Europe on Screen 2026 runs June 4 to 14 in Jakarta with free screenings from across Europe. Indonesia's longest-running international film festival opens for its 26th edition.

Every year since 1990, the European Union has brought its best films to Indonesia for free. No ticket purchase. No streaming subscription. No commercial release. Just walk into a cultural centre, register at the door, and watch cinema that most of the world has to pay to see.

Europe on Screen 2026 opens June 4 and runs until June 14 across Jakarta and six other Indonesian cities. If you have been following Indonesia's year at the intersection of global culture and cinema, this is the festival that sits at the centre of that conversation from the European side.

Road to EoS 2026, the pre-festival program, already ran across three weekends in May from May 15 to 24, screening 14 films from 14 countries at five venues across Jakarta including Institut Français Indonesia, Komunitas Salihara, SAE Indonesia, and the Austrian Embassy. The main festival opens in less than two weeks.

 
What Europe on Screen Is and Why the EU Built It Here

Europe on Screen exists because of a specific diplomatic conviction: that cinema is the most direct way to close the distance between cultures that have never shared a border.

Europe on Screen is an international film festival that focuses on showing the latest quality European films that are not released commercially in Indonesia and Asia. Founded in 1990 as the EU Film Festival and changed its name to Europe on Screen in 2003, EoS is the longest-running international film festival in Indonesia.

The festival is organized by the EU diplomatic and cultural representations in Indonesia, which means every European country with an embassy in Jakarta has a stake in what gets screened. Films are selected precisely because they will not arrive through commercial channels. The festival is the only way most Indonesian audiences will ever see them. That exclusivity is intentional. It is what makes showing up worth it.

The EU Ambassador and the EoS directors. The partnership that keeps the festival free.

Beyond screenings, Europe on Screen also runs the Short Film Pitching Project, a competition that has supported 20 Indonesian short films since 2018 and received 367 submissions in 2025, an 86 percent increase from the previous year. The festival is not just bringing European cinema to Indonesia. It is actively building Indonesian cinema as part of the same conversation.

On average, the festival screens 50 to 70 films and film programs in a year, with around 200 screening times within 10 days. The average number of audiences is around 20,000 to 30,000 spectators. Jakarta hosts 80 percent of all screenings and events. The remaining program takes place in Bandung, Denpasar, Medan, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, and Sidoarjo.

This is what 26 years of cultural diplomacy through cinema looks like from the inside.

 
What Road to EoS 2026 Built Before the Main Festival

Road to EoS is the pre-festival program that Europe on Screen runs every year before the main festival opens. Its purpose is not simply to warm up the audience. It is to expand who the audience is.

Road to EoS 2026 ran across three weekends in May. The first weekend on May 15 and 16 brought five films to the Austrian Embassy and SAE Indonesia, covering Cyprus, Austria, Norway, Greece, and Portugal. The second weekend on May 22 and 23 moved to Institut Français Indonesia with six films from France, Hungary, Spain, Slovenia, Denmark, and the Netherlands. The final weekend closed on Sunday May 24 at Komunitas Salihara Serambi with four films from Ireland, Finland, Portugal, and Italy.

The closing film of the entire Road to EoS 2026 run was Gloria! from Italy, directed by Margherita Vicario, which won the Special Jury Prize at Berlin International Film Festival 2024. Fourteen films. Fourteen countries. Five venues. Three weekends. All free.

By taking Road to EoS screenings outside the usual cultural centre circuit into venues like SAE Indonesia and Komunitas Salihara, the festival reached communities that might not otherwise find their way to Erasmus Huis or Goethe-Institut. That is the logic behind the program. New venues mean new audiences. New audiences mean the conversation gets broader before the main event even begins.

 
What to Expect at Europe on Screen 2026: June 4 to 14

Europe on Screen 2026 Jakarta June 4 14 main festival Erasmus Huis Goethe Institut IFI free screenings

Europe on Screen 2026 runs June 4 to 14, marking the festival's 26th edition. The full lineup has not yet been officially announced, but based on 26 years of consistent programming and the EoS 2025 edition which screened 55 films from 27 European countries with over 50 percent directed by women, the 2026 main festival will bring a curated selection of European films that have competed at Berlin, Cannes, Venice, and other major festivals.

Regular Jakarta venues include Erasmus Huis in Kuningan, Goethe-Institut in Menteng, Institut Français Indonesia on M.H. Thamrin, Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Kuningan, Austrian Embassy in Menteng, Kineforum in Cikini, and SAE Institute in Pejaten.

All screenings are free of charge. For Jakarta screenings, registration opens one hour before each film starts at the venue.

For a Jakarta audience that has been watching Indonesian cinema reach Cannes and Venice in 2026, Europe on Screen is the festival that completes that conversation from the other direction. Indonesia sends its films to Europe. Europe brings its films to Indonesia. June 4 to 14 is when that exchange lands at its most concentrated.

 
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Europe on Screen 2026 runs June 4 to 14 across Jakarta and six other Indonesian cities. All screenings are free with no ticket purchase required. Register at the venue one hour before each film. Follow @europeonscreen on Instagram  for the full lineup when announced. Mark June 4 in your calendar now.

  
Sources of Photos :
All photography from Europe on Screen 2026 and Road to EoS 2026 Jakarta screenings was sourced from official festival and venue documentation.

Europe on Screen Official Instagram — @europeonscreen

Polandia di Indonesia Official Website - www.gov.pl