In October 2019, Anwar released the folk horror "Impetigore" ("Perempuan Tanah Jahanam") as his eighth feature film, becoming a critical and commercial success. At the 2020 Citra Award, Anwar won his second Citra Award for Best Director as well as a nomination in the Best Original Screenplay category. He also received another nomination in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for writing Kimo Stamboel's remake of Indonesian horror classic "The Queen of Black Magic". "Impetigore"'s 17 nominations broke the record for most nominations received by a film which was previously held by Mouly Surya's "Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts" with 14 nominations in 2018. Internationally, it premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival to generally positive reviews. Josh Hurtado of Screen Anarchy praises Anwar for continuing "to carve out a niche for himself as one of the world's leading genre auteurs, going from strength to strength, he's got an incredibly impressive body of work already, and seems to only get better as he becomes more ambitious." In November 2020, "Impetigore" was announced as Indonesia's official submission for the 2021 Academy Awards.