Vaterland or A Bule Named Yanto won the CANAL+ Award at Cannes Critics' Week 2026. Here is the film, the director, and why Yogyakarta is at the centre of it all.

On the closing night of the 65th edition of Cannes Critics' Week, May 21, 2026, two short films were announced as winners from a competition that had received more than 1,050 submissions from 106 countries. One was Skinny Boots by French director Romain F. Dubois, which took the Sony Discovery Prize. The other was an Indonesia-Germany co-production shot entirely in Yogyakarta.

Vaterland or A Bule Named Yanto, directed by Berthold Wahjudi, won the CANAL+ Award at Cannes Critics' Week 2026. It premiered at Critics' Week on May 19 and won two days later. It is one of the two most recognized short films at one of the world's most significant film festivals in 2026.

If you have been following Indonesia's extraordinary week at Cannes 2026, Vaterland is the story that arrived last and landed hardest. Not a selection. A winner.

Berthold Wahjudi director Vaterland A Bule Named Yanto Cannes Critics Week 2026 CANAL+ Award
 

What the Film Is and What It Is Actually About

Vaterland or A Bule Named Yanto is a 26-minute short film, an Indonesia-Germany co-production between Aftersun Creative Indonesia and Madfilm of Germany, with a majority Indonesian crew and the entirety of its shooting done in Yogyakarta.

The premise is deceptively simple. When German-Indonesian Yanto, mid-20s, visits his younger sister in Yogyakarta, he expects a simple reunion. Until he realizes she belongs more effortlessly than he ever has. As envy and dissonance between siblings surface, Yanto's journey becomes a bittersweet exploration of mixed-race identity, belonging, and alienation between two cultures.

Vaterland, the title, is the German word for fatherland. A Bule Named Yanto is the Indonesian framing of the same person, from the outside. The film is told in German, Indonesian, Javanese, and English. Four languages for one person who fits fully into none of them.

The cast includes Aggai Saibuma and Sarah Muckarin Röser. Cinematography was handled by Noah Böhm. Sound by Veronika Neuber and Fikri Ferdiansyah. The screenplay was written by Berthold Wahjudi himself.

The film was produced by Annisa Adjam, founder of Aftersun Creative Indonesia, and Bagus Suitrawan, alongside German producers Jonas Egert and Sylvain Cruiziat.

 
Why Yogyakarta and Why This Story

Yogyakarta as the setting for a story about not quite belonging there

The decision to shoot entirely in Yogyakarta is the film's most important creative choice. Yogyakarta is one of the most culturally specific cities in Indonesia: the center of Javanese royal tradition, batik, kraton, and a cultural identity so distinct that belonging there is immediately legible to anyone inside the culture and almost invisible to anyone outside it.

Placing a German-Indonesian protagonist in that city, someone who looks different, speaks the language imperfectly, and watches his sister belong effortlessly to a place he should also belong to, creates the specific friction the film is built around. Yogyakarta is not just a backdrop. It is the argument.

Producer Annisa Adjam described the experience of taking the film to Cannes: "Being able to make a film set in Yogyakarta with the perspective of a minority, a person with a mixed cultural background like this, and then getting a very good reaction from Cannes audiences, has been a very meaningful experience for us."

The CANAL+ Award is given by CANAL+, the French television and film distribution network, to the short film in Critics' Week competition that the network selects for its programming. Winning it means Vaterland will be broadcast and distributed through one of Europe's most significant film platforms. For an independent Indonesia-Germany co-production shot in Yogyakarta, that distribution reach is the next chapter of what the award opens.

Vaterland was selected into Critics' Week competition alongside the four Next Step Studio Indonesia 2026 films that also premiered at the same program. That means Indonesia had five films at Cannes Critics' Week 2026. The one that won was the one almost nobody had heard of before it screened.

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Four Indonesian Films at Cannes 2026: What Each One Is — rsvpclique.com

The Film Won. Now It Goes to CANAL+.
Vaterland or A Bule Named Yanto won the CANAL+ Award at Cannes Critics' Week 2026 on May 21. The film premiered on May 19. It was shot entirely in Yogyakarta. For updates on screenings and distribution, follow @aftersuncreative on Instagram. The film will be broadcast through CANAL+ following the award.

Sources of Photos
All photography from Vaterland or A Bule Named Yanto was sourced from official production and festival documentation.

Aftersun Creative Indonesia Official Instagram — @aftersuncreative