Joko Anwar (born 3 January 1976) is an Indonesian filmmaker. Prior to
becoming a filmmaker, he worked as a journalist, film critic, and
later a writer and actor. He is known as a versatile filmmaker whose
works ranging from award-winning arthhouse movies to box office hits
including romantic comedy film Joni's Promise (2005), noir thriller
Dead Time: Kala (2007), thriller film The Forbidden Door (2009), drama
film A Copy of My Mind (2015), horror film Satan's Slaves (2017), and
superhero film Gundala (2019).Anwar was born in Medan, North Sumatera
where he grew up watching kung fu movies and horror films. He had also
written and directed plays as a student. He went to the prestigious
Bandung Institute of Technology to study Aerospace Engineering because
his family could not afford to send him to a film school. After
graduating in 1999, he became a journalist at The Jakarta Post and
later a film critic.During an interview with Nia Dinata for The
Jakarta Post, the film producer was impressed and asked him to write
for her new project which was later titled Arisan (2003). The film
earned commercial and critical success and won numerous awards
including "Best Film" at the 2005 Indonesian Film Festival and "Best
Movie" at the 2004 MTV Indonesia Movie Awards. He went on to direct a
feature film, the romantic comedy Janji Joni (Joni's Promise) (2005),
which he wrote when he was in college in 1998. This feature
directorial debut was the #1 box office hit in Indonesia that year and
won "Best Movie" at the 2005 MTV Indonesia Movie Awards. SET
Foundation which is chaired by renowned Indonesian filmmaker Garin
Nugroho gave him a special award for innovative storytelling in a
movie. Janji Joni (Joni's Promise) was selected in several prestigious
international film festivals including by Sydney Film Festival and
Busan International Film Festival. The film revived the career of
Barry Prima, an international cult martial-art actor, who is Anwar's
childhood hero. Joko Anwar Top Movies & Young Movies