Mouly Surya
Born in Jakarta, Mouly Surya is considered one of the most promising female filmmakers in Indonesia. After graduating from Swinburne University in Melbourne with a BA in Media and Literature, she earned an MA in Film and Television from Bond University in Queensland. In addition to making films, she also teaches directing in Jakarta.
Her debut film, Fiksi, won numerous awards, including Best Director at JIFFEST 2008. Her second feature, What They Don't Talk About When They Talk About Love (2013), premiered in competition at Sundance. The film received the NETPAC Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, was nominated for Best Feature Film at the 2013 Maya Awards, and for Favorite Film at the 2014 Indonesian Movie Awards.
Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts, Surya’s first international co-production, premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2017. In 2018, it received ten Citra Awards—the Indonesian equivalent of the Oscars—including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Leading Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Music, Best Sound, Best Art Direction, and Best Editing. It also received awards for Best Cinematography and Best Sound at the Asian Academy Creative Awards. In 2019, the film was Indonesia’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 91st Academy Awards.
Surya has twice received the Citra Award for Best Director—first in 2008 for her directorial debut Fiksi, and again in 2018 for Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts. She remains the first and only woman to have won this award. In 2023, Surya received the Kurosawa Akira Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Perang Kota – This City Is a Battlefield is her fifth feature film. Adapted from Mochtar Lubis’s 1952 novel A Road with No End, it marks Surya’s first adaptation, her first historical film, and her first feature with a male lead.
