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View all search results‘Daly City’ brings Indonesian American story front and center
Told through the eyes of a young boy, a tender, clear-eyed short movie brings the Indonesian diaspora into the heart of America’s cultural conversation and in the runnings for a potential Academy Award.
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Family frame: Bastian (Jett Automo) sits between his mother Eliawati (Michelle Lukiman) and father Heruawan (Kaidy Kuna), in this still from the autobiographical short movie 'Daly City’ by New York-based director Hartanto, who cast Indonesian diaspora actors in the lead roles. (Nick Hartanto/-)
As the Oscar season counts down, a short movie directed by and starring members of the Indonesian diaspora is up for consideration.
How do we contain the excitement of watching an Indonesian movie in the United States? For the local diaspora, the enthusiasm is real: Nick Hartanto’s Daly City has qualified for the Best Live Action Short Film category at the 98th Academy Awards.
Preliminary voting runs from Dec. 8 to 12 for the over 200 short movies in contention for a spot on the 15-title short list, which will be announced on Dec. 16.
In recent years, we’ve seen the rise of Asian American feature films, many centering on Chinese American stories (Crazy Rich Asians, Everything Everywhere All at Once) or Korean American narratives (Joy Ride, Past Lives, Minari).
Daly City, which premiered in 2024, opens the door to an authentic Indonesian American experience that is rarely depicted on-screen.
Its production also highlights how rare Indonesian actors are in the US. Nick, an Indonesian American filmmaker based in New York, worked with a Filipino American casting director who specializes in locating Southeast Asian actors in everyday settings. As a result, Daly City features three Indonesian diaspora actors Jett Automo, Michelle Lukiman and Kaidy Kuna.
“It was a monumental effort to just say, yes, this movie has three Indonesian lead actors. Like, that in itself was an accomplishment,” said Nick, whose 2019 short movie The Dishwasher, which he codirected, received a Special Jury Mention at the Tribeca Film Festival that year and was later acquired by HBO Max.
