The cinema of Indonesia refers to films produced domestically in Indonesia. The statutory Indonesian Film Board, or BPI, defines Indonesian films as "movies that are made by or using Indonesian resources whose Intellectual Property Right is owned either entirely or partly by Indonesian citizen or Indonesian legal entity".
Cinema in Indonesia dates back to the early 1900s. Until the 1920s, most cinemas in Indonesia were created by foreign studios, mostly from Europe and the United States, whose films would then be imported to the country. Most of these films were silent documentaries and feature films from France and the United States. Many documentaries about the nature and life of Indonesia were sponsored by the Dutch East Indies government, and were usually made by Dutch or Western European studios. The first domestically produced documentaries in Indonesia were produced in 1911. However, the first domestically produced film in the Dutch East Indies was in 1926: Loetoeng Kasaroeng, a silent film and adaptation of the Sundanese legend of the same name. During 1926, there were two movie theatres, the Oriental and the Elita, in Bandung. The first movie theatre in Jakarta was the Alhamra Theatre, which opened in 1931.
Indonesian cinema began dominating most movie theaters in big cities in the 1980s and started to compete in international film festivals. Around this era, young stars like Onky Alexander, Meriam Bellina, Lydia Kandou, Nike Ardilla, Paramitha Rusady, and Desy Ratnasari dominated the silver screen with films like Catatan si Boy (Boy's Diary) and Blok M.
Indonesian film slowly lost its place and popularity due to the domination of Hollywood and foreign films in movie theaters throughout the 1990s. In the wake of the Indonesian financial crisis and political movements, the industry struggled to raise public interest in attending movie theaters, and most films stuck to teenage dramas, horror, and adult genres. After the Reform in the beginning of 2000, the Indonesian film industry was strengthened by a growing number of young filmmakers. While the industry was still adjusting to the new constitutions, Indonesian cinema started to reconstruct its identity and regain its former popularity.
The film industry is currently the fastest-growing subsector of Indonesia's creative economy. The number of moviegoers in the country were more than 52 million in 2019. In 2023, the local film industry in Indonesia set a new record with 20 films attracting over 1 million viewers each.
The Indonesian film industry released 230 films in 2019. As of 2025, there were about 2,354 screens in Indonesia. 21 Cineplex (which owns PT Omega Film, which monopolizes distribution of films distributed by the American major film studios), CGV Cinemas (previously Blitzmegaplex), and Cinépolis (previously Cinemaxx) currently dominate the movie theatre industry in Indonesia.
History
Colonial era
The first showing of films in the Dutch East Indies was in 1900, and over the next twenty years, foreign productions—which were mostly from the United States—were imported and shown throughout the country. Domestic production of documentaries began in 1911 but were unable to compete with imported works. By 1923, a local feature film production spearheaded by the Middle East Film Co. was announced, but the work was not completed.
The first domestically produced film in the Indies was Loetoeng Kasaroeng, a 1926 silent film by Dutch director L. Heuveldorp. This adaptation of the Sundanese legend was made with local actors by the NV Java Film Company in Bandung and premiered on 31 December 1926 at the Elite and Majestic Theatres in Bandung. The following year, George Krugers—who had served as a technician and cinematographer for Loetoeng Kasaroeng—released his directorial debut (the second film in the Indies), Eulis Atjih. Owing to Loetoeng Kasaroeng limited release, Kruger was able to advertise his film as the colony's first. A year later, the second novel to be adapted to film in Indonesia, Setangan Berloemoer Darah, was produced by Tan Boen Soan.
Ethnic Chinese directors and producers, capitalising on the success of films produced in Shanghai, China, became involved in the colony's cinema beginning in 1928, when Nelson Wong completed Lily van Java. Although the Wongs went on hiatus, other ethnic Chinese became involved in film. Several Chinese-owned start-ups are recorded from 1929 onward, including Nancing Film with Resia Boroboedoer (1928) and Tan's Film with Njai Dasima (1929). By the early 1930s, Chinese-owned businesses were the dominating force in the country's film industry.
After the Great Depression reached the Indies, production slowed tremendously. The Dutch East Indies government collected higher taxes and cinemas sold tickets at lower prices, ensuring that there was a meagre profit margin for local films. As a result, cinemas in the colony mainly showed Hollywood productions, while the domestic industry decayed. The Teng Chun, who had made his debut in 1931 with Boenga Roos dari Tjikembang, was the only producer able to release films during 1934 and early 1935; his low-budget but popular films were mainly inspired by Chinese mythology or martial arts, and although aimed at ethnic Chinese, proved popular among native audiences because of their action sequences.
In an attempt to show that locally produced, well-made films could be profitable, the Dutch journalist Albert Balink, who had no formal film experience, produced Pareh in 1935 in collaboration with Nelson Wong and his brothers. Though the film, costing 20 times as much as most contemporary productions, was an ultimate failure, it affected The Teng Chun's directorial style; the latter took less traditional stories. Balink's next attempt, Terang Boelan, was released two years later. Unlike Pareh, Terang Boelan was a marked commercial success, earning 200,000 Straits dollars (then equivalent to US$114,470) in two months. According to American visual anthropologist Karl G. Heider, these two films are Indonesia's most important films of the 1930s.
