Ho Chi Minh City organizes its second Short Film Festival.

The second Ho Chi Minh City Short Film Festival will take place from June 6-8 with the theme "Unleashing Young Creativity - Building a Cinematic City," continuing to seek and discover young cinematic talents, while contributing to realizing the development orientation of Ho Chi Minh City into a creative center in the field of cinema.

The event was directed by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee; the Ho Chi Minh City Film Association and the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports organized it in coordination with the Department of Education and Training, the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union, Ho Chi Minh City Television, and other relevant units.

According to the organizers, the Short Film Festival is being held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the official renaming of Saigon - Gia Dinh City to Ho Chi Minh City (July 2, 1976 - July 2, 2026), and to build on the success of the first edition held in 2023.

This year, the event takes place against the backdrop of Ho Chi Minh City continuing to promote film development activities after officially being inscribed by UNESCO into the Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in the field of cinema.

Through the Festival, Ho Chi Minh City continues to concretize its commitments to UNESCO on building a creative ecosystem in the field of cinema; promoting the development of young talents, strengthening international exchange, and creating creative spaces to serve the community.

Building on the success of the previous festival, the 2026 event aims to create a dynamic, professional, and integrated film environment; providing opportunities for young filmmakers, professional and amateur authors to interact, learn, connect for production, and develop projects.

With the theme "Unleashing Young Creativity - Building a Cinema City," the festival emphasizes the role of short films as a space for discovering, nurturing, and connecting the younger generation of filmmakers, while also contributing to building the "Cinema City" brand in the development of Ho Chi Minh City's cultural industry and creative urban environment.

The festival will include various professional, artistic, and community activities such as creative film exhibitions, short film screenings at cinemas and universities, the "Cinema in Schools" program, thematic seminars on short films, and project networking.

Notably, the HCMC Short Form Film Lab (SFFL) program, which aims to nurture cinematic talent, will support promising short film projects through specialized workshops, project development consulting, presentations to expert panels, and connections to production opportunities.

In addition, this year's festival also organizes activities for young people such as a film poster design competition, educational trailer creation, training on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in filmmaking, and a short video clip creation contest for students.

The organizers stated that the festival continues to expand the scope of film submissions from Ho Chi Minh City to provinces and cities nationwide, encouraging feature films, documentaries, and animated films with artistic and humanistic value, reflecting contemporary life and positive social developments.

Many of the Festival's activities are oriented towards international standards, strengthening connections with film organizations, creative support funds, experts, and foreign film festivals to facilitate access for young Vietnamese filmmakers to the global film ecosystem.

Through this event, Ho Chi Minh City continues to affirm its determination to develop cinema into an important cultural industry, contributing to promoting the creative economy and building the brand of "City of Cinema" in the coming years.

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/tp-hcm-to-chuc-lien-hoan-phim-ngan-lan-thu-hai.html