ASEAN's Next Soft Power Success Story Is Already on Screen

Inaugural Ho Chi Minh Film Festival (HIFF).

For decades, Southeast Asia has often appeared on cinema screens through someone else’s lens. Hollywood, European studios, and increasingly East Asian productions have shaped international perceptions of the region. While ASEAN has produced acclaimed filmmakers and globally recognized films, many have remained confined to domestic audiences or international film festivals (Engendering ASEAN Identity: The Role of Film, 2015).

That is beginning to change. A growing number of cross-border productions, regional funding initiatives, and streaming platforms are allowing Southeast Asian filmmakers to collaborate in ways that were once financially or logistically difficult. These partnerships are creating more than better films—they are helping build a shared regional creative economy (The ASEAN Creative Economy, Digitalization and Sustainability, 2026).

If ASEAN is serious about strengthening its global influence, it should view film co-productions not simply as entertainment, but as strategic investments in culture, diplomacy, and economic growth (Engendering ASEAN Identity: The Role of Film, 2015).

Key Facts

• ASEAN's creative economy continues to expand alongside the region's digital transformation (The ASEAN Creative Economy, Digitalization and Sustainability, 2026).

• Streaming platforms are increasing international demand for Southeast Asian stories.

• Film co-productions reduce production costs while expanding regional distribution (Study on The Development Potential of The Content Industry in East Asia And the ASEAN Region, 2012).

• ASEAN governments are increasingly supporting cultural industries through grants, incentives, and creative economy policies (The ASEAN Creative Economy, Digitalization and Sustainability, 2026).

• Regional productions strengthen both economic integration and cultural understanding (Engendering ASEAN Identity: The Role of Film, 2015).

Background

For much of ASEAN’s history, film industries developed independently. Indonesia built one of the region’s largest domestic markets. Thailand became recognized for horror and commercial cinema. Vietnam’s industry expanded rapidly in recent years, while Singapore positioned itself as a regional production hub (The ASEAN Creative Economy, Digitalization and Sustainability, 2026).

Yet despite geographical proximity, relatively few productions involved meaningful collaboration across Southeast Asia. Financing, language barriers, distribution challenges, and differing regulations often made regional partnerships difficult (Study on The Development Potential of The Content Industry in East Asia And the ASEAN Region, 2012).

Today, those barriers are beginning to weaken. Streaming services have created demand for local stories with regional appeal, while digital production tools make cross-border collaboration easier than ever before.

The ASEAN View

ASEAN often speaks about regional integration through trade, infrastructure, and investment. Less attention is paid to cultural integration. Yet, culture is one of the most effective ways to build regional identity. Films allow audiences in Manila to better understand Jakarta, introduce Vietnamese history to Malaysian viewers, or showcase Cambodian traditions to Singaporean audiences (Engendering ASEAN Identity: The Role of Film, 2015).

Regional cinema therefore strengthens not only creative industries but also people-to-people connections—one of ASEAN’s longstanding objectives (The ASEAN Creative Economy, Digitalization and Sustainability, 2026).

Analysis

Soft Power Is Built Through Stories

Countries increasingly compete not only through military capability or economic strength but through culture. South Korea's global cultural influence did not emerge by accident. Decades of public investment, export promotion, and industry support helped transform K-pop, television dramas, and cinema into major sources of economic growth and international influence. ASEAN has the opportunity to pursue its own model one rooted in the region's cultural diversity rather than a single national identity. (Managing Creativity and the Arts in South-East Asia, 2023).

ASEAN possesses equally rich stories but has yet to present them collectively to the world. Regional co-productions offer an opportunity to change that (The ASEAN Creative Economy, Digitalization and Sustainability, 2026).

Streaming Has Changed Everything

Twenty years ago, a film often depended on domestic cinemas for success. Today, streaming platforms allow productions to reach audiences across multiple countries almost instantly.

Digital platforms have effectively created a regional audience of more than 680 million people. A co-production no longer needs to succeed in only one national market to become commercially viable. Success across Southeast Asia can now provide the scale that individual domestic markets often could not (Study on The Development Potential of The Content Industry in East Asia And the ASEAN Region, 2012).

Creative Industries Are Economic Policy

Film production creates employment well beyond actors and directors. Every production supports writers, designers, visual effects artists, caterers, construction workers, tourism operators, musicians, transport providers, and technology companies.

Viewed this way, cinema becomes industrial policy. Every successful regional production helps retain creative talent that might otherwise leave for larger markets (The ASEAN Creative Economy, Digitalization and Sustainability, 2026).

Diversity Is ASEAN's Competitive Advantage

Unlike many regions, ASEAN does not need to invent cultural diversity. It already has it.

Hundreds of languages. Thousands of islands. Multiple religions. Centuries of shared history (Engendering ASEAN Identity: The Role of Film, 2015).

The challenge is turning that diversity into stories that resonate both regionally and internationally. Co-productions allow filmmakers to achieve exactly that without sacrificing local identity (The ASEAN Creative Economy, Digitalization and Sustainability, 2026).

Tourism

Successful films rarely generate benefits only for the film industry. They also promote tourism, attract foreign investment, increase demand for local products, and strengthen national brands. Every internationally successful ASEAN production therefore becomes an advertisement for the region itself.

What Should Happen Next?

Expand ASEAN Co-Production Funds

Governments should establish dedicated regional financing mechanisms that encourage collaborative filmmaking between ASEAN members (Study on The Development Potential of The Content Industry in East Asia And the ASEAN Region, 2012).

Reduce Regulatory Barriers

Simplifying visas, customs procedures for equipment, and intellectual property arrangements would make cross-border productions more attractive (Study on The Development Potential of The Content Industry in East Asia And the ASEAN Region, 2012).

Invest in Regional Talent

Film schools, exchange programs, and joint training initiatives could help develop the next generation of Southeast Asian filmmakers (The ASEAN Creative Economy, Digitalization and Sustainability, 2026).

ASEAN's greatest cultural asset is not that its members are similar—it is that they are different (Engendering ASEAN Identity: The Role of Film, 2015).

Regional film co-productions allow those differences to become strengths rather than barriers. If Southeast Asia wants to build global influence over the coming decades, it should invest as heavily in storytellers as it does in ports, factories, and digital infrastructure (The ASEAN Creative Economy, Digitalization and Sustainability, 2026).

If ASEAN wants the world to understand Southeast Asia through Southeast Asian eyes, then the region must invest not only in its economies, but also in the people who tell its stories (Engendering ASEAN Identity: The Role of Film, 2015).