A week ago, Indonesian female film director Kamila Andini won TIFF’s Platform Prize Award for her short film titled “Yuni”. Apparently, other Indonesian filmmakers follow suit. 

Three short films produced by Indonesian filmmakers just won the EoS Short Film Pitching Project (SFPP) 2020 competition. 

“Each film that won SFPP 2020 brings a unique variety of stories and issues,” said Co-Director of EoS 2021 Nauval Yazid in a statement on 22 September. 

The first film is a short comedy film titled “Ghulam”, directed by Nashiru Setiawan, with a plot that revolves around the threats received by Ghulam and Kecap as they want to screen a film that contains pornographic scenes. 

The second film is “Tour De Serpong”, directed by Steven Vicky S, which portrays the life of a young man named Anton who aspires to go to Paris to study. However, he was scammed by a scholarship agent and ended up in Serpong. 

The third film is “Kepada Istriku (Marta, I’m Home)”, a short film by Patrick Warmanda about Yohan who keeps a coffin in his bedroom after his wife’s death and he insists on being left alone, leaving his children baffled by his behaviour. 

The first EoS SFPP competition was held back in 2018. This competition is fully supported by the European Union, SAE Indonesia and Kemala Home Living. All winners will receive a  partial funding from EoS as well as post-production facilities from SAE Indonesia.

In another development, a short animated film produced by Luce Chiaro Blasius Malikmas titled “Unristing Your Heart” was nominated for several international awards, including the 20th Kansas International Film Festival 2020, Canberra Short Film 2019 and Pune Short Film Festival 2019. It also won the HelloFest Animation and Short Film Festival back in 2019.

The young filmmaker is currently studying at Raden Umar Said (RUS) high school, which is a vocational school that provides its students a learning experience to make animated films, taught by the expertise in the field. 

RUS vocational school said that it will continue to motivate its students so that they can produce their best works and be able to compete globally.

Co-Director of EoS Meninaputri Wismurti said she feels that film festivals can be a creative and educational facility and platform for young Indonesian filmmakers.

"Therefore, it is important for us to support the film ecosystem as well as the filmmakers so that they can compete and participate at the international level,” she added.