The triple successes of Terang Boelan, Fatima (1938), and Alang-Alang (1939) revived the domestic film industry. Four new production houses were established in 1940, and actors and actresses previously attached to theatrical troupes entered the film industry, which was reaching new audiences. The new works—fourteen in 1940 and thirty in 1941—generally followed the formula established by Terang Boelan: songs, beautiful scenery, and romance. Others, such as Asmara Moerni, attempted to reach the growing native intelligentsia by drawing journalists or figures from the growing nationalist movement into cinema.
Japanese occupation After its genesis during the Dutch colonial era, the Indonesian film industry was co-opted by Japanese occupiers during the Second World War as a propaganda tool. The Japanese government immediately halted all production of film. Then, the Office of Cultural Enlightenment (), which was headed by Ishimoto Tokichi, appropriated facilities from all filmmaking organisations, consolidating them into a single studio which became the Jakarta branch of , or Nichi'ei. The majority of films made in Indonesia under the Japanese were educational films and newsreels produced for audiences in Japan. The Jakarta branch was strategically placed at the extreme southern end of Japan's empire and soon became a centre of newsreel production. Popular news serials such as News from the South and Berita Film di Djawa were produced. Japanese newsreels promoted such topics as conscripted "romusha" labourers (, 1944), voluntary enlistment into the Imperial Japanese Army (, 1944), and Japanese language acquisition by Indonesian children (, 1944).Baskett, The Attractive Empire.
Local Japanese-sponsored film production (other than newsreels) remained essentially negligible, and the domestic exhibition market was too underdeveloped to be financially viable. However, Nichi'ei occupation of the Indonesian film industry was a strategic victory over the West, demonstrating that a non-Western Asian nation could displace Hollywood and the Dutch. Indonesia was one of the last areas in the empire to surrender, and many who worked at Nichi'ei stayed on after defeat to work for Indonesian independence from the Dutch.
Korean director Hae Yeong (or Hinatsu Eitaro) migrated to Java from Korea in 1945, where he made the controversial documentary Calling Australia (, 1944). Calling Australia was commissioned by the Imperial Japanese Army and depicted Japanese prisoner of war camps in a positive light, showing prisoners feasting on steak and beer, swimming, and playing sports. After the war, the film caused such a stir that the Netherlands Indies Film Unit rushed into production of the counterpoint film Nippon Presents (1945), which used some of the POWs from Calling Australia to reject that film's viewpoint. Two decades later, Australian filmmaker Graham Shirley assembled the remaining survivors to make Prisoners of Propaganda (1987), yet another documentary about how, in his view, both regimes had conspired to exploit the prisoners each for their own purposes. After the war, Hae changed his name to Dr. Huyung, married an Indonesian woman with whom he had two sons, and directed three films before his death in 1952: Between Sky and Earth (1951), Gladis Olah Raga (1951), and Bunga Rumar Makan (1952).
After independence
After independence, the Sukarno government used the film industry for nationalistic, anti-imperialist purposes and foreign film imports were banned. After the overthrow of Sukarno by Suharto's New Order regime, films were regulated through a censorship code that aimed to maintain the social order and Suharto's grip on society. Usmar Ismail, a director from West Sumatra, made a major impact in Indonesian film in the 1950s and 1960s through his company Perfini. Djamaluddin Malik's Persari Film often emulated American genre films and the working practices of the Hollywood studio system, as well as remaking popular Indian films.
In the late 1950s, a number of political aspects impacted the film industry, not only in production but also in distribution. Threats of burning the movie theaters and film boycotts by anti-imperialist movements meant that the profit for movie theaters dropped drastically. In 1954, a first Indonesian superhero film, Sri Asih, was made. This film was directed by Tan Sing Hwat, and starred Turino Djunaedy and Mimi Mariani as Sri Asih. Around 1964 there were 700 movie theaters in Indonesia, which fell to 350 in 1965. The post-independence era was greatly influenced by the 30 September Movement, which led to a dilemma for local movie theater owners when the local films produced weren't enough to fill the program slot. The economic crash had put the growing industry on hold and paralyzed people's purchasing power; however, at the end of the 1960s, the film industry had survived mostly because of popular foreign imports.
1980s The industry reached its peak in the 1980s, with successful films such as Nagabonar (1987) and Catatan si Boy (1989). Warkop's comedy films, directed by Arizal, also proved to be successful. The industry also found appeal among teens with films such as Pintar-pintar Bodoh (1982) and Maju Kena Mundur Kena (1984). Actors during this era included Deddy Mizwar, Eva Arnaz, Lidya Kandou, Onky Alexander, Meriam Bellina, Rano Karno, and Paramitha Rusady. The film Tjoet Nja' Dhien (1988) won 9 Citra Awards at the 1988 Indonesian Film Festival. It was also the first Indonesian movie chosen for screening at the Cannes Film Festival.
1990s By the 1990s, imports of foreign films resumed, and the quantity of Indonesian films was reduced due to competition, especially from the United States and Hong Kong. The number of movies produced decreased significantly, from 115 in 1990 to 37 in 1993.