Many would argue that Indonesia’s mainstream entertainment industry is chock full of talentless (yet beautiful) people and derivative, bland content.
But in 2015, we saw a number of truly talented Indonesian creative types rise above the crowd with their impressive works.
Most of these people have gone on to achieve national and international recognition this year. From visionary film directors and musicians to graphic artists, the future of creative talent in Indonesia looks bright indeed.
Here are seven terrifically talented Indonesians that we had to write about this year:
Ayu Gani: Winner of Asia’s Next Top Model
Ayu Gani made history by becoming the first Indonesian to win the hit reality tv show Asia’s Next Top Model. The 23-year-old from Solo won the third edition of the contest, which entitled her to a modeling contract in London.
Ayu Gusfanz: 10-year-old guitar god
Ten-year-old Ayu Gusfanz became a viral sensation because of her unbelievable guitar skills. While a standard electric guitar may be as large as her frame, Ayu wowed Youtube with her ability to cover insanely difficult songs like the one by Dragonforce that she slays in the above video.
Jati Putra Pratama: Surrealist graphic designer
Jati Putra Pratama probably could’ve worked with Christopher Nolan on creating surreal, dream-like landscapes for the movie Inception. Jati’s mind-bending landscape imagery caught the imagination of many on Reddit before going viral on the internet.
Anindito Wisnu: sketcher of life-like celebrity portraits
Another artist who took the internet by storm. Anindito is an Indonesian architect who sketches incredibly gorgeous and life-like portraits of local and international celebrities. He’s way more talented than those sketch artists one would find on the streets of Kota Tua.
Joko Anwar: Visionary film director
If there’s one thing that’s true about Joko Anwar, it’s that he doesn’t like to be pigeonholed into one specific genre in filmmaking. It certainly paid off in 2015 as he won his first best director award at the Indonesian Film Festival for the internationally critically acclaimed A Copy of My Mind, before becoming the first Indonesian director to write and direct an HBO series with the debut of his show Halfworlds.
Check out our exclusive interview with Joko Anwar here, in which he talks about A Copy of My Mind, Halfworlds, and the future of Indonesian cinema.
Joey Alexander: Grammy-nominated jazz prodigy
It’s hard to believe that Joey Alexander is only 12-years-old, yet he’s already one of the hottest jazz artists in the world right now. The Bali native could enter the record books by becoming the youngest ever individual Grammy Award winner, after having impressively been nominated in two jazz categories.
Ego Firnando, champion beatboxer
Another young prodigy, Ego Firnando is one gifted beatboxer. That is why he won the Java Beatbox Festival this year, which pits the best beatboxers in the country against each other. After his success, Ego is expected to compete in the worldwide beatboxing championships next year.
