Towards the Rise of the National Film Industry

Covid-19 has severely affected the national film industry and destroyed the lives of film workers. Ironically, it has become the hot topic discussed during the celebration of National Film Day.

Kompas/Priyombodo

Rahmadia (right) practices self-defense for an action film at the Piranha Stunt Indonesia Studio, in Depok, West Java, Friday (26/3/2021). Rahmadia is a stunt man in the film.

Indonesian film production indicated a significant improvement in the years before the pandemic began to hit the country in early 2020. According to data from filmindonesia.or.id, which was compiled by Kompas’ Research and Development, the number of films produced in the country rose sharply from 118 in 2017 to 146 in 2018. However, it sharply declined to 130 films in 2019, lower than the figure recorded in 2017.

Film production further declined last year due to the pandemic. In 2020 only 53 films were produced. During January to March, 26 films were produced. After that during April to July 2020 or in the first four months of the pandemic, no films were produced. Film production began again in the following months. During August-December 2020, a total of 27 films were produced.