The 24th edition of Festival Film Dokumenter (FFD) took place live from November 21–28, 2025. This year, the festival was held at several venues: Langgeng Art Foundation, Pascasarjana ISI Yogyakarta, Kedai Kebun Forum, Cemeti—Institute for Art and Society, and Institut Français d’Indonésie (IFI) Yogyakarta.
During the festival, FFD launched two exciting new programs: DOC Performance and DOC Chat. DOC Performance is an initiative meant to explore the intersections between documentary and performing arts, creating new approaches through archival materials, presentations, interactions, and real-life experiences. This program aims to present the dynamics of interaction and engagement between performers and audiences, reimagined through performance to explore pressing issues. DOC Chat is an open forum for sharing knowledge, voice concerns, and celebrate experiences in a relaxed and intimate setting, framed within a casual format. Through themes that change with each edition, DOC Chat fosters free and reflective conversations as a space where ideas, feelings, and perspectives can meet without boundaries.
This year, film submissions for the festival were open from March 20 to July 20, 2025, via the festival’s website (at ffd.or.id). A total of 704 films from 84 countries were submitted. This year’s number of submitted films increased by 122.8% from the previous total of 316 films; and the number of producing countries increased by 25.4% from the previous total of 55 countries. The countries with the most submitted films include Indonesia (144 films), India (41 films), France (36 films), Brazil (31 films), Spain (29 films), Iran (25 films), and Portugal (24 films). The countries of production for the submitted films include, but are not limited to, single-country productions and co-productions.
From Indonesia, there was a 56.5% increase in the number of submitted films compared to the previous edition. A total of 144 submitted films came from 21 provinces, an increase of 15.8% compared to the previous edition. The provinces with the most submitted films include Special Region of Yogyakarta (34 films), Jakarta Special Capital Region (25 films), West Java (24 films), Central Java (22 films), and Banten (11 films). Other provinces include Aceh, Bengkulu, West Kalimantan, Maluku, Papua, South Sumatra, South Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, West Sumatra, North Sumatra, East Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, and Bali.
For the first time, FFD expanded the Short Competition program—which was originally open only to Indonesian documentaries—to include international entries; it also expanded the Student Competition—which was originally open to high school students and their equivalents—to include college students. This had an impact on the number of submitted films in both categories. In the Short Competition, there was a 221% increase from 62 entries in the previous edition to 199 submissions, while in the student competition category, there was a 393.3% surge from 15 submissions to 74 submissions. In other categories, the International Feature-Length Competition received 188 submissions and the Indonesian Feature-Length Competition received 12 submissions. FFD 2025’s Non-Competition program received 231 submissions, consisting of 88 short documentaries and 143 feature-length documentaries.
The submitted films then proceed to a pre-selection round led by FFD 2025’s program team, followed by a selection process led by the selection committee. The selection committee consists of three members for each category, who are film practitioners, film critics, festival program directors, and researchers. The films selected for the festival are categorized into competition and non-competition programs, as follows: International Feature-Length Competition with 10 films, Indonesian Feature-Length Competition with 4 films, Short Competition with 12 films, Student Competition with 6 films, Perspektif with 10 films, Spektrum with 8 films, Docs Docs: Short! (divided into 3 series) consisted of 15 films, Utopia/Dystopia with 5 films, Lanskap (divided into 4 series) consisted of 17 films, Le Mois du Film Documentaire with 1 film, and Special Presentation with 5 films.
FFD 2025 presented 90 films from 45 countries screened in 70 screening slots over 8 days, excluding slots for ceremonial programs (opening, closing, and awards) and exhibitions. This series of screening slots also included repeated screenings of films within specific programs. Throughout the festival’s screenings, there were 53 Q&A sessions attended by filmmakers and/or film representatives. These sessions were moderated by programmers and members of the selection committee who were present during the festival. Reports on the Q&A sessions can be read here.
