Twenty Years of JAFF: Growing, Transforming, Remembering

Twenty years is a long tenure for a festival that began with small talk, community effort, and mutual support. Yet it also seems brief when we consider how much more lies ahead. JAFF stands at this intersection: honoring our journey while recognizing the work still to be done.

Since 2006, JAFF has grown like a tree we planted together, becoming bigger and more mature, with more branches to nurture. Now in its second decade, JAFF is no longer a small festival in Yogyakarta. It is a festival that consistently advocates for Asian cinema’s identity, strengthens the film community, and adapts to changing times. However, alongside this growth, we have frequently reflected and recognized one undeniable fact: archiving remains the largest and most neglected task in our cinema ecosystem.

Although our festival is younger than many international ones, we already struggle to find materials from JAFF’s early editions, highlighting how fragile history is when not preserved. This year, JAFF screened Asrama Dara, a significant work restored and digitized by the Usmar Ismail Foundation with support from the Ministry of Culture, demonstrating that history can be preserved when the state, institutions, and individuals unite around a shared vision. Meanwhile, we had to bring Opera Jawa from Europe: the opening film of the first JAFF in 2006, by the festival’s founder, was stored better abroad than in its country of origin. This contrast is not a minor note but a loud alarm that our ecosystem is still far from ready to preserve our own cinematic heritage. These twenty years have shown one thing: the future of cinema depends on how we maintain its past.

JAFF continues to expand, becoming larger, more complex, and demanding. Our program now includes the JAFF Market, and we are building a more integrated ecosystem. Amid this progress, we remain committed to the festival’s original values: community advocacy, principled inclusivity, and adopting small steps toward sustainability.

For JAFF, inclusivity is no longer a slogan but an ethic put into action, from accessible programs to amplifying marginalized voices. Simultaneously, we seek to reduce our ecological footprint through practical steps: minimizing material use, improving production processes, and raising awareness of our environmental responsibilities.

These steps may be small, but they are vital. Change, like a festival, starts with the simplest actions.

Celebrating 20 years of JAFF means both reflecting on achievements and establishing a foundation for the next two decades. It is a time to celebrate growth while recognizing mistakes and identifying areas for improvement.

This year, JAFF invites all visitors to revisit the festival’s roots, not for nostalgia, but to understand our origins and future direction. Growth without strong roots becomes aimless expansion.

Amid changes, challenges, and aspirations, we hope JAFF will remain a home for filmmakers, audiences, and all who believe Asian cinema should be celebrated, preserved, and passed on.

Welcome to the 20th JAFF.

Let’s celebrate this journey together, while preserving what needs to be preserved and building what still needs to be built.