Oscar-winning European films “Ida” and “Citizenfour” are among 62 films to be screened in Jakarta during the 15th edition of Europe on Screen film festival in May.

The screening of Swedish drama “The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared” on May 1 will kick off the 10-day festival known as EOS.

The opening movie is part of the festival’s Xtra program featuring box office films, Oscar and Cannes winners or nominees and films featuring famous talents and filmmakers.

“Ida,” a Polishdrama about an orphan brought up by nuns in the convent and planning to take her own vows to become a nun, will be screened at ErasmusHuis on May 3 and at Goethe Haus on May 8.

Pawel Pawlikowski’s film swept the major categories at last year’s European Film Festival including best film, best director, best screenwriter, best cinematographer and winner of audience award.

Earlier this year, “Ida” won the best foreign language film at the Academy Awards in Hollywood.

“Citizenfour,” winner of best documentary in Academy Awards and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) this year, will grace the screens on May 2 at Goethe Haus and May 10 at Erasmus Huis.

The German production by director Laura Poitras reveals her Hong Kong encounter with America’s most wanted whistle blower Edward Snowden who exposed the massive surveillance by America’s National Security Agency (NSA).

Recent films by stars like Jeremy Irons, Bill Nighy, JimSturgess and Forest Whitaker are also set to screen during the May 1 to 10 festival.

Irons, who visited Jakarta two years ago to promote his documentary film “Trashed,” stars in Portugal’s “Night Train to Lisbon.”

Colin Crooks from the European Union in Jakarta said the film festival is Europe’s contribution to Indonesia and the world.

Festival director Orlow Seunke said the festival is a cultural exchange between European filmmakers and Indonesian audiences, but the concern lies further than just film screenings. The festival team also raised concerns regarding film preservation and restoration — a problem facing Sinematek Indonesia, home to more than 700 Indonesian films from 1945 until now.

Seunke said audio and video files in Indonesia are disappearing due to lack of efforts to preserve them.

“We are worried with materials that are not used frequently,” he said. “Nothing worse for a film than the air conditioner that goes on and off, and the heat and humidity will ruin the film.”

Efforts to begin preserving Indonesian films began in 2007, Seunke has been working alongside Kiki Muchtar from Yayasan Pusat Film Indonesia and Adisurya Abdy from Sinematek.

Materials stored in Sinematek are vulnerable to damage because of the harsh environment in Jakarta.

With financial help from European embassies and the Ford Foundation, preservation has begun and the organization now owns a film scanner machine to digitize the film. At the moment, their major project is to map all materials at Sinematek and save them into a digital format.

For screening times and venues, check out europeonscreen.org.