By Film Industry Watch – October 2025
Thanks to a comment left on a related article we’ve been informed that Cannes Critics’ Week has announced Next Step Studio Indonesia, a filmmaker incubator launching in 2026 that will produce four short films – all guaranteed to premiere at Critics’ Week. The initiative, created in partnership with Indonesian production company KawanKawan Media and French producer Dominique Welinski’s company DW, is described as an “evolution” of the former La Factory program that previously operated at Directors’ Fortnight.
While Critics’ Week frames the project as a bold expansion of its talent-development mission, this new iteration raises familiar questions about transparency, selection ethics, and the consolidation of influence inside the Cannes ecosystem.
As with earlier programs of this type, Next Step Studio operates at the intersection of curation and production – a model that has drawn increasing scrutiny from filmmakers who are asked to trust that Cannes remains a fair and open selection platform.
A Program That Guarantees a Cannes Premiere – Again
According to Variety, the four co-directed shorts – financed entirely by Indonesian institutional and municipal funds – will automatically premiere at Critics’ Week during a dedicated “Next Step Presents” showcase.
This structure mirrors the criticized logic of the former Factory program:
- Films are produced by the same individuals who help shape or influence festival programming
- National cultural institutions fund the productions upfront, while the Cannes premiere is treated as a built-in outcome
- The “selection” becomes procedural rather than competitive
Critics’ Week’s official framing calls this an “outreach initiative.” But the practical effect remains the same: a carve-out inside Cannes for films produced through a very specific set of relationships.
To be clear: this does not imply wrongdoing or rule-breaking. But it does reinforce an industry pattern in which institutional partnerships, not open submissions, determine what reaches Cannes screens.
Dominique Welinski’s Expanding Role Across Festival Pipelines
The program’s co-producer, Dominique Welinski, is central to this ecosystem. She is credited with originating the Factory concept, which has long blended curatorial influence, international talent scouting, public financing, and premiere guarantees.
With Next Step Studio now integrated inside Critics’ Week, Welinski’s influence extends into:
- Project selection and development
- Production of the short films
- A guaranteed Cannes platform for the films she helps produce
This double position – producer of films that debut in a section in which she maintains an ongoing structural partnership – echoes the concerns raised in earlier FilmIndustryWatch investigations.
Again, this is not an accusation of misconduct. But structural conflicts of interest do not require bad intent; they simply require overlapping roles that make transparency harder and gatekeeping easier.
A Closed Circuit or a Talent Pipeline?
The program will select eight directors: four Indonesian and four international. All pairs will co-write and co-direct 15-minute films funded entirely by Indonesian public bodies, including:
- Jakarta municipal authorities
- Indonesian cultural institutions
- The Institut Français d’Indonésie
- The French Embassy in Indonesia
In effect, a local government finances films that bypass the submission process and go straight to Cannes. Then, after their guaranteed premiere, these shorts often travel to Sundance, Toronto, Clermont-Ferrand, and sometimes to broadcasters and streamers.
One cannot ignore the repeated pattern:
- Local government funds the films
- A single curator-producer supervises development
- Cannes guarantees a premiere slot
- A small network of filmmakers benefit from international exposure
- The same pipeline is replicated in multiple countries
The official narrative celebrates global exchange. Independent filmmakers might fairly ask whether this structure creates a parallel track where access depends less on open submissions and more on who controls the pipeline.
a Merit based Festival or a Production Studio Benefiting Festival employees?
Critics’ Week leadership describes the initiative as “a different formula but the same goal.” But the formula keeps evolving in a single direction:
- Festival sections partnering with producers
- Producers co-creating the films
- Films guaranteed Cannes premieres
- International institutions footing the bill
- A small group of recurring collaborators gaining repeated access
At what point does a festival section become a production studio with its own exhibition platform? Festivals exist to discover films – not to produce the films they will later showcase.
When both roles merge, even with the best intentions, the boundary between curation and self-selection becomes blurry.
The Big Picture: A System That Rewards Access Over Independence
More than 80 directors have passed through Factory-style programs over the last decade, and nearly 50 have completed their first features. That success rate is often cited as proof of the model’s value.
But what of the thousands of emerging filmmakers who submit films every year without the benefit of:
- institutional funding
- embassy partnerships
- festival-producer co-development
- pre-arranged Cannes premieres
The question is not whether Next Step Studio will help Indonesian filmmakers. It will.
The question is whether programs like these quietly reshape Cannes into an increasingly closed circuit, where access is mediated by a handful of influential producers and institutional partnerships rather than by open, equitable competition.
A Step Forward, or Another Step Away From Transparency?
Next Step Studio Indonesia may bring new voices to the global stage, and its intentions may be sincere. But sincerity does not eliminate structural conflicts. As more festival sections begin producing the films they screen, the need for transparency grows – not just in who is chosen, but how and why.
The industry deserves clarity.
Independent filmmakers deserve a level playing field.
And Cannes, as the world’s most symbolic film festival, deserves scrutiny when selection and production become entwined.
Film Industry Watch will continue monitoring this evolving model and its impact on festival access, fairness, and the broader filmmaking community.
SOURCES:
https://variety.com/2025/film/festivals/cannes-critics-week-next-step-studio-indonesia-1236558526
