Indonesian film tops Cambodian festival

Indonesian film tops Cambodian festival

PHNOM PENH (DPA): The Indonesian film Bulan Tertusuk Ilalang
(... And the moon dances) was awarded the Golden Apsara prize at
Cambodia's first biennial Southeast Asian Film Festival, which
ended late Saturday with a gala dinner and prize ceremony at the
royal palace in Phnom Penh.

Cambodia's Queen Norodom Monineath Sihanouk presented the
award to actress Paquita Widjaja, whose film edged out Thai
Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukhon's Sai Dai 1 , which was awarded a
Silver Apsara award by the jury.

Special prizes were awarded to Laotian director Som-Ok
Southipong's Boa Deng (The Red Lotus) and to Malaysian director
U-Wei Bin Haji Saari's film, Kaki Bakar.

Twelve films by Southeast Asian directors were in contention
for the awards.

French actor Alain Delon, better known in Cambodia for his
endorsement of a popular brand of cigarettes, failed to arrive as
scheduled for the week-long film festival, but other stars
present included French actresses Valerie Kaprisky and Anne
Parillaud, along with Indonesian actress Christine Hakim.

Organizers hope the film festival has helped foster greater
contact between Southeast Asian filmmakers and their Western
counterparts, and help boost Cambodia's nascent film industry,
which has suffered due to decades of civil war.