Mouly Surya, Garin Nugroho Projects Receive Indonesian Film Grant

Indonesia has unveiled the four film projects that will be the pilot recipients of the country’s first government-funded film grant, Film Matchfund, at the Cannes Film Festival.

As revealed by Variety, the $13 million annual fund was launched at Cannes 2023 by Nadiem Makarim, Indonesia‘s minister of education, culture, research and technology. It is sourced from the country’s National Cultural Endowment Fund. The 1:1 matching grant scheme from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology is designed to promote international cooperations between filmmakers and is open for international co-production projects with Indonesia and for story development and research, production, post-production or internal promotion and distribution incentives.

The qualified films are “This City Is a Battlefield” by Mouly Surya, produced by Rama Adi and Fauzan Zidni, with Cinesurya as the production company; Tumpal Tampubolon’s “Crocodile Tears,” produced by Mandy Marahimin and Talamedia; Garin Nugroho‘s “Samsara,” produced by Gita Fara and Cineria Films; and Loeloe Hendra’s “Tale of the Land,” produced by Yulia Evina Bhara, Amerta Kusuma and KawanKawan Media.

These four projects have received international support from various eligible international grants such as Hubert Bals Fund, CNC Cinema du Monde, World Cinema Fund, Sørfond, IMDA, and several other sources amounting to €1.38 million ($1.5 million). The amount will be matched by the grant. Following the announcement of the four pilot projects, the scheme is being opened to all Indonesian filmmakers who are developing projects with the support of international grants.

The announcement was made during the Indonesian Night in Cannes on Monday. Hilmar Farid, director general of culture, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, said: “We hope that this fund will not only support Indonesian filmmakers in manifesting their creative ideas, but will have an impact on expanding international networks and increasing the capacity of Indonesian filmmakers to the world standards, various transfers of expertise, then in the long run they will produce films with about Indonesia’s diversity for the world.”

“At the Spotlight Asia event at the Cannes Market yesterday, many foreign parties expressed interest to collaborate with Indonesian producers  due to interest in this matching fund” added Alex Sihar, special staff to the director general of culture who represented Indonesia as chair of the Asian Film Alliance Network at Cannes.