Kimo Stamboel

Kimo Stamboel (born Mochammad Maliki Stamboel on 25 June 1980) is an Indonesian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for his works on the horror genres both as himself and also as part of The Mo Brothers with friend Timo Tjahjanto.

Stamboel launched his filmmaking career in 2004 with the release of his directorial debut Bunian in 2004 and achieved mainstream success with the release of slasher hit Macabre (also known as Rumah Dara) in 2009. The duo received a Citra Award for Best Director nomination in 2016 for Headshot.

Early life Kimo went to school in Australia, where he met future collaborator Timo Tjahjanto.

Career

2004–2016: Directorial debut and The Mo Brothers

In 2004, Stamboel released his feature film debut Bunian based on a screenplay he co-wrote with Virra I. Dewi. The shooting took place in Sydney, Australia, where he was studying at the time. Filming took place over the course of 2002 and 2003 as the crew and cast were only available during the weekends. The short was later included in the 2008 anthology film Takut: Faces of Fear. Well received by the public, they decided to develop a feature film based on the short and released Macabre in 2009 with Julie Estelle and Shareefa Daanish in the lead roles. The film received praise during its run at several film festivals and launched the two into mainstream recognition. Stamboel and Tjahjanto appeared among the patrons of Herosase in Joko Anwar's The Forbidden Door.

Stamboel and Tjahjanto then directed, produced, and wrote the horror-thriller Killers which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. It received positive reviews upon release with a 73% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Their next project was the 2016 action film Headshot which stars Iko Uwais and Chelsea Islan. For their work on Headshot, Stamboel and Tjahjanto were nominated for Best Director at the 2016 Citra Award but lost to Riri Riza (Athirah).

2017–present: DreadOut, The Queen of Black Magic, and upcoming projects

Stamboel's next project was announced in 2018 to be an adaptation of popular horror-fantasy online game DreadOut. He began writing a screenplay for the film adaptation in 2014 but eventually decided to create an origin story while working closely with the game developers. Joko Anwar wrote the screenplay while Ario Bayu and Hannah Al Rashid lead the ensemble cast. At the 2020 Citra Award, the film won two awards out of six nominations with Ade Firman Hakim winning Best Supporting Actor and Gaga Nugraha winning Best Visual Effects.

In February 2020, Stamboel's directing partner Timo Tjahjanto on his Twitter account hinting at a possible sequel to Macabre. However, no official confirmation has been made.

Stamboel will replace Rizal Mantovani in the director's seat of the third Jailangkung film. He will also co-write the screenplay with Rinaldy Puspoyo.