Indonesia in Cannes to entice more foreign productions

Indonesia’s director general of culture, art and film, Tjetjep Suparman is visiting Cannes to  promote Indonesia as a shooting location, after the country hosted Plan B Entertainment’s Eat Pray Love starring Julia Roberts last year.

Suparman said the government has over-hauled its films department and made regulatory changes to make it easier for foreign filmmakers to shoot in the country. “We will assist filmmakers with customs clearance and help them obtain visas on arrival,” Suparman told Screen. “We also have low costs and beautiful and exotic locations, and believe that, with the release of Eat Pray Love, many producers will come and shoot in Indonesia.”

Suparman also pointed to the country’s high standards of craftsmenship and readily available manpower as reasons for shooting in Indonesia, which has been over-shadowed as a location by other Asian countries such as Thailand and China.

Indonesia’s booming local production industry has also resulted in the building of new studios, labs and digital post-production facilties. Indonesia’s local output has been expanding rapidly and last year the country produced around 90 feature films. This year, the country is expected to produce more than 100 titles.

Eat Pray Love, which filmed in Bali in August last year, is the biggest production to shoot in Indonesia although it has previously hosted films Zalman King’s 1998 In God’s Hands.