Jakarta Film Week Books "Ah Girl" and "The Sea Speaks His Name" — SkimNews
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- Jakarta Film Week confirmed its Oct. 21–25 dates with Singaporean director Ang Geck Geck Priscilla's "Ah Girl" opening and Yosep Anggi Noen's "The Sea Speaks His Name" ("Laut Bercerita") closing in its Indonesian premiere, following a Sept. 23 reveal at CGV Grand Indonesia under the theme "Encounters."
- The festival's 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," with the Currents strand adding Alice Winocour, Karim Aïnouz, Leyla Bouzid and Paolo Sorrentino's "La Grazia."
- Kamila Andini's "Four Seasons in Java" — Indonesia's Oscar hopeful and a co-production spanning seven countries (Indonesia, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore) — plays in the Global Feature Official Selection.
- JFWNET's industry arm has picked 10 producers from five Indonesian regions (Jakarta, West Sumatra, West Java, Central Java, Kalimantan) for its Producers Lab, with the program explicitly routing participants into Goedam, BIFAN Fantastic School and Platform Busan, plus support toward Cannes.
- JFWNET is also partnering with Cerita Anak Nusantara — a Netflix-backed kids'/family story contest run with APROFI and the Indonesian Film Board — during which 10 projects will pitch at the festival.
- A new Jakarta Film Fund backs eight Jakarta-set shorts, three of them through a student arm partnering with the J-Youth Film Festival 2026, while the JFW360 outreach slate streams 24 shorts free on Vidio through Oct. 20.
- Young actor Ali Fikry has been named festival ambassador in a youth-outreach push; the Italian Screen country showcase features Pietro Marcello's "Duse" and Silvio Soldini's "The Taters," and cultural partners include the Japan Foundation, Erasmus Huis, Istituto Italiano di Cultura and the U.S. embassy.
Why it matters: Jakarta Film Week now operates less as a screening event than as a routing hub for Indonesian projects — its Producers Lab feeds alumni directly into BIFAN, Platform Busan and Cannes, and the seven-country co-production behind Indonesia's Oscar hopeful anchors this year's strategic pull. With a Netflix-backed kids'/family pitch track now in the mix, Jakarta is positioning itself as a pipeline stop for Southeast Asian cinema.
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