Indonesia’s film agency is helping draft a revised Film Law that would reshape its powers, while Jakarta, where Netflix now has four titles in production, is working to become a regional film hub. Fauzan Zidni, chair of the Indonesian Film Agency (BPI), tells Variety the first draft, prepared with the Ministry of Culture, has taken shape since Cannes. The Jakarta Film Commission launched in June alongside Filming in Jakarta, a one-stop service for producers.
Karno says production companies from Malaysia and India have since come to the city to shoot films and series. In the capital, Netflix’s latest slate follows “Tygo,” the streamer’s “Extraction” spinoff. Under a memorandum of understanding tied to the inaugural Jakarta Film Summit, Netflix will also help develop local film talent, he adds.
Governor Pramono Anung has set the goal of making Jakarta a film hub on the scale of Busan, and Karno, a veteran actor and filmmaker, has driven much of the city’s film policy. Over the next five years, he says, Jakarta wants to settle the full ecosystem, from production through financing and market access, and build Busan-style infrastructure. Post-production facilities, soundstages and studios are the biggest gaps, which the city aims to fill within three to five years.
Jakarta has cut certain location fees by 50% and introduced a 50% tax concession on cinema admissions for qualifying Indonesian films. Karno says the city has barely scratched the surface on production incentives and is working to improve them, learning from Thailand and Malaysia as it tries to grow the industry faster. Busan has been a close partner.
Karno credits the Busan Film Commission with helping the Jakarta Film Commission become an official member of AFCNet, the Asian Film Commissions Network. To spread the benefits beyond the capital, the city is working with Bank Indonesia’s Jakarta representative office on the film and creative economy sectors, and is inviting filmmakers and industry players to its film summit and festival. Its Jaksinema initiative, which brings cinemas into public markets, offers cheaper tickets aimed at lower- and middle-income audiences.
Karno, who says he has spent more than 50 years understanding the industry’s problems, expects the summit to become an essential date on the calendar, with the city government fully committed to making Jakarta a City of Cinema. The summit will also take on what Zidni sees as the core barrier to institutional investment. Banks lend against physical assets such as land, buildings and machinery, which production houses can’t offer.
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