Jakarta World Cinema Festival Brings Global Mix to Indonesia’s Wide-Eyed Audiences

Operating for only the third time, the Jakarta World Cinema film festival is bringing a diverse slate of global and local pictures to Indonesia’s biggest city.

It kicked off in high style on Saturday with a screening of Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance.” The body horror-fantasy debuted at Cannes and has already proved a popular choice as either opening or closing film at multiple film festivals. In Jakarta, it got a reaction, extracting shrieks, gasps and applause from the opening night crowd.

Earlier, in a breezy ceremony, complete with dancers replicating some of “The Substance’s” fitness moves, audiences had been told that organizers had assembled a lineup of just over a hundred titles.

In a country, where cinema is popular, but a class of risk-taking indie distributors is an industry sector has yet to be fully developed, that is a significant number. Instead, JWC has a close relationship with KlikFilm, a local video streaming service that picks up rights to imported and local films. In addition to providing the event with logistical support, the company uses the festival as a testing ground that helps it decide which films might merit a theatrical release and which should upload straight-to-streaming.

Indonesia is one of the relatively few countries in Asia where cinema box office has recovered from the COVID era and is once again on a growth track. Expansion is powered by cinema building, a growing local production industry and youthful demographics.

“I never thought we’d see the day when a film like ‘The Substance’ would be shown on the big screen in Indonesia for the general audience. It’s an incredible achievement and a testament to how far we’ve come in fostering a love for global cinema,” said the festival’s steering committee member and leading producer-writer-director Ifa Isfansyah.

The JWC festival’s lineup includes Jia Zhangke’s “Caught by the Tides,” Guan Hu’s “Black Dog,” Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour,” Payal Kapadia’s “All That We Imagine as Light,” Magnus von Horn’s “The Girl With the Needle,” Wang Xiaoshuai’s “Above the Dust” and French Oscar contender “Emilia Perez.”

“In addition to expanding the variety of segments, it’s always important to introduce different stories and social commentary to our local audience, who actually have a strong interest and broad market for global cinema,” said program director Daniel Irawan.

International guests included Lin Jianjie, Chinese director of “A Brief History of a Family,” and Selman Nacar, director of recent Venice selection “Hesitation Wound.”

The festival runs Sept. 21-28 at the CGV Grand Indonesia multiplex in downtown Jakarta.