Selected works: The Dessert is one of the movies to be featured in the GudMuvie program. (Courtesy of Indonesia Sinema Persada)

The Indonesian film industry has been on the rise in recent years with new releases each month and some of them have even managed to sell millions of tickets.

The movies come in various genres — horror, romantic comedy, drama, thriller and teen flicks, among others — proving the immense creativity of Indonesian filmmakers.

In line with an increase of film schools, workshops and competitions, a collective of industry stakeholders has developed a new program called GudMuvie.

Initiated by music and lifestyle promoter Gudlive, GudMuvie aims to be an ideal platform for short movie filmmakers, especially rising ones, to exhibit their fictional works. The program is also to be a main highlight of the 2019 Gudfest festival, which runs on Nov. 2 and 3.

Gudlive chief executive officer Rully PM told The Jakarta Post that the reason for the program was that short movies were not as appreciated or as popular as the feature films of big production houses.

“So far, most of them [short movies] end up in YouTube […] but it’s only limited to [viewers from short film communities] and with no appreciation [from a wider audience],” Rully said.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Film Forum (FFI) founder Ichwan Persada said there was no better time than now to promote local short movies with the rise of streaming services from other providers.

“Short movies are always on the side of the arena and now it is time to bring them to the center or industry level, knowing there are a lot of streaming media services now and they are in need of content,” said Ichwan, who also acts as the coordinator for the GudMuvie program.

From Sept. 20 to Oct. 20, the GudMuvie program opened registration for 1,000 short movie makers to submit their works. The registration was open to all Indonesians of all ages.

The submitted works should carry a theme of “berbagi kebaikan” (sharing kindness).

“The idea is to show how we can be beneficial for others and this is not just a gimmick or tagline because it is related to the festival’s spirit, so we want visitors to bring home the experiences they get,” Ichwan
explained.

Organized as a semicompetition, the submitted works are to be curated down to 100 movies. Then three judges are to decide which one of the curated movies is to be named the Best Movie winner. In addition, there is also to be a Favorite Movie category winner, which will be determined by the number of viewers during the movie screenings at the 2019 Gudfest.

The 100 chosen movies are also to be aired for two days during the 2019 Gudfest in two cinema boxes, with each box having capacity for 20 people. Beanbag chairs and headphones are also to be provided to enhance the casual yet relaxed watching atmosphere without any distractions from other festival areas.

Visitors are to witness the debuts of some short movies that have not been a part of other festivals and competitions, as well as special screenings of several movies that were not selected.

“During the submission period, some of the movies that we received did not match the theme, but it’s going to be a shame if we don’t play them because they’re too good,” Ichwan said.

Through GudMuvie, Ichwan said he hoped that young creators would continue to display their creativity in making movies and present their works to the public, as well as learn the importance of the economic value of their movies.

“If younger generations are only making movies without any economic value, the ecosystem will not be sustainable,” Ichwan said. “We hope there are some of them who found their passion in movies and can make a living with it, knowing the capital surrounding the film industry is extraordinarily large.”

— The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post

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