Four projects have been selected as the first recipients of Indonesia‘s debut government-funded film grant, Film Matchfund.
The $13M annual fund was announced at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and draws from the country’s Cultural Endowment Fund. The selected projects are director Mouly Surya’s This City is a Battlefield, director Tumpal Tampubolon’s Crocodile Tears (produced by Talamedia), director Garin Nugroho’s Samsara and director Loeloe Hendra’s Tale of The Land (produced by Kawankawan Media).
These four projects have also received international support from other international grants such as the Hubert-Bals Fund, CNC Cinema du Monde, World Cinema Fund and Sørfond, totalling around $1.5M. This amount will be matched by Film Matchfund.
Hilmar Farid, Indonesia’s director-general of Culture at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, said: “We hope that this category will not only support Indonesian filmmakers in manifesting their creative ideas, but will have an impact on expanding international networks that will be built, increasing the capacity of Indonesian filmmakers because they have to work to world standards, various transfers of expertise, and in the long run will produce Indonesian films that tell stories about Indonesia’s diversity in the eyes of the world.”
The Indonesian film category under the funding scheme supports co-production between Indonesian filmmakers and foreign filmmakers, and can be used to cover costs related to story development and research, production, post-production, promotion and distribution incentives.
Alex Sihar, Special Staff to the Director-General of Culture, added: “Many foreign parties expressed their desire to collaborate with Indonesian producers because they were interested in this matching fund scheme. These four pilot projects will begin the process with Dana Indonesiana to obtain the matching funds for the international funding support they have received previously. The results of this piloting will then be followed by the opening of this scheme to all Indonesian filmmakers who are developing projects with the support of international grants.”