When the Yogya Netpac Asian Film Festival (JAFF) was launched in 2006 during the 250th anniversary celebrations of Yogyakarta, it was a modest collaborative experiment driven by young filmmakers and volunteers. Although a major earthquake nearly canceled the first edition, the community’s strong commitment to continuity established a resilience that became core to the festival’s identity.
Twenty years later, JAFF has transformed from a local cultural gathering into a regional platform that attracts national and international attention, screening 227 films from 47 Asia-Pacific countries in its 20th edition.
“When we first started, JAFF was essentially a group of filmmakers, volunteers and audiences in Yogyakarta trying to build a space where independent Asian films could meet audiences,” festival director Ifa Isfanshah told Variety. “The biggest change today is scale. But at our core, our identity remains the same. We’re still driven by community, conversation, and films that honestly speak to local realities.”
The festival’s early years were defined by visibility battles and infrastructure challenges. Volunteers carried film prints with them, placed makeshift subtitles in PowerPoint presentations, and created stages from borrowed materials. The first edition was held in a performance building rather than a proper movie theater, and featured films that the organizers felt resonated with them and had the potential to be produced themselves.
“Southeast Asian cinema had not yet attracted the attention of major institutions,” Isfanshah recalls. “We had to convince our partners and audiences that these films mattered, even without the celebrities or the marketing machine. JAFF needed to function more like an ecosystem builder than just a festival.”
This advocacy-led approach has proven to be transformative for independent film in Indonesia. The festival grew in tandem with the country’s post-2000 film resurgence, becoming a home for early shorts, debuts, and experimental films.
“Indonesian independent cinema has moved from the fringes to an important narrative force,” says Isfanshah. “The biggest change is confidence. Filmmakers know their stories deserve an international stage.”
The impact this festival has had on the exhibition infrastructure is significant. Commercial theater chains recognize that there is an audience for independent films, with recent hits such as Reza Rahadian’s Panku doing well at the box office. Local digital platforms like KlikFilm have found a niche market and audience through their partnership with JAFF.
While festivals such as Busan, Singapore, Tokyo and Hanoi offer industry-driven platforms, JAFF has cultivated a more intimate, grassroots approach. The festival positions itself as a space for filmmakers to create new languages, new collaborations, and new courage.
“Our mission has evolved to bridge creatives and communities,” Isfanshah explains. “We want to be a place where filmmakers not only showcase their work, but also feel supported. Everyone comes to JAFF for one reason: the love of watching movies.”
The festival’s curation approach has evolved from necessity-based risk-taking to deliberate experimentation. Today’s programming challenges formats, platforms hybrid works, and opens conversations that intersect film with activism, memory, and Indigenous knowledge.
But creative freedom faces new constraints. Early versions allowed films to be screened without censorship, but the current version requires all films to pass through a censor board.
“In the early days, we had more freedom that we don’t have now,” Isfanshah admits. “But today, because we have the trust of our communities and regions, we can put politically sensitive films and structurally radical films on our platform.”
JAFF’s sustainability model combines government grants, national and local sponsorships, cultural institutions, box office revenues, Sahabhat Hanoman memberships, and program-based partnerships with platforms such as Netflix, Vidio, and KlikFilm.
The festival has expanded beyond an annual event into a year-round cultural engine, with industry platforms JAFF Market, JAFF Community Forums, and educational programs to ensure continuity. The partnership with Netpac was particularly important, bringing together a network of mentors, judges and collaborators while strengthening regional solidarity.
“Netpac was a cornerstone for us,” Isfanshah says, noting that the partnership was especially valuable in early editions when the organizers were filmmakers with no festival experience.
This year’s 20th anniversary lineup prioritizes films that convey honesty, urgency, and cultural resonance, addressing displacement, environmental trauma, youth identity, and artistic rebellion. The program balances premieres and local spotlights, including closing films representing first features by filmmakers who grew up with JAFF.
The sections include Main Competition, Lights of Asia, Emerging, Panorama, Features and Shorts from an Asian Perspective, Indonesian Film Awards, Community Forum, Rewind, Masterclasses, Public Lectures, Workshops and Special Screenings.
Audiences in Yogyakarta are becoming more visually literate, globally minded and vocal, and younger audiences are receptive to hybrid and experimental work. But the warmth and curiosity that characterized those early editions remains.
“They still watch over us wholeheartedly, and their energy continues to define JAFF,” Isfanshah said. “Sometimes I feel like they know more about JAFF itself, because the energy at the festival is getting younger and I’m getting older.”
To ensure outstanding titles don’t get lost in platform saturation, JAFF focuses on meaningful visibility through contextual programming. Public lectures, workshops, and screenings are structured to highlight films through conversation, not algorithms. The festival also builds bridges between filmmakers and regional festivals, critics, curators, platforms and labs.
“In an oversaturated world, curation and community are more powerful than ever,” Isfanshah points out.
Looking back over 20 years, Isfanshah cites early organizational chaos as something he would like to change, noting that early investments in infrastructure, archives, workflows, and a dedicated year-round team would have accelerated growth. The decision to focus on one festival center helped him consolidate energy around what he considers the core of a festival: meeting people.
However, the family feel of the early editions remains non-negotiable. The open, spontaneous energy that brings filmmakers, students, professionals, and audiences together reflects the spirit of belonging that the festival is determined to uphold as it expands in size.
“Success is when filmmakers tell us that JAFF gave them the courage to tell their stories,” Isfanshah says. “We have succeeded when audiences, filmmakers, students, volunteers, professionals and the community feel ownership of the festival.”
As JAFF enters its 30th year, the festival continues to balance community service and international relevance by being based in Yogyakarta.
“We always start locally. Yogyakarta is the soul of JAFF,” Isfanshah emphasizes. “Every festival must be responsible to its local community. When our programs are true to their communities, they naturally have international relevance.”
