At a Glance

• Film: Empat Musim Pertiwi (international title: Four Seasons in Java)
• Festival slot: World premiere, Centrepiece program, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2026, running September 10–20
• Director's track record: Kamila Andini's third TIFF selection, after The Seen and the Unseen (2017) and Yuni (2021), which won the Platform Prize
  Indonesia theatrical release: October 8, 2026
  
  

Four Indonesians stood under the TIFF step-and-repeat wall last week, and none of them were there as tourists. Empat Musim Pertiwi, known internationally as Four Seasons in Java, had its world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, and the red carpet arrivals turned into their own kind of headline.

Directed by Kamila Andini and produced by Ifa Isfansyah, the film stars Putri Marino as Pertiwi, a woman who returns to her hometown after two decades in prison, only to find the men who put her there still running the village. The film screened in TIFF's Centrepiece program, the festival's slot for internationally significant works, alongside titles from established world cinema names. It opens in Indonesian cinemas on October 8, 2026.

On the carpet, Marino wore a black-and-white checkered wrap piece by Lulu Lutfi Labibi, styled by Hagai Pakan  a silhouette that photographed as sculptural in daylight and almost architectural under festival lighting. Co-star Hana Malasan, who plays Niken, chose a metallic olive-gold set from Maison Baaz Couture, styled by the team behind styledbyrevashion, with structured shoulder detailing that caught every camera flash along the barricade. Andini herself opted for a black military-cut coat from a Wilsen Willim x The Real Disastr collaboration, styled by Hagai Pakan, trading typical director-casual for something closer to uniform.

The story follows Pertiwi as she comes home after twenty years away, only to discover the past hasn't moved on without her. It's Andini's fifth feature and, by her own account, her angriest. Researching the script meant sitting with material about violence and trauma that she found genuinely hard to shake.

"I wanted to curse a lot," Andini told Variety, describing what the research process for the film did to her.

That mood  restrained on the surface, furious underneath  is part of why TIFF programmers pulled the film into Centrepiece rather than a smaller sidebar. It's also Andini's second project with Marino after their Netflix series Gadis Kretek (Cigarette Girl), and reportedly the one with the most character workshops of her career so far.

Why Does an Indonesian Film Premiering in Toronto Matter?

Because it doesn't happen often, and Andini has said so herself. Indonesia isn't usually top of mind in Asian cinema conversations, let alone Southeast Asian ones, where Thailand and the Philippines tend to get named first. A world premiere in TIFF's Centrepiece program  not a regional showcase, but the same slot handling major international titles  is a specific kind of validation. It also explains why the red carpet moment landed the way it did back home: this wasn't a junket photo, it was proof of a seat at the table.

The film's cast list also includes Christine Hakim and Arya Saloka, with Ifa Isfansyah producing under Forka Films in an eight-country co-production spanning Indonesia, Singapore, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, France, Poland, and Thailand.