Singaporean director Ang Geck Geck Priscilla’s “Ah Girl” will open the sixth Jakarta Film Week, set for Oct. 21–25, and Yosep Anggi Noen’s “The Sea Speaks His Name” (“Laut Bercerita”) will close the festival in its Indonesian premiere. The program was unveiled Sept. 23 at a press conference at CGV Grand Indonesia, where Jakarta Deputy Governor Rano Karno and the Ministry of Culture’s Ahmad Mahendra joined the festival team. This year’s edition carries the theme Encounters, succeeding 2025’s Reignite.
Encounters is a reflection of that meeting point,” said festival director Rina Damayanti. The Global Feature Competition lines up Jane Schoenbrun’s “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” Markus Schleinzer’s “Rose,” Nagahisa Makoto’s “Burn,” Rafael Manuel’s “Filipiñana” and Abdallah Al-Khatib’s “Chronicles from the Siege.” The Currents strand includes Alice Winocour’s “Couture,” Karim Aïnouz’s “Rosebush Pruning” and Leyla Bouzid’s “In a Whisper,” and Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia” is also on the program. On the Indonesian side, Yogi S.
Calam’s “Togel” and Andrew Kose’s “Harga Teman” will premiere in the Direction Award section, which also features Luki Herwanayogi’s “Our Son” and Bernardus Raka’s “Nobody Loves Kay.” Kamila Andini’s Indonesian Oscar hopeful “Four Seasons in Java,” a co-production spanning Indonesia, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, plays in the Global Feature Official Selection. That section also has Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s “9 Temples to Heaven,” Pete Ohs’ “Erupcja” and Sarah Arnold’s “Too Many Beasts.” Four titles come out of Next Step Studio, a joint Indonesia–France initiative: “Holy Crowd,” from Reza Fahriyansyah and Ananth Subramaniam; “Annisa,” from Reza Rahadian and Sam Manacsa; “Original Wound,” from Shelby Kho and Sein Lyan Tun; and “Mothers Are Mothering,” from Khozy Rizal and Lam Li Shuen. On the industry side, JFWNET returns with a Producers Lab, Pitching Forum, Talents Hub, Industry Talk and Festival Meeting.
The Producers Lab has picked 10 up-and-coming local producers, drawn from Jakarta, West Sumatra, West Java, Central Java and Kalimantan. The Pitching Forum slate covers genres including horror and animation, with producers looking for local and overseas partners. Talents Hub participants were put forward by Minikino Film Week, Mollucas Film Festival, Craft Animfest and Layar Indonesiana locally, and by CinemaWorld Singapore, the Philippines’ QCinema International Film Festival and Vietnam’s Autumn Meeting internationally.
The program is designed to feed participants into initiatives such as Goedam, BIFAN Fantastic School and Platform Busan, with support also available toward Cannes. JFWNET is also working with Cerita Anak Nusantara, a Netflix-backed contest seeking story pitches for kids’ and family content, organized with the Indonesian Film Producers Association (APROFI) and the Indonesian Film Board (BPI). Ten projects from cities around the country will pitch during the festival.
Each year, this ecosystem continues to expand and welcome new faces,” said Gayatri Nadya, the festival’s head of industry. Industry partners include Netflix, ACFM Platform Busan, the Cannes Film Market’s Short Film Corner, the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum, HKIFF Industry, QCinema and the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. For general audiences, the Emergency Broadcast and Herstory strands use cinema to open up discussion of current issues, Fantasea joins the international competitions in showcasing current trends in world cinema, and Family Time offers screenings aimed at all ages.
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