The Colorful Stories and Genres of Light of Asia, a Competition Program for Short Films at JAFF20

On its fourth day, JAFF20 presented a selection of short films lineup in the Light of Asia 3 competition program, where the selected works will compete for the Blencong Award.

Light of Asia 3 showcased six short films spanning Indonesia, Taiwan, and Kazakhstan. The program opened with My Name is Hope (Sherwan Haji, 2025), which effectively built an unsettling tone through its gripping camerawork, capturing terrifying glimpses from a narrow food slot inside a prison cell. The audience’s mood shifted when The Fishbowl Girl (2024) by Hung Yi Wu came onscreen, following Wei, a lesbian woman, through her whirlwind emotional experience during a trip to Thailand. Laughter filled Studio 2 Empire XXI with Anatomy of a Call (Arnold Tam, 2024), a playful portrait of Hong Kong’s urban landscape connected through a chain of phone calls.

The tension returned with What Have You Done, Zarina? (Camila Sagyntkan, 2025), a gripping and tender piece about a 15-year-old girl grappling with the consequences of a secret abortion. The fifth film, Throughout The Cages (Sekat-Sekat, Aaron Pratama, 2025), reflected on the trauma of Indonesia’s ‘98 tragedy, manifested through something as small as the metal bars on a family’s home. The session concluded with the haunting monochrome cinematography of Hyena (Altay Ulan Yang, 2025), a chilling story of bullying set within an isolated academic castle.

During the Q&A session following the Light of Asia 3 program, Aaron Pratama shared the inspiration behind Throughout The Cages, which stemmed from a question: why do many homes belonging to Tionghoa-Indonesian families have the same style of metal bars? To him, these patterns form a kind of semiotic trace; an echo of past trauma from the perspective of a minority community. “So I just want to try to talk about those topics, these hard times, during our new era of regime,” he added.

A total of 17 short films will compete in the Light of Asia program, presented across three screening compilations:

Light of Asia 1

Thursday, 4 December 2025 | Empire XXI Studio 2 | 12.15 WIB

Friday, 5 December 2025 | Empire XXI Studio 2 | 12.00 WIB

Light of Asia 2

Friday, 5 December 2025 | Empire XXI Studio 2 | 17.45 WIB

Saturday, 6 December 2025 | Empire XXI Studio 2 | 15.00 WIB

Don’t miss the full selection of outstanding short films from across Asia only at JAFF20, full schedule  is available at jaff-filmfest.org and on social media @jaffjogja