Globally, the film industry decreased significantly due to COVID-19, starting in March 2020. Physical distancing, lockdown protocols, and other restricted regulations were applied. Vaccines were just founded and were not massively distributed. At that time, no official health protocols nor standard operating procedures regarding film production and movie theaters were applied in the “New Normal ."The filmmaking businesses were threatened since film productions were restricted and movie theaters were closed down. The big dilemma occurred: which one was the priority: the safety of the crews and talents or the sustainability of national film industry? However, in 2021 there were some signs of progress. It started with Makmum 2 (December 2021), which obtained more than one million viewers. It is followed by Ku Kira Kau Rumah (February 2022) and KKN Desa Penari (April 2022), which reached 2,2 million and 3 million viewers, respectively. In prestigious film festivals, the movies such as Seperti Dendam, Rindu Harus Dibayar Tuntas, and Yuni won as the best pictures at Locarno Film Festival (August 2021) and Toronto Film Festival (September 2021), respectively. Many films showed cases in Festival Film Indonesia (December 2021). These have shown that the Indonesian film industry is becoming better commercially and critically. The paper investigates how the Indonesian filmmakers tried to adjust to the New Normal era from both creative works and business strategy perspectives. In particular, the authors will do the mapping on the best practices of health protocols applied in film production.

Keywords

Film industry, business strategy, health protocols, COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesian movies