About
Ari Ernesto Purnama is a film and screen media scholar, educator, and filmmaker based in the Netherlands. He is a tenured Assistant Professor of Film and Screen Media at Utrecht University, where his research and teaching focus on film aesthetics, global cinema and screen media industries, audiovisual production cultures, and the politics of (in)visibility and representation.
His research examines how audiovisual styles emerge from the interplay of artistic choices, technologies, production practices, and cultural contexts. His work encompasses cinematography, lighting, color, camera movement, production design, and cinematic atmospheres, with particular attention to the Global South cinemas, including Southeast Asian and East African cinemas. He is the author of Film Style in Contemporary Indonesian Cinema, 1998–2018 (Edinburgh University Press, 2023).
His current research explores the representation of Asian men and interracial intimacy in narrative cinema and transnational audiovisual archives. His second monograph, Visibly Invisible: Asian Men and Interracial Intimacy in Narrative Cinema, is under contract with Edinburgh University Press. In 2026, he was awarded an NWO (Dutch Research Council) Open Competition grant as Principal Investigator for his project Visibly Invisible? Asian Men in Interracial Relationships in Dutch and Asian Audiovisual Archives. His other research interests include audiovisual media atmospheres, informal filmmaking practices and approaches, and the relationship between screen media and youth mental health and wellbeing.
Purnama's teaching and pedagogical interests span film analysis, audiovisual aesthetics, global cinema, and the relationship between theory and creative practice. He is particularly interested in educational approaches that combine critical analysis and creative experimentation, and critically explores the impact of emerging technologies, including generative artificial intelligence.
He is an elected Fellow of the Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image (SCSMI), an elected member of the Utrecht Young Academy (UYA), and a co-founding member of the Society for Atmospheric Studies (SOFAS)—an interdisciplinary scholarly society examining atmospheres as affective phenomena across cultures. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Media Practice and Education and has contributed to international academic committees, conferences, and scholarly initiatives.
Before joining Utrecht University, Purnama held academic positions at the University of Oregon, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Groningen, and Utrecht University of Applied Sciences.