A total of 3,139 visitors attended FFD 2025. The total number of visitors was calculated based on their attendance as film audiences, participants in non-screening programs, and attendees of ceremonial events. The total number of visitors for this year’s edition decreased by 28.1% compared to last year. Of that total, 929 visitors were from Indonesia. Visitors from countries other than Indonesia included Malaysia, South Korea, Colombia, the Netherlands, Australia, France, the Czech Republic, Japan, Singapore, and China.
Of the total number of visitors from Indonesia, 533 were from DI Yogyakarta, 111 from Central Java, 68 from DKI Jakarta, 42 from East Java, and 33 from West Java. Meanwhile, other provinces of origin for Indonesian visitors included South Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, South Sumatra, North Sulawesi, Aceh, Bali, Banten, Riau, South Kalimantan, Jambi, West Sumatra, East Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, North Sumatra, Papua, Central Sulawesi, Bengkulu, Lampung, Maluku, North Sumatra, North Maluku, and Southeast Sulawesi.
There are 5 age groups among FFD 2025 visitors. The distribution is as follows: age group ≤ 20 years old accounts for 19%, age group 21–25 years old accounts for 37%, age group 26–35 years old accounts for 28%, age group 36–55 years old accounts for 14%, and age group >55 years old accounts for 2%. During the festival, 51% of visitors were men, 43% were women, 2% were non-binary, 0.1% were transgender, and 4% preferred not to answer.
This year, the occupational background of FFD visitors was dominated by students (38%). Other groups included filmmakers (16%), arts and culture practitioners (11%), researchers and academics (6%), film distribution, market, festival, and exhibitor practitioners (3%), public service and non-governmental organization practitioners (2%), media (2%), and other groups (22%).
FFD 2025 was organized by 93 committee members, consisting of 40 staff members and 53 volunteers. Volunteer recruitment took place from September 20–25, 2025, via the FFD website (at ffd.or.id). This year, a total of 603 people applied to be FFD volunteers. Applicants then went through administration screening and interviews before finally passing to join as volunteers. A total of 53 people were accepted, with the following gender distribution: 28 were women, 24 were men, and 1 was non-binary.
Based on their registration details, 9 people fell into the age group of ≤20 years, 41 people into the age group of 21–25 years, and 3 people into the age group of 26–35 years. According to this information, the youngest volunteer was 19 years old and the oldest was 30 years old. As for the status of the volunteers involved, 38 were students and the other 15 were non-students. The distribution of student volunteers by institution was as follows: Universitas Gadjah Mada (13 people), ISI Yogyakarta (9 people), UIN Sunan Kalijaga (6 people), Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta (3 people), and 1 person each from the following institutions: ISI Surakarta, STMM Yogyakarta, Universitas Sanata Dharma, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, and Universitas Sarjanawiyata Tamansiswa.
FFD 2025 could not have been held without the support of various partners, including fellow organizers, jury members, filmmakers, festival partners, and program partners. Forum Film Dokumenter would like to thank the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Indonesia, the Ministry of Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia, the Yogyakarta Special Region Cultural Office (Kundha Kabudayan), Jogja Festivals, the Ulsan Ulju Mountain Film Festival, and Cemeti —Institute for Art and Society, the Master’s Program in Religious and Cultural Studies at USD, Eye Filmmuseum, Milisifilem Collective, Jogja Fotografis Festival (JOFFIS), Institut français Indonésie Yogyakarta, Le mois du film documentaire, the Japan Foundation, the Indonesia Dramatic Reading Festival (IDRF), Komunitas Film Kupang, Festival Film Purbalingga, Aceh Documentary, Toko Perihal Cinta, Langgeng Art Foundation, Pascasarjana ISI Yogyakarta, Kedai Kebun Forum, Rekambergerak, Royal Brongto, Stylo Coffee, Yes No Wave, Sakatembi, The Tribes, Project Multatuli, Konde.co, Senirupaid, and Pandangan Jogja.
Full details on FFD 2025’s program and activities can be found here, or by downloading the digital catalog here. You can also access all film reviews and coverage here. FFD 2026 will be the 25th edition of the festival and will take place November 20–27, 2026, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. See you then!
