Malam penghargaan ARKIPEL The Damned of the Earth – 13th Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival tidak sekadar menjadi penanda berakhirnya festival. Di ruang penutupan, nama-nama filem dan pembuatnya disebut satu per satu, sementara selama beberapa hari sebelumnya layar telah mempertemukan penonton dengan berbagai bentuk kekerasan, ingatan, keterasingan, dan kemungkinan baru dalam melihat dunia.

Mengusung tema The Damned of the Earth, ARKIPEL tahun ini kembali menempatkan sinema bukan sekadar sebagai medium untuk bercerita, tetapi sebagai ruang untuk mempertanyakan cara manusia melihat dan mengetahui.

Malam penghargaan dibuka dengan Peransi Award yang dibacakan Manshur Zikri. Penghargaan bagi sutradara di bawah 30 tahun ini diberikan kepada Find One Who Was Not Born Of Woman That One Is Your Father (2025) karya Mokhammed Aldridi dari Suriah. Juri menyoroti keberanian filem tersebut bereksperimen dengan bahasa sinema dan mengusik cara penonton memahami citra serta pengetahuan.

Dari Suriah, perhatian beralih ke Thailand. Jury Award, yang dibacakan Afrian Purnama, diberikan kepada Local Sensation (2026) karya Tulapop Saenjaroen. Filem ini dipilih karena ekspresi visualnya yang unik dan personal, sekaligus kemampuannya mempertahankan lokalitas sebagai bagian dari pengalaman estetis dan posisi kritis pembuat filem.

Catatan khusus kemudian diberikan kepada Afternoon Hearsay (2025) karya Peng Zuqiang dari China. Melalui pembacaan Alia Damaihati, juri menyoroti bagaimana filem tersebut mengolah materialitas sinema dan sejarah politik arsip melalui format 8.75mm, gambar yang terfragmentasi, dan suara yang imersif. Sementara Forum Lenteng Award, penghargaan untuk filem yang dipilih oleh anggota-anggota Forum Lenteng diberikan oleh filem Indonesia berjudul Sie… (2024) karya Yosef Levi.

Lalu tiba pada penghargaan yang ditunggu-tunggu.

ARKIPEL Award diberikan kepada And the Fish Fly Above Our Heads karya Dima Adib El Horr (2025) dari Lebanon, yang dibacakan Wregas Bhanuteja. Filem ini membawa penonton pada kehidupan manusia yang berhadapan dengan perang dan krisis berkepanjangan. Alih-alih menjadikan mereka sekadar representasi korban, filem membangun hubungan intim antara pembuat filem, subjek, kamera, ruang, dan waktu.

Namun, ketika daftar penghargaan hampir selesai, malam itu justru membuka satu ingatan baru. Hafiz Rancajale mendeklarasikan Aditya Award, penghargaan baru yang dibuat untuk mengenang Yuki Aditya.

Hal tersebut membuat penutupan ARKIPEL terasa bukan hanya sebagai akhir, melainkan sebagai upaya meneruskan sesuatu yang pernah dikerjakan. Nama seseorang yang telah tiada ditempatkan dalam sebuah penghargaan, agar ingatan tidak berhenti sebagai nostalgia, tetapi menjadi bagian dari perjalanan festival dan ekosistem sinema yang terus bergerak.

Malam pun berakhir. Filem-filem telah selesai diputar, penghargaan telah diberikan, dan layar perlahan gelap. Tetapi ARKIPEL meninggalkan satu hal yang tidak ikut padam: pertanyaan tentang bagaimana kita melihat, siapa yang diberi ruang untuk terlihat, dan bagaimana sinema menjaga ingatan ketika sebuah peristiwa telah berlalu.

ARKIPEL 2026 selesai. Tetapi seperti filem yang terus hidup di kepala setelah layar gelap, percakapannya belum benar-benar berakhir.

The Awarding Night for ARKIPEL The Damned of the Earth—the 13th Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival was more than just a closure of the festival. In the closing ceremony, the titles of the films and the names of their directors were announced one by one, while over the preceding days, the screen had introduced audiences to various forms of violence, memory, alienation, and new ways of seeing the world.

With the theme “The Damned of the Earth,” this year’s ARKIPEL once again positioned cinema not merely as a medium for storytelling, but as a space to question the ways in which humans perceive and understand the world.

The ceremony began with the Peransi Award, announced by Manshur Zikri. This award for directors under 30 was presented to Find One Who Was Not Born Of Woman That One Is Your Father (2025) by Mokhammed Aldridi of Syria. The jury highlighted the film’s boldness in experimenting with the language of cinema and challenging the way audiences understand imagery and knowledge.

From Syria, attention turned to Thailand. The Jury Award, announced by Afrian Purnama, was presented to Local Sensation (2026) by Tulapop Saenjaroen. The film was selected for its unique and personal visual expression, as well as its ability to preserve local identity as part of the aesthetic experience and the filmmaker’s critical stance.

Special mention was then given to Afternoon Hearsay (2025) by Peng Zuqiang from China. Through Alia Damaihati’s analysis, the jury highlighted how the film explores the materiality of cinema and the political history of archives through the 8.75mm format, fragmented imagery, and immersive sound. Meanwhile, the Forum Lenteng Award—an award for a film selected by Forum Lenteng members—was presented to the Indonesian film Sie… (2024) by Yosef Levi.

Then came the long-awaited award.

The ARKIPEL Award was presented to And the Fish Fly Above Our Heads by Dima Adib El Horr (2025) from Lebanon, as announced by Wregas Bhanuteja. This film takes viewers into the lives of people facing war and prolonged crises. Rather than portraying them merely as victims, the film establishes an intimate connection between the filmmaker, the subjects, the camera, space, and time.

As the list of awards was nearing completion, the evening actually brought to light a new memory. Hafiz Rancajale announced the Aditya Award, a new award created to honor the memory of Yuki Aditya. This made the closing of ARKIPEL feel not merely like an ending, but rather an effort to carry on the work that had been done. The name of someone who is no longer with us was enshrined in an award, so that the memory would not remain merely as nostalgia, but would become part of the festival’s journey and the ever-evolving cinematic ecosystem.

The evening came to an end. The films had finished screening, the awards had been presented, and the screen slowly went dark. But ARKIPEL left behind one thing that refused to fade: questions about how we see, who is given space to be seen, and how cinema preserves memory once an event has passed.

ARKIPEL 2026 has concluded. But just as a film continues to live on in our minds after the screen goes out, the conversation has not truly ended.