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.