Joko Anwar

Joko Anwar (born 3 January 1976) is an Indonesian film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Prior to becoming a filmmaker, he worked as a journalist and film critic.

Anwar first rose to prominence for co-writing Nia Dinata's 2003 hit Arisan! which won five awards at the 2004 Citra Award. He then made his feature film directorial debut with the romantic comedy Joni's Promise in 2005, gaining a Best Director nomination at the 2005 Citra Award. He has since directed a wide range of genres: the noir thriller Dead Time: Kala (2007), psychological thriller The Forbidden Door (2009), supernatural horror Satan's Slaves (2017) and its sequel Satan's Slaves 2: Communion (2022), and live-action superhero Gundala (2019). In 2024, Anwar's anthology series Joko Anwar's Nightmares and Daydreams was released on Netflix.

Anwar has won 3 Citra Awards out of 13 nominations for directing and screenwriting. He won the Best Director Awards twice: in 2015 for the urban drama A Copy of My Mind and in 2020 for the folk horror Impetigore as well as the Best Screenplay Award in 2008 for co-writing Mouly Surya's Fiksi.. He has also been nominated for a total of 7 Maya Awards, winning Best Director for Satan's Slaves in 2017. As of 2022, two of Anwar films are in top 10 list of most watched Indonesian films of all time: Satan's Slaves 2: Communion and Satan's Slaves, respectively at third and ninth, with 6.39 million and 4.2 million admissions.

As an actor, Anwar has appeared in multiple films, including starring roles in Edwin's award-winning feature film debut Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly opposite Ladya Cheryl.

In 2019, Indonesia Tatler included Anwar in its list of the most influential film directors in modern Indonesian cinema.