The Citra Award for Best Actor (Indonesian: ) is an award given at the Indonesian Film Festival (FFI) to Indonesian

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

s for their achievements in leading roles. The Citra Awards, described by ''

Screen International ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global film business. ...

'' as "Indonesia's equivalent to the

Oscars The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

", are the country's most prestigious

film award Film award is a cinematic award which can be awarded in several categories. Unlike the film festival, the film award is not accompanied by a public screening of competitive films. Film awards are usually awarded based on the results of a secret vot ...

s and are intended to recognize achievements in films as well as to draw public interest to the film industry.

Gunawan Maryanto Gunawan Maryanto (10 April 1976 – 6 October 2021) was an Indonesian author and theatre director. He was born in Yogyakarta. Aside from managing Teater Garasi, he also organised the yearly Indonesian Dramatic Reading Festival with Joned Suryatmok ...

is the most recent winner for his performance in '' The Science of Fictions'' at the 2020 ceremony, winning his first Citra Award nomination.

History

The Citra Awards, then known as the Indonesian Film Festival Awards, were first given in 1955 to two winners without a nomination process:

AN Alcaff Achmad Nungcik Alcaff (17 August 1925 – 22 December 1992) was an Indonesian actor and film director who won the Citra Award for Best Leading Actor at the 1955 Indonesian Film Festival The Indonesian Film Festival ( Indonesian: Festival Film ...

(''

Lewat Djam Malam ''Lewat Djam Malam'' (shown internationally as ''After the Curfew'') is a 1954 Indonesian film directed and produced by Usmar Ismail and written by Asrul Sani. Widely regarded as a classic of Indonesian cinema, the film follows an ex-soldier in ...

'') and A. Hadi (''

Tarmina ''Tarmina'' is a 1954 Indonesian film directed by Lilik Sudjio. It stars Fifi Young, A. Hadi and Endang Kusdiningsih. It received five awards at the first Indonesian Film Festival in 1955, including Best Film, Best Director for Lilik Sudjio, ...

''). The two-way tie, also found in the

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

and

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

categories, was controversial as film critics considered ''Lewat Djam Malam'' the superior film, leading to allegations that

Djamaluddin Malik Djamaluddin Malik (13 February, 1917 – 8 June, 1970) was a prominent Indonesian film producer, politician, entrepreneur. He founded the Jakarta Indonesian company Persari Film. Personal life Malik was born in Padang, West Sumatra. His father ...

had bought ''Tarmina'' prize. Succeeding festivals were held in 1960 and 1967 and annually since 1973. There were no Citra Awards given between 1993 and 2003 due to sharp decline in domestic film production. It was reinstated as an annual event in 2004 after receiving funds from the Indonesian government. Reza Rahadian is the most decorated actor with three awards out of twelve nominations, followed by

Deddy Mizwar Deddy Mizwar (born 5 March 1955) is an Indonesian actor, film director and politician, born of an Indo (Dutch- Betawi) father and Betawi- Bugis mother. He is the Chairman of Indonesia's National Film Advisory Board (''Badan Pertimbangan Perfilman N ...

(three wins out of ten nominations) and Sukarno M. Noor (three wins out of three nominations). Mizwar also holds the distinction of winning Best Actor for playing the same character twice: for ''

Nagabonar ''Nagabonar'' is a 1987 Indonesian epic war comedy film directed by M.T. Risyaf. It was Indonesia's submission to the 60th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee. In 2007, the seque ...

'' in 1987 and its sequel 20 years later ''

Nagabonar Jadi 2 ''Naga Bonar Jadi 2'' (Naga Bonar is Two) is 2007 comedy film directed by Deddy Mizwar. It is starring Deddy Mizwar, Tora Sudiro, Lukman Sardi, Darius Sinathrya and Michael Muliardo. It is a sequel to the Indonesian film ''Nagabonar'' (1987). Sy ...

'' in 2007. Ray Sahetapy received six non-consecutive nominations between 1984 and 1990 (except 1987), but did not win any. Four actors—Mizwar, Rahadian,

Nicholas Saputra Nicholas Saputra Schubring (born 24 February 1984) is an Indonesian actor and film producer. He first rose to prominence as Rangga in the 2002 hit film '' Ada Apa dengan Cinta?'', a role he reprised in ''Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? 2'' in 2016. He ha ...

, and Zainal Abidin—have received multiple nominations in a single year. All four won the award in the year they had double nominations, except for Rahadian's second (in 2015) and third (2020) double nominations, where he lost to Deddy Sutomo and

respectively. Two films—''

'' and '' Warkop DKI Reborn: Jangkrik Boss! Part 1—''earned two lead actors nominations in 2007 and 2016 respectively. Only the former went on to win the award. At the 1980 ceremony, no Best Actor award was given as the jury panel felt none of the nominated performances that year deserved to win.