Cannes Sidebar Film Training Program Expands to Semaine de la Critique With Next Step Studio, First Edition Set in Indonesia

Continuing the concept launched by La Factory at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2013, the initiative has helped nurture a wave of emerging filmmaking talent across the globe. From Taiwan to Chile, Lebanon to the Philippines, and Ceará in Brazil, more than 80 filmmakers have taken part in the program, with nearly 50 debut feature films subsequently produced. 

Among its alumni is Midi Z, whose feature Nina Wu premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard, and Alireza Khatami, who debuted in Venice with Oblivion Verses. His latest feature, The Things You Kill, premiered at Sundance last year. Following Directors’ Factory Lebanon in 2017, Ahmad Ghossein made his feature debut with All This Victory, which was selected for Venice Critics’ Week in 2019, where it won the Grand Prize. Fellow Lebanese participant Mounia Akl also debuted at the Venice Film Festival with Costa Brava, Lebanon in 2021. 

Produced and financed locally, the program supports the emergence of new cinematic voices worldwide. Each year, it is hosted in a different country, bringing together four newly formed pairs—four local and four international filmmakers—each developing first or second feature, to co-write and co-direct four 15-minute short films. 

With Next Step Studio, La Semaine de la Critique is further expanding its Next Step workshops, designed to support rising talent transitioning from shorts to feature filmmaking originally reserved for directors whose shorts screened in Critics’ Week. Latest ones being Some Rain Must Fall (Berlinale 2024) by Qiu Yang (Next Step Workshop 2020), with short film She Runs selected in the 2019 SDLC; Aisha Can’t Fly Away (Cannes 2025) by Morad Mostafa (Next Step Workshop 2023), with short films I promise you paradise selected in the 2023 SDLC; and Andrei Epure with Don’t Let Me Die (Locarno 2025), the film was developed during Next Step Workshop 2021 with short films Interfon 15 selected in the 2021 SDLC. 

Now the Semaine de la Critique are gradually opening up to guest projects. This will be the case with Next Step Studio Indonesia, which will promote exchanges between local and international filmmakers, some of whom have participated in Next Step workshops. The inaugural edition is produced by Yulia Evina Bhara, Amerta Kusuma of KawanKawan Media, and Dominique (DW), creator and curator of the program is entirely funded by local institutions and the Jakarta government, in partnership with the French Embassy and the Institut Français in Indonesia.

The four emerging Indonesian directors selected to take part in the inaugural Next Step Studio are:

Reza Fahriyansyah with HOLY CROWD, co-directed with Malaysian director Ananth Subramaniam, whose short film Bleat! premiered in Semaine de la Critique last year. Reza Fahriyansyah’s short film Dancing Colors premiered in the Locarno Film Festival’s Leopard of Tomorrow competition in 2022. He now brings the religious tale HOLY CROWD starring Prilly Latuconsina (Andragogy – TIFF 2022), Yusuf Mahardika and Arswendy Bening Swara (both appeared in Venice winner Autobiography).

Shelby Kho (I Took a Nap and I Miss You) is paired with Burmese director Sein Lyan Tun, whose short film Everybody's Gotta Love Sometimes screened in Busan 2023. They will present ORIGINAL WOUND, starring Agnes Naomi, Omara Esteghlal, and Vivian Idris. The synopsis reads: “After their mother’s death, a brother and sister remain in the house shaped by her control, negotiating conflicting memories of abuse and care. As ritual, body, and memory intertwine, their grief exposes a deeper entrapment, one that persists beyond her absence.”

Indonesian actor-turned-director Reza Rahadian, who made his feature directorial debut in Busan last year with On Your Lap, will present ANNISA, co-directed with Filipino director Sam Manasca, whose film Cross My Heart and Hope to Die competed in Short Orizzonti 2023. ANNISA tells the story of a blind teenage girl navigating a world shaped primarily by sound in a crowded housing complex.

Last but not least, Khozy Rizal returns to Cannes Film Festival after Basri & Salma in a Never-Ending Comedy with MOTHERS ARE MOTHERING, co-directed with Singapore’s Lam Li Shuen (Born of the Yam – Berlinale Forum Expanded 2026). The film follows Nia, 50, in an abusive marriage navigates a fragmented inner world where desire, memory, and ritual intertwine. A reunion with a former lover reawakens intimacy but exposes the persistence of violence and entrapment. As reality dissolves into hallucination, she reaches for a final, elusive escape. The film stars Happy Salma and Asmara Abigail.

The 2026 Semaine de la Critique runs from 13 to 21 May in Cannes.