Student wins online short film festival

Thinking of You by Vietnamese-American Vu Quang Huy has won the Golden
Heart prize for best film at YxineFF, Vietnam's first online short film
festival.

The chemical biology student from the University of California (UC) also
received prizes for best director and best cinematography at a ceremony
held at HCM City's BHD Cinema Star on Dec. 26.

American student of the UC, Christy Yang won the prize for best actor.

Huy's film, produced in 2009, is a vignette about a quirky flower-shop girl and the elusive "object" of her desire.

He is polishing the script for a movie version of the film he hopes to make in the next two years.

The five-minute version also won the Audience Award at Hidden Genius, a
short film competition sponsored by the Vietnamese-American Arts and
Letters Association.

It has been screened at various festivals like the Vietnamese International Film Festival and San Diego Film Festival.

At the YxineFF, animated film The Journey Unknown by Do Dang Thuong of
HCM City grabbed the best script and best film editing prizes.

The 4-minute-40-second film depicts the journey of an unnamed,
faceless character that jumps out of a book's page through the book that
takes it through heaven, destruction, urbanisation, and war.

Thuong said he actually created the character and background from
paper before resorting to stop motion, an animation technique.

The film is the 23-year-old's first production and was screened at the
Future Shorts Festival, which is organised by the global short film
community, held in Vietnam last year.

The organisers
of YxineFF, the Sai Gon Media Company and local film aficionados, gave
away the Red Heart prize for best film chosen by audiences to L.O.V.E by
Vu Ngoc Phuong, an overseas Vietnamese from the Philippines.

Up in the Tree, directed by Bui Quoc Thang of Hanoi, won the New Heart prize for the film with creative and new ideas.

All the award-wining films can be watched at the festival's website at www.yxineff.com.

The festival, which was launched in May, aims to broaden the
independent film-making community in Vietnam and offer local film-makers
an opportunity to promote their works worldwide.

It
showed 20 films in the Competition category for 10-minute films, 21
films in the Panorama category for 30-minute shorts made in the last
three years, and 12 films made by young directors in the In Focus
category./.

Related Articles

• Hanoi model wins Miss Vietnam 2010
• Millenium English contest enters finals
• HCMC begins to think about giving up meat
• Australia wants stronger cooperation to vocational education
• Culture Vulture

Vietnam's new films presented to American audiences

Seven feature films, six short films and four documentary films set in
Vietnam were presented to American audiences during the "New Voices
From Vietnam" event organised in California's Los Angeles from Nov. 5-14
within the framework of the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences 's educational and cultural exchange efforts.

The event was organised by the Academy and the UCLA ( University of
California , Los Angeles ) Film & Television Archive.

Vietnam 's outstanding filmmakers and other special guests appeared in person at each screening.

The directors whose features were screened included Dang Nhat Minh,
Phan Dang Di (with "Bi, Don’t Be Afraid" film), Nguyen Phan Quang Binh
("Floating Lives"), Nguyen Vinh Son ("The Moon at the Bottom of the
Well"), Bui Thac Chuyen ("Adrift"), Le Thanh Son ("Clash") and Stephane
Gauger ("Owl and the Sparrow").

All of the directors
took part in an Academy salute to the legendary Dang Nhat Minh,
director of such classic Vietnamese films as "The Love Doesn’t Come
Back" (1984), "Nostalgia for the Countryside" (1996) and Vietnam ’s
2009 entry to the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award competition,
"Don’t Burn".

Speaking at the salute on the night
of Nov. 10, Dang Nhat Minh called it an honour not only for himself but
also for the Vietnamese cinematography.

Vietnamese
martial arts star Dustin Nguyen, actress Do Hai Yen and director Nguyen
Phan Quang Binh had a conversation with American audiences after the
screening of "Floating Lives" feature film on Nov. 6./.

Related Articles

• Culture Vulture
• Writers’ temple to display bronze drums
• Local tour operators honored in Thailand
• EUNIC Vietnam links cultural ties
• Two Vietnamese to attend Int’l Youth Tiger Summit

US cinema expert hails Vietnam’s films

Vietnamese films selected to be on screen
at the “New Voices from Vietnam” in Hollywood are proofs for the
development prospect of Vietnam’s cinema industry, which has chances to
share its voice to the world, said a US cinema expert.

