Vietnam Film Festival 2025: The "gold rush" race of hundred-billion-dong films

The 24th Vietnam Film Festival (VFF) - 2025 is predicted to be one of the most fierce seasons in recent years, gathering works with high box office revenue and good quality. All of this makes the race for "gold" this year both thrilling and reflects the excitement of the Vietnamese film market after 2 years of strong growth.

From box office race to awards race

The organizing committee has announced 16 films officially competing in the feature film category, including: The Four Guardians, Mai, Billion Dollar Kiss, Tunnel: The Sun in the Dark, Sound Across the Ocean, The Old Woman Goes Busy, Sister-in-law, The Young Master of Bac Lieu , Detective Kien: Headless Case, Death Battle in the Sky, Childhood Moon, Red Rain, Ancestral House, Kaleidoscope: Getting Compensation from the Ghost, Abandoning Mother, Getting Rich with Ghosts: Diamond War. The works reflect a diverse market picture, from historical - war, psychological - social, detective, action to family and spiritual themes...

Many films with revenue of hundreds of billions of VND compete for the Golden Lotus at the 2025 Vietnam Film Festival

Most notably, 11 of the 16 films above have surpassed the 100 billion VND revenue mark, of which 7 films have reached over 200 billion VND. More happily, the artistic quality of the films has also improved. There is no longer the scene of "comparing chopsticks to choose a flagpole" like a few years ago, this time the jury will have a very difficult time when comparing the works. Because the awards for films such as Golden Lotus, Silver Lotus, Jury Prize or Outstanding Cinematography have too many candidates "some are eight taels, some are half a pound".

A positive sign of this year's festival is the return of state-ordered films and public-private partnership films after many years of overwhelming and almost absolute dominance by private entities. While the three unreleased films (Sound of the Ocean, Old Lady in the Dust, Childhood Moon) are still unknown, the two public-private partnership films (Red Rain, Death Battle in the Sky) are outstanding candidates. In addition, Tunnels: Sun in the Dark, although a film invested and produced by the private sector, also received great support and companionship from state entities. In the race for the Golden Lotus this year, Red Rain, Death Battle in the Sky and Tunnels: Sun in the Dark are outstanding candidates.

Notably, for the first time, the animation category has 2 feature films competing for awards, namely Cricket: Adventure to the Swamp Village and Little Trang Quynh: The Legend of the Taurus, alongside 19 short animated films. Cricket currently holds the record for Vietnamese animation revenue (over 21 billion VND), and won the audience favorite film award at DANAFF 2025. Meanwhile, Little Trang Quynh is highly appreciated by professionals for its Vietnamese purity, art, script creativity and message. This "two-horse" race is no less attractive than the feature film category.

Exciting individual race

Not only "making it difficult" for the jury in the film category, the individual awards also promise to be equally fierce. Director Bui Thac Chuyen with Tunnel: Sun in the Dark is expected to be able to repeat the achievement with Brilliant Ashes at the 2023 Vietnam Film Festival (Golden Lotus and Best Director). However, this year he will have to compete with "heavyweight" opponents such as Ham Tran (Fight to the Death), Meritorious Artist Dang Thai Huyen (Red Rain), Khuong Ngoc (Sister-in-law), Victor Vu (Detective Kien: Headless Case)... There is a notable detail that exactly 10 years ago, at the Vietnam Film Festival also held in Ho Chi Minh City, Meritorious Artist Dang Thai Huyen was honored as Best Director of a Video Feature Film (Good Land) and Victor Vu in the Feature Film category (I See Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass). Victor Vu is also the Best Director of the Vietnamese Film category competing at DANAFF 2025.

In the acting categories, predictions are even more difficult. After the Best Actor award at the 2023 Vietnam Film Festival with Con Nhót nhớp chồng, this year Thai Hoa has 2 important roles in Tunnels: The Sun in the Dark and Death Battle in the Air. Tuan Tran even has 3 roles, including: Mai, Mang me di bo, Get rich with ghosts 2: The Diamond War. In addition, actors Thanh Son, Loi Tran, Bao Dinh, Vo Dien Gia Huy (Towers: The Sun in the Dark); Quang Tuan (Towers: The Sun in the Dark); Quoc Huy (Detective Kien: The Headless Case); Do Nhat Hoang, Steven Nguyen, Phuong Nam (Red Rain) ... are all strong candidates for the Best Main/Supporting Actor category.

A total of 203 films were submitted to the Vietnam Film Festival 2025. After the review and evaluation process, the Selection Council selected 144 films to participate, including 87 works competing officially in 4 categories: feature film, documentary, scientific film and animation. In addition, there were 57 films, documentaries, animations and scientific films selected for screening in the panorama program.

In the female category, many candidates also showed their superiority: Kaity Nguyen, Tram Anh (Fight to the Death); Ho Thu Anh (Tunnel: Sun in the Dark); Hong Dao (Sister-in-law, Take Mother Away); Thu Trang (Billionaire Kiss)... Phuong Anh Dao (Mai) - Best Actress at the 2024 Kite Awards or Viet Huong (Sister-in-law) - Best Actress in the Vietnamese film category competing at DANAFF 2025 also have many opportunities to be honored.

After the "golden season" of the box office, Vietnamese cinema has never been so eagerly awaiting a "golden season" of awards as at this year's Vietnam Film Festival. Bringing the largest film festival in the country back to Ho Chi Minh City after 10 years, right on the occasion of this place being recognized as a Creative City in the field of cinema, belonging to the Global Creative Cities Network (UCCN), makes the atmosphere of the film festival even more exciting.

VAN TUAN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/lien-hoan-phim-viet-nam-2025-cuoc-dua-san-vang-cua-nhung-phim-tram-ty-dong-post824603.html