesi, the 2018 FFI will return to Jakarta for its annual awards ceremony this December.

While the exact date for the event has yet to be announced, the ceremony is scheduled to take place in Teater Besar hall at the Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central Jakarta.

According to Lukman, the FFI’s return to Jakarta was influenced by the number of industry people who are based in Jakarta.

“It’s not that the other regions are not important, but [staging] the ceremony in the capital would help with the organizing process. There is also the budget concern of bringing hundreds of people from Jakarta to another location, so it’s more about practicality,” he said.

However, Lukman stressed that film fans and industry players living outside Jakarta would not be forgotten, as the FFI planned to offer programs and workshops in various locations.