Director of Exhibitions and Special Events for the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences Ellen M. Harrington told the Tuoi tre
(Youth) newspaper on Nov. 5 that Vietnam has a long-lasting cinema
history with professional film makers and valuable films.

Vietnam is a fast growing country with a young population, laying a
foundation for new stories which are told in different and special ways,
she said, explaining why the Vietnamese film week in US is named “New
Voices from Vietnam.”

In her opinion, cinema
management system in Vietnam has been changed, with the mushroom
presence of private film studios.

She also expressed her
belief that Vietnamese films would be repeated at Oscar Academy
award, after “Mui Du Du Xanh” (The Scent of Green Papaya) by director
Tran Anh Hung was nominated for Oscar best foreign language film award
in 1994.

Vietnamese film week “New Voices from
Vietnam” is being held from Nov. 5-14, introducing seven feature
films, six documentary films and four short films.

On
Nov. 10, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
and the University of California , Los Angeles (UCLA) will host a
ceremony to honour director, People’s Artist Dang Nhat Minh for his
contributions to the Vietnamese cinema industry.

His film “Mua Oi” (Guava House) will be screened after the ceremony./.

Related Articles

• Australia wants stronger cooperation to vocational education
• Vietnam, France boost ties at various levels
• Domestic Market Essential For Sustainable Growth
• City promotes prepaid bus cards
• Prime Minister discusses relations, co-operation with Lao counterpart

Two awards for Singapore film

The Singaporean film, Sand Castle , won Best Feature Film and Best
Director at the Vietnam International Film Festival in Hanoi which
concluded on October 21.

Sand Castle tells the story of a
family in Singapore which head of the jury board Australian director
Phillip Noyce says represented many families and described a period in
the country's history.

Ten films in the "In Competition Programme",
with various styles and genres, from eight countries in East and
Southeast Asia , created a portrait of special and modern societies and
helped draw international filmmakers to the region, Noyce says.

"Five days of screenings allowed us to view the finest of new Asian,
Vietnamese and French films, while also affording an overview of
independent contemporary cinema."

The jury for feature films
gathered filmmakers, including Francois Catonne from France, Marco
Mueller from Italy , Kang Soo-yeon from the Republic of Korea
and Dang Nhat Minh from Vietnam .

"Congratulations on the first
edition of the festival," Kang says. "A film festival is more than just
screening films from other countries, but sharing various cultures and
understanding their differences."

Best Actress prize went to two
contenders because of their excellence: Nhat Kim Anh of Vietnam and
Fiona Sit of Hongkong ( China ).

"To play my role in The Fate
of a Songstress in Thang Long, I had to learn a lot," Anh says, "such as
playing a 16-chord zither, singing ceremonial songs and expressing the
character's inner feeling through crying with only one eye.

"I felt I grew up in this film and I'm proud of the role," she says.

The Documentary and Short Film Jury included Matthieu Poirot-Delpech
from France , Juhani Alanen from Finland , and Vietnamese director
Bui Dinh Hac.

"I really like Asian short films," says Alanen. "For
me, Asian short films are windows to Asian countries. They tell me
something about Asia that you cannot find from news or television."

They granted the prize to the Vietnamese documentary Always Beside You, a debut for young director Nguyen Thi Kim Hai.

The festival focused on East Asian and Southeast Asian films and
attracted filmmakers, producers and businessmen from 30 countries and
territories./.

Related Articles

• HCMC to relay grand sale program to November
• SMEs seek strength in numbers
• VN, Hungarian foreign ministries boost ties
• Vietnam wants to tighten relations with UAE
• Drug manufacturer fined 2,500 USD for medical fraud

Movie distributor brings films to remote rural areas

Travelling to small villages in remote and mountainous regions is a hard
task at the best of times, but for members of a mobile film-screening
team based in HCM City , it is a full-time job.

"People usually come early to the film shows, sit on the ground to
watch, and stay until late," Vu Trong Tuan, a member of the three-strong
team, says.

"Their enthusiasm is our main source of encouragement."

The screenings are arranged by the State-owned Saigon Cinema Corporation for whom Tuan has been working for 35 years.

Documentary and feature films on the struggle for liberation, like
Duong Ve Que Me (Travelling Back to Native Land) and Vi Tuyen 17 Ngay Va
Dem (The 17th Parallel, Days and Nights), and cartoons are the most
commonly screened.

