JiFFest opens film competition

For the first time since it was established five years ago, the Jakarta International Film Festival (JiFFest) is holding a short documentary film competition for local filmmakers.

JiFFest has become the alternative venue for movie buffs, with the festival annually screening dozens of quality movies from around the globe that never made it into local cinemas.

Now in its fifth year, the committee of JiFFest is calling for Indonesians to take part in the competition. Entries will be closed on July 31.

To enter, films must be between 15 minutes and 30 minutes in length and they must have been made between January 2001 and July 2003.

The films should be in VHS format and sent in a sealed envelope with the words "short documentary film competition" written in the upper left-hand corner. Also, a completed form downloaded from http://www.jiffest.com/competition must be included in the envelope.

Entries should be sent to JiFFest at Jl. Sutan Syahrir 1C, Blok 3-4, Menteng, Jakarta 10350.

Finalists will be selected by a three-person jury: Visual anthropologist Tanete Adrianus Pong, the head of the Trans TV news department, Riza Primadi, and the director of the Singapore International Film Festival, Philip Cheah.

The films that make it past the first stage of selection will be announced during a media conference on Sept. 10. The nominees will then go through another selection stage during JiFFest 2003 from Oct. 8 to Oct. 20.

The winners will be announced on the closing night of JiFFest on Oct. 20.

For more information call Roisamri or Rizhka at (021) 9238364, fax at (021) 325360 or email at film_competition@cbn.net. id. --JP