Vietnamese Cinema - 50 years of a journey

Within the framework of the 2024 Kite Awards, on the morning of September 10, in Nha Trang City, the Vietnam Cinema Association organized a workshop on “Vietnamese Cinema since the country’s reunification: 50 years - a journey”. The workshop aimed to find solutions for Vietnamese cinema to have a breakthrough development associated with the task of economic , cultural and social development in the era of industrialization.

Vietnamese movies are constantly changing.

Leaders of the Department of Cinema (Ministry of Culture - Sports and Tourism) and the Vietnam Cinema Association chaired the workshop.

At the workshop, representatives of the Department of Cinema (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism ) and film researchers and critics assessed that after 50 years of national reunification, Vietnamese cinema has achieved many successes, with increasingly diverse film themes, meeting the entertainment needs of the public. The harmonious combination of art, commerce and entertainment is a significant step forward for feature films on the path to approaching advanced and modern techniques and artistic expression of international cinema. In particular, many works of the film genre with themes of war and revolution have left a deep impression on the public, such as: Season of the monsoon wind, Wild fields, Girl on the river, When will the tenth month come, Life of sand, Who flows through the ten thousand miles, Hanoi winter 1946, etc., and recently Dao, pho and piano . In addition to the domestic filmmaking team, films by overseas Vietnamese directors have also enriched the country's cinema. “From 1975 to now, unified Vietnamese cinema has gone through each stage of development with many transformations and self-renewals. With the continuous efforts and creativity of all cinema activists, state management agencies, with the support of timely policies from the State, with a solid foundation of national cultural roots, the humanity of the people and country of Vietnam, Vietnamese cinema has had many achievements; many works and authors have received worthy recognition from the Party and State, and received the love and respect of many generations of audiences”, Dr., Meritorious Artist Nguyen Thi Thu Ha - Deputy Director of the Department of Cinema assessed.

The development of Vietnamese cinema is not only in terms of themes and filmmaking methods, but also in filmmaking thinking, most clearly in the revolutionary war film genre. Later on, filmmakers have overcome the formulaic, simple, sketchy, one-dimensional filmmaking style, replacing it with works of depth, expressing a new level of awareness, new thinking when exploiting new aspects of war through human destiny, especially not avoiding loss and sacrifice. Among them, the film When Will October Come by People's Artist Dang Nhat Minh was voted by the famous American TV channel CNN as one of the 18 best Asian films of all time.

Despite many successes, the conference also raised concerns about the development of Vietnamese cinema. Associate Professor, Dr. Le Thi Bich Hong - former Deputy Head of the Department of Culture - Arts of the Central Propaganda Department expressed concern that the revolutionary war film genre is gradually "fading", not leaving a clear mark in today's cinema life. For example, at the 2024 Kite Awards, out of 18 feature films competing for the award, there were only 2 films on the theme of war and revolution ( Dao, Pho and Piano; Sao Xanh Noi Bien Song ). Ms. Hong said that it is necessary to pay attention to and support the revolutionary war film genre, because making war films is very difficult, requiring large investment in funding, so the State needs to have policies and mechanisms to promote cooperation between the State and the private sector, encouraging artists to strive to pursue this topic. Meanwhile, film critic To Hoang said that Vietnamese cinema today has too few works that closely follow real life, and the image of workers in films is very vague. Many works are heavy on entertainment, following the "trivial" tastes of the public, very few works are interested in exploiting the issue of the gap between rich and poor that is widening, and the personality and dignity of people that is increasingly deteriorating...

To bring Vietnamese cinema to the big sea

A scene from the film Dao, Pho and Piano by director Phi Tien Son - a film about war and revolution that has been highly appreciated recently.

At the workshop, many delegates were interested in the issue of international integration of Vietnamese cinema; how to participate in the global film supply chain. In fact, in recent years, Vietnamese cinema has had certain successes at international film festivals. Most recently, the films: Inside the Golden Cocoon by Pham Thien An were awarded the Golden Camera at the Cannes Film Festival; Culi Khong Bao Nhat Cries by Pham Ngoc Lan won the first film award at the Berlin Film Festival (Germany), and Glorious Ashes by director Bui Thac Chuyen received the "Golden Balloon" award - the highest award at the Three Continents Film Festival (France)... Most of the above works have profound humanity, creative staging with the exploration to enrich the language of cinema and bring unique stories of the country and people of Vietnam to the world. However, Vietnamese cinema still has a lot to do on the way to affirming its position on the world cinema map. “Despite promising and increasingly prosperous steps, Vietnamese cinema does not really have many directors with strong creative imprints capable of creating attraction on the international stage, leading to the fact that very few Vietnamese films can be present and compete fairly at the world's leading international film festivals... Some independent film directors, chasing after achievements and international awards, have followed the eyes of "outsiders", only focusing on the shortcomings and dark sides of a picture and blowing it up as an essential problem of contemporary life...", journalist Tran Viet Van (Labor Newspaper) expressed.

Many delegates pointed out the limitations of Vietnamese cinema such as: limited budget, lack of promotion strategy..., but the biggest limitation that Vietnamese cinema needs to overcome is the problem of human resource training and the lack of quality human resources. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha said that for Vietnamese cinema to develop and integrate internationally is a long road, requiring the synchronization of many solutions. Besides the issue of human resources, it is necessary to synchronously implement the construction of mechanisms and policies to develop the Vietnamese film industry "advanced, imbued with national identity" such as: Creating creative spaces for artists to create; investing in building national studios with indoor, outdoor, underwater scenes with modern technical equipment, ensuring to meet the needs of serving the technical stages of pre-production and post-production in film production using modern technology; Promote international cooperation to mobilize capital, technology, management experience, access regional and international markets, and enhance competitiveness in international integration in the film industry...

XUAN THANH

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/van-hoa/202409/dien-anh-viet-nam-50-nam-mot-chang-duong-1356a71/