KBRN, Denpasar: Culture Minister Fadli Zon said that the number of cinema screens in the country is still insufficient, with only 2,500 screens available compared to the ideal need of 10,000 screens.

At the closing of the Balinale film festival in Denpasar, Bali on Saturday, June 7, 2025, Minister Fadli Zon said this condition is a shortcoming for Indonesia because the film industry is one of the major platforms to introduce culture.

“I see great potential in Indonesia, but indeed our cinemas lack screens. If I’m not mistaken, our need is 10,000 screens, while currently there are only 2,500,” said Minister Fadli Zon as quoted by antaranews.com.

Therefore, he wanted investors in the film sector or independent filmmakers to be aware and increase the number of screens. This also aims to encourage collaborative cooperation with local governments to be able to screen films in the regions.

He explained the connection between cinemas and culture itself is seen from a film which contains many cultural elements or other cultural expressions besides acting.

“Besides acting, there is literature inside, there are dances, music, culinary arts; film becomes a very important choice for advancing culture,” said Minister Fadli Zon.

According to him, the lack of screens or even cinemas in Indonesia is one of the challenges to advancing the film industry. This is despite the fact that the potential wealth of stories and achievements of domestic filmmakers is very large.

Minister Fadli Zon views film as a soft power in spreading culture, like Korea, the United States, and India, which are currently aggressively influencing through films. This condition must also be utilized by Indonesia, so Minister Fadli Zon encourages young people to love domestic films.

The number of Indonesian film screenings in cinemas throughout 2024 reached 81 million showings or 67 percent of all films. However, this condition still needs to be pushed to grow better.

Besides the lack of screens, another deficiency that his ministry is pursuing is strengthening training, especially in screenplay writing, so that film works are favored by audiences.

“One of our problems is screenplay writing; the story might be great, but if the screenplay is bad, the film will be bad. This is one thing that must be strengthened with workshops to build capacity and a lot of screenplay writing,” said Minister Fadli Zon. ***