The Indonesian government has sacked a senior official after it emerged that the Tourism Ministry sent a delegation to the Berlinale that had no connection to the film industry.

The scandal was exposed by filmmaker Joko Anwar who tweeted that young Indonesians selected for the festival and Berlinale Talent Campus were not able to attend: “They surely have more urgency to head [to Berlin] than those names in [the ministry’s list]. But a proposal to help finance their ticket purchases was not approved.”

Indonesia’s director for film industry development, Armein Firmansyah, was fired and the delegation recalled – resulting in an empty booth at the Marriott this week.

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