Full Service
2023 | 10m 1s | English and Indonesian
Short Film Series
February 7 at 3:30 PM
2026 CAPE Short FIlm
For far too long, Hollywood has been an insular, exclusive club…and somewhat of a “boys’ club” at that.
But times are changing. CAPE joined forces with the immediate past president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Emmy Award– and Golden Globe–winning Hollywood producer Janet Yang in 2022 to start the Julia S. Gouw Short Film Challenge, which provides short film production grants and unparalleled networking opportunities to Asian and Pacific Islander women and non-binary filmmakers.
CAPE will moderate a panel with the filmmakers following the short film screenings.
An Indonesian woman gets more than she expects when she resorts to hiring an escort to bring to her cousin’s engagement party.
Summary
Starring:
Michele Selene Ang, Yoshi Sudarso, Savira Windyani
About the Filmmaker:
Soma Helmi - Born to an Indonesian father and a Polish mother, Soma Helmi hails from Bali, Indonesia.
She works frequently with Catherine Hardwicke as a creative consultant, most recently on Ms. Hardwicke’s feature Mafia Mamma (2022) for Bleecker Street. Soma's work has screened at Sundance, Hollyshorts, Outfest, and Amazon's New Voices Film Festival, among many others. She has shadowed directors on multiple shows, including Homeland (Lesli Linka Glatter), Grey's Anatomy (Debbie Allen), Good Trouble (Marco Fargnoli), and School Spirits (Brian Dannelly).
Soma began her career working as an Art Director for J. Walter Thompson in Jakarta (2004), where her clients were Unilever and Pfizer. Starting in 2010, she would go on to direct commercial spots for Google, Klondike, Nike, Chevrolet, and Campbell's.
She is a 2021-2023 Paramount Viewfinder Directors Program fellow and was named one of the “8 directors to watch” by Alliance of Women Directors. Soma is on the 2021 CAPE List x Blacklist and was recently the recipient of the inaugural CAPE Julia Gouw and Janet Yang short film challenge grant.
Soma’s passion is to tell character-driven stories and further representation on the screen, especially that of the Asian experience. She has just returned from directing all 8 episodes of Still Single, a new Indonesian drama set for streaming in 2025.