Vietnam has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film since 1993. The award, previously named the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, [lower-alpha 1] is presented annually by the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue. [2] It was not created until the 1956 Academy Awards, in which a competitive Academy Award of Merit, known as the Best Foreign Language Film Award, was introduced for non-English speaking films, and has been given annually since. [3]
Trần Anh Hùng's The Scent of Green Papaya was Vietnam's first submission for the 1993 awards. Despite the film being financed and produced in France, Hùng asked permission to represent Vietnam instead—it uses mainly Vietnamese language and the characters are portrayed by Vietnamese actors. [4] [5] It is the only Vietnamese film to secure a nomination, and was the first nomination received by a Southeast Asian country in the category. [6] [7] The Scent of Green Papaya and the three subsequent submissions—Hồ Quang Minh's Gone, Gone Forever Gone (1996), Tony Bui's Three Seasons (1999), and Hùng's Vertical Ray of the Sun (2000)—were directed by overseas Vietnamese directors and chosen without any support councils, deriving solely from the directors' relationship with foreign partners. [5] [8] Of all four, only Gone, Gone Forever Gone was domestically funded. [5] In September 2003, the Ministry of Culture and Information decided to send Đỗ Minh Tuấn's Foul King, a film entirety produced by Vietnamese, to compete in the category. [9] It was not, however, included on the final list announced by the AMPAS in October. [10] [11]
Vietnam initially received the AMPAS' invitation to participate in the competition in 2006, when a requirement was introduced that films needed to be commercially released for at least seven consecutive days in a movie theater in its respective country during the eligibility period. [12] [13] The Buffalo Boy was the first selection by the Ministry of Culture and Information following the invitation. [14] [15] The ministry was merged into the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) in 2007, who has since decided the submissions annually. [16] [17] As of 2022 [update] , Vietnam has successfully submitted nineteen films— Glorious Ashes (2023) is the most recent submission in this category.
The AMPAS has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1956, while The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films. They vote via secret ballot to determine the five nominees for the award. [2] [3]
The Vietnamese submission is chosen by the MCST, formerly the Ministry of Culture and Information, since 2006. The MCST appoints a council to choose one film among those released that year to be submitted as Vietnam's official entry the following year. [18] [19] The council works on the principle of public discussion and votes via secret ballot—the chosen film must attain the highest score on a 10-point scale and the average above 9 points. [20] [21] The chosen films, along with their English subtitles, are sent to the AMPAS, where they are screened for the jury. [22]
In 2008, Black Forest (Rừng đen) was the only film submitted to an open call for entries but was deemed ineligible since it had not been screened in a commercial cinema per AMPAS requirements. [23] [24] Similarly, the MCST chose not make an entry in 2013, when the only available film Blood Letter (Thiên mệnh anh hùng) did not meet the release time. [14] [25] Vietnam also chose not make a 2010 entry because the films reviewed did not meet the requirements; [26] [27] while in 2014, they did not receive any invitation from the AMPAS for the first time since 2006. [28] [29]
Đặng Nhật Minh is one of Vietnam's foremost film directors. He began making documentary films around 1965 and is the first Vietnamese person to be awarded the Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture, in 1999. His films have won several prizes at international film festivals.
The Vietnam Film Festival, founded in 1970, is a domestic film festival of Vietnam. It is considered as the major event of Vietnamese cinema with awards for numerous categories ranging from feature film to documentary film, animated film. The festival is held for each two or three years in different host cities all over Vietnam.
The 16th Vietnam Film Festival was held from December 8 to December 12, 2009 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with the slogan "For a reformed and integrated Vietnam cinema".
The 12th Vietnam Film Festival was held from March 25 to March 28, 1999, in Huế, Vietnam, with the slogan: "For an advanced Vietnam cinema imbued with national identity".
The 11th Vietnam Film Festival was held from November 28 to November 30, 1996, in Hanoi, Vietnam, with the slogan: "For an advanced Vietnam cinema imbued with national identity".
The 9th Vietnam Film Festival was held from November 28 to December 2, 1990, in Nha Trang, Vietnam, with the slogan: "For artistic creativity and perfecting socialist Vietnamese people, for the development of national cinema".
The 8th Vietnam Film Festival was held from March 15 to March 22, 1988, in Danang, Vietnam, with the slogan "For the creation of art and perfection of the new socialist people. For the development of the national cinema".
The 5th Vietnam Film Festival was held from May 12 to May 19, 1980, in Hanoi, Vietnam, with the slogan: "For the Socialist Fatherland and the people's happiness. For the development of the national cinema".
The 4th Vietnam Film Festival was held from April 14 to April 21, 1977 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with the slogan: "For the Socialist Fatherland and the people's happiness. For the development of the national cinema.".
Hồ Quang Minh was a Vietnamese-born Swiss film director.
Trần Ngọc Lan Khuê is a Vietnamese model and beauty pageant titleholder. Lan Khuê rose to prominence in 2013 as she won the gold award in the Vietnam supermodel 2013, and became one of the most sought-after models in Vietnam. In 2014, she joined the Miss Aodai Vietnam pageant and won title. Then, she represented Vietnam in Miss World 2015 and was placed top 11. She shoot to fame when she got invited as one of 3 mentors in the reality show The Face Vietnam. Trần Ngọc Lan Khuê is the CEO of Elite Model Management and Elite Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City.
Nguyễn Thùy Chi, commonly known by her stage name Chi Pu, is a Vietnamese actress and singer. She gained popularity with her lead roles in several television dramas and sitcoms including Waterdrop, Happy Dream, and 5S Online. Chi Pu officially started her singing career in 2017. In 2020, Chi Pu was honored among Forbes list of Asia Pacific's 100 most influential digital stars.
Trần Tiểu Vy is a Vietnamese model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Vietnam 2018. She represented Vietnam at the Miss World 2018 pageant.
The 18th Vietnam Film Festival was held from October 14 to October 16, 2013 in Hạ Long City, Quảng Ninh Province, Vietnam, with the slogan "Vietnamese Cinema - Ethnicity, Humanity, Creativity, Integration".
The 19th Vietnam Film Festival was held from December 1 to December 5, 2015, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with the slogan "Vietnamese Cinema - Ethnicity, Humanity, Creativity, Integration".
The 20th Vietnam Film Festival was held from November 24 to November 28, 2017, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with the slogan "Building a modern and humane film industry".
The 21st Vietnam Film Festival was held from November 23 to November 27, 2019, in Vũng Tàu City, Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province, Vietnam, with the slogan "Building a national, humane, creative and integrated Vietnamese film industry".
The 22nd Vietnam Film Festival was held from November 18 to November 20, 2021, in Huế City, Thừa Thiên Huế Province, Vietnam, with the slogan "Building a Vietnamese film industry rich in national identity, modern and humane". It was originally scheduled to be held in September 2021 but had to be moved to November due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2018 Kite Awards is the 26th edition of Vietnam Cinema Association Awards, also the 17th edition since the award is officially named Kite. It honored the best in Vietnam film, television works of 2018. The ceremony was broadcast live on April 12, 2019, from the Army Theatre in Southern Region, Tân Bình District, Ho Chi Minh City beginning at 20:00. The ceremony aired live on VTV2 channel in Vietnam.
The Missing Picture isn't officially the first film from Southeast Asia to receive an Oscar nomination. In 1994, The Scent Of Green Papaya, a rapturous drama by France-based Tran Anh Hung, represented Vietnam and was shortlisted.