Kite 2025 - bright spots and shortcomings that need to be overcome soon

Awarding the best male and female actors in feature films at the 2024 Kite Awards.

Besides the positive signs in film quality, the heat of the race and the expansion of the art-market exchange, this year's awards also revealed many difficulties in terms of mechanism and finance, posing challenges to maintaining the prestige of the awards and innovating management, ensuring a sustainable creative environment for the country's cinema.

The Kite Awards 2025 are expected to be held in December 2025. This is a prestigious annual film award of the Vietnam Cinema Association, aiming to summarize film and television creation activities, reward outstanding works and authors, thereby promptly encouraging and motivating the contributions of artists and film and television filmmakers across the country.

Over the seasons, the Kite Awards have consistently received well-deserved awards, recognizing innovation and honoring creative achievements. The Vietnam Cinema Association has widely announced the awards to select and award, honoring outstanding film works of the past year.

This year, the feature film “Red Rain” is emerging as a strong candidate, competing with a series of notable works, including: “Fight to the Death in the Sky”, “Face Off 8: The Sun’s Embrace”, “Tunnel: The Sun in the Dark”, “Detective Kien: The Headless Case”, “The Four Guardians”… Filmmakers assess this year’s race to be quite intense, reflecting the film production capacity that has matured in terms of technique, acting, and script development.

The shift in the judging perspective in recent years when many private films and high-grossing films were honored has contributed to narrowing the gap in appreciation and assessment of cinema. Within the framework of the awards, many exhibitions, exchange events, discussions and connections have been innovated to reach closer to the public and young filmmakers.

While we should not be pessimistic, we cannot ignore the fact that professional awards do not have adequate resources. The Vietnam Cinema Association needs to find a way to socialize the awards soon so that the awards are not interrupted.
Cinematographer Pham Anh Tuan

However, in addition to the positive signals, during the preparation process, the 2025 Kite Award also revealed limitations that have lasted for many years, but have not been fundamentally resolved. The biggest problem is the budget spending standards for specialized literary and artistic associations. When regulations are not adjusted in time, awards, even those of national significance, are at risk of... having no prize money. This affects the authors and honored works, and at the same time negatively impacts the trust and spirit of honor in creative life.

A representative of the Vietnam Cinema Association said that the annual budget is just enough to cover the costs of judges, trophies, and live broadcasts; all other activities must rely on socialized resources. In fact, socialization in the arts sector, if not accompanied by clear professional criteria, will face the risk of deviation from standards, commercialization, or affecting the independence of the awards.

In addition to the financial story, the reorganization of the Associations also makes the apparatus confused, especially in the procedures related to spending and plan approval. By mid-November 2025, many issues of the 2025 Kite Awards such as: venue, additional funding... still have no official information.

Cinematographer Pham Anh Tuan believes that while we should not be pessimistic, we cannot ignore the fact that professional awards do not have adequate resources. The Vietnam Cinema Association needs to find a way to socialize the awards soon so that the awards are not interrupted.

Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Hoai Son, full-time member of the National Assembly 's Committee on Culture and Society, commented: "Art awards are a tool to encourage creativity. To exist sustainably, there needs to be a suitable financial model, in which a part comes from the state budget and a section is mobilized from social resources. If we only rely on one side, we will easily fall into a situation of waiting for capital to honor."

According to experts, from the story of the Kite Award, it can be seen that the cultural and artistic management system is in need of a new legal framework, in the direction of: establishing separate norms for art awards, separating from administrative constraints that are no longer appropriate. Building a flexible and controlled fund, ensuring transparency but avoiding rigidity. Promoting the public-private model based on strict professional standards and identifying prestigious awards as national cultural assets, which need to be guaranteed a minimum level of scale, prestige and award structure even when the budget is limited.

Art awards are a tool to encourage creativity. To be sustainable, there needs to be a suitable financial model, in which a part comes from the state budget and a part is mobilized from social resources. If we only rely on one side, we will easily fall into a situation of waiting for capital to honor.
Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Hoai Son,
Full-time member of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Society

A prestigious film award like the Kite is a source of professional pride, motivating artists to continue their dedication, becoming an important reference point in considering the awarding of noble titles. Delays and passivity in handling shortcomings can affect an award season, reducing the prestige accumulated over many years.

In order for the Kite to continue to “fly high”, it is necessary to resolve the immediate “bottlenecks” and, more importantly, demonstrate flexible adaptation and a vision for cultural management suitable to the context of globalization. When the mechanism for honoring and supporting creativity truly accompanies artists, Vietnamese cinema will have more foundation for sustainable development, spreading Vietnamese cultural values and identity in the international arena.

MAI LU

Source: https://nhandan.vn/canh-dieu-2025-diem-sang-va-nhung-bat-cap-can-som-khac-phuc-post923554.html