The team goes on its mission come
rain or shine. Planning a trip sometimes takes time, especially when it
is to a place that does not have electricity and generators are
required.

Once there, however, the crew will stay for a week.

"The team has a jeep. But many times we go on motorbikes to villages surrounded by mountains and forests," Tuan says.

"Often we have to wade through knee-deep brooks that cross muddy roads.

"We can get wet when it rains but our projector, films, and other equipment must be carefully protected."

Many times the team arrives late in the afternoon. "We may not have
time for dinner. But we must prepare for the film show quickly because
people are waiting," he says.

"We work forgetting
our hardship because the viewers get so much enjoyment from it and
because we are warmly received," Dang To Ha, the head of the team, says.

Ha has also worked for 35 years.

The films are usually screened in the yards of schools and
administrative offices or meeting places for the region's various ethnic
peoples.

The audience usually arrives several hours
before the show's 7pm start. Often, the shows last past midnight as
viewers ask for more screenings.

"Many poor ethnic
people in remote areas in the Central Highlands may never see films," he
says, adding it is moving when people inquire when the team will be
back.

Since 2006 alone the team has shown more than
400 cartoons, feature films, and documentaries to audiences totalling
over 300,000.

It has received many certificates of commendation from HCM City authorities for its efforts./.

Related Articles

• Poor rural children blaze education trail
• First ADMM+ Chairman’s Statement
• Thousands await relocation
• Country cooking - fried cricket style
• Guava – A Folk Medicine

German reunification on screen in Vietnam

Seven films on the reunification of the former East and West Germany
will be focus of the “60 years of German cinematography” programme in
Hanoi from September 6-12.

A highlight is “Germany,
Germany” by director Peter Fleischmann, documenting with impressive
snapshots the mood in the former East and West Germany during the first
year after the collapse of the Berlin wall.

In the
film, the German film director speaks with workers, public employees,
pensioners and the unemployed and listens as they describe their
feelings on the changes and raise their concerns about the future.

Fleischmann is one of the “Jungen Wilden” (wild young ones), who
influenced German cinema in the 60s and 80s. His films take a critical
view of society and are concerned with the problem of forced
assimilation of the individual into an uncomprehending environment. He
was honoured in 2010 at the Munich Film Festival with a lifetime
achievement award.

The overall series on 60 years of
Germany cinema takes place bimonthly, featuring each decade of the
Germany cinema history through the most notable films of that decade.

The programme is provided by the Geothe Institute within the framework of “Germany Year in Vietnam”.

Audiences are offered chances to enjoy these fascinating movies free every evening at the Goethe Institute./.

Related Articles

• Vietnam Air accepts web check-in for int’l flights
• Ford rewards employee’s technician skills in contest

Belgian film director lectures on documentaries

The renowned Belgian film director Thierry Michel, will teach Vietnamese
directors and cinematography students how to make documentary films at a
five-day training course, starting on September 6.

The course has been jointly sponsored by the Wallonie-Bruxelles
delegation to Vietnam and Vietnam ’s National Documentary and
Scientific Film Studio, as part of an ongoing programme of cooperation.

The course will help the trainees to analyse
Vietnamese and foreign documentary films for reference, as well as films
that have been completed, including documentary films projects of
Vietnam .

Also as part of the course, the trainees
will have the opportunity to discuss trends and renewal of documentary
film making in Asia and other parts of the world as well as the
techniques required by Asian and global TV channels. They will analyse
the weak and strong points of Vietnamese documentaries so they can
integrate the country’s film industry into world cinema.

The participants will also be taught how to create and form the
necessary scenarios to meet the requirements of European film producers
and TV channels.

Thierry Michel, who is also
journalist and a lecturer at the Institute des Arts de Diffusion (IAD)
in Belgium, has produced two feature films along with numerous well
known documentaries including Mobutu the King of Zai-ia, the Congo
River, Children of Rio, Iran: Veiled Appearances, the Metamorphosis of a
Train Station and Donka./.

Related Articles

• Most ice is unhygienic
• Timber-product exporters sign $3b deals
• Workshop calls for longer-term plans to audit State entities
• Regulations require toys to display safety stamps
• Cashew traders yet to embrace trading center system