The runaway win of Kucumbu Tumbuh Indahku (Memories of My Body) at the 39th Indonesian Film Festival (FFI) awards night on Sunday proves that changes have come to the longest-running body of national film selection.

The film, which was directed and written by Garin Nugroho, won eight of the prestigious Citra Awards, including Garin’s first win as a director at the festival, out of 12 nominations.

The film’s nomination in the Best Picture category, along with 27 Steps of May, Dua Garis Biru (Two Blue Stripes) and Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind), in itself was an unexpected move if not because the current festival committee and judges had stopped “playing it safe”.

The current committee, which was tasked with holding the festival from 2018 to 2020, had changed the format of selecting and judging to ensure the quality of the film selected at the festival.

The nomination task was handed to the different associations of film professionals, while the judges, or FFI members, were given the job of selecting the winner at the festival, which was first held in 1955.

“As in every aspect of life, as well as at all awards events, the main issue that has to be dealt with and carefully responded to is change. The digital revolution is the primary determining factor of the changes in the two pillars of filmmaking: technology and knowledge. It also changes the esthetics in films,” said committee chairman Lukman Sardi.

“The new paradigm certainly has affected our way of managing the festival and selecting the films,” he added.

This year, the festival set five new criteria for selection, including the principles of diversity, defined in the FFI 2019 catalog as: “Films with sensitivity to the principles of diversity; firmly depicting the inclusive culture in Indonesia’s diversity”.

Kucumbu, which was selected to represent Indonesia at the 2020 Academy Awards, revolves around a young man from a dance troupe that performs Lengger Lanang, a folk dance from Central Java in which men often take both male and female roles. The movie is based on the real story of Tokyo-based dancer/choreographer Rianto, who was abused as a child and endured traumatic experiences and violence while looking for his sexual identity. Rianto himself narrates and appears in the film.

The film was involved in the controversy surrounding its theatrical run early this year due to its homoerotic nature and was banned in several regions including in Depok, West Java, and Palembang, South Sumatra.

27 Steps of May talks about sexual abuse, Dua Garis Biru follows two families dealing with teen pregnancy, while Bumi Manusia is an adaptation of Pramudya Ananta Toer’s novel which had been banned during the New Order regime over fear of spreading the teaching of Marxism-Leninism.

Many noteworthy events took place at the FFI 2019 awards night on Dec. 9, including the last-minute appearance of the newly installed Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim to announce and hand over the Citra Award for Best Picture, received by producer Ifa Isfansyah of Yogyakarta-based Fourcolours Films.

In his speech, producer Ifa expressed hope that the win would bring “freedom” to the creative work of filmmakers.

“Independence is the inalienable right of all creators, therefore colonialism must be abolished in all works of art as it is not in conformity with humanity and justice,” he said in reference to the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution.

Newcomer actor Muhammad Khan shared the Best Actor award for his role as lead protagonist Juno in Kucumbu with iconic Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan.

“He inspired me to become an actor,” he said before singing his hero’s 1998 song “Mere Mehboob Mere Sanam” on stage.

Stage actor Whani Dharmawan, who played Juno’s love interest in Kucumbu, won Best Supporting Actor, while Cut Mini won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Dua Garis Biru.

Raihaanun won Best Actress for her role in 27 Steps of May, while scriptwriter Gina S. Noer took home both trophies for Best Adaptation Script (Keluarga Cemara) and Best Original Script (Dua Garis Biru).

Produced by Visinema Pictures, Keluarga Cemara also won Best Soundtrack with its 1989 television series theme song “Harta Berharga”.

For the first time the festival gave a Lifetime Achievement award, which this year was handed to actress Ade Irawan, who was unable to attend due to illness. The award was accepted by her daughter Dewi Irawan, also an actress.

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