Ho Chi Minh City - City of Cinema

The event of UNESCO officially recognizing Ho Chi Minh City as a "Creative City" in the field of cinema, belonging to the Global Creative Cities Network (UCCN), has opened up great opportunities for the city to exploit and promote its existing potential.

In fact, for a long time, the vibrant artistic atmosphere here has reflected the strong vitality of a young, dynamic city, in which cinema always plays an important role, becoming an indispensable part of the city's cultural life.

Audiences enjoy a free film screening at Saigon Riverside Park within the framework of the Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival. Photo: HIFF

"Breathe" in the cinematic atmosphere

At the closing ceremony of the 2025 Italian Film Festival in Ho Chi Minh City, director Antonio Termenini, Artistic Director of the Festival, shared that he felt the enthusiasm of the audience, especially young audiences. "At each screening, there were a lot of people coming to watch the film and asking many questions with interesting perspectives," said director Antonio Termenini. Taking place over 5 days (from October 26 to 31), the 300-seat auditorium of Galaxy Nguyen Du cinema was always full. Before the event took place, the organizers received nearly 5,000 registrations for 6 screenings. Many audiences also suggested that in the following events, the organizers should add more screenings to serve more audiences.

Previously, the situation of sold-out tickets also occurred at the German Film Festival - KinoFest 2025 which took place from October 21 to 27. Mr. Van Toan (Go Vap ward) said that right after the organizers announced, he registered but was always on the waiting list. Luckily, he was able to watch the re-screening of the opening film Afire ( Red Sky ), he felt the excitement of a large audience, from young audiences to people in their 70s and 80s.

The above 2 events are just part of the vibrant cinema atmosphere that takes place continuously and daily in the "cinema city" - Ho Chi Minh City. Here, every week there are at least 4-5 film premiere events organized on a large scale and systematically. Many times, the events take place simultaneously. It can be mentioned that on the evening of October 28, 2 Vietnamese films: Pha dang: Sinh sinh me and Blindfolded deer were screened at the same time; on the evening of November 4, 5 film premiere events took place at the same time, including 2 Vietnamese films ( Trai tim que quất, Thai chieu tai ) and 3 foreign films. In November and December, each month there are expected to be about 7 Vietnamese films released in theaters, with many attractive "duels". On November 6, Ho Chi Minh City is the next stop of the Hong Kong Cinema Gala (China) with the participation of 2 actors Louis Koo and Sammo Hung. In particular, at the end of November (from November 21 to 25), the 24th Vietnam Film Festival will return to the Southern land after exactly 10 years.

Community-based cinema playgrounds are also constantly flourishing. The 2025 Science Film Festival in Ho Chi Minh City is bustling from fixed screening locations, screening on mobile library vehicles, bringing films to many schools with experiential and practical activities. The first Vietnam Animation IP Contest 2025 opens up space for young animators. In addition, competitions such as: Making short films in 14 days, Xê xem Fest 2025 or CJ Short Film Project 2025... also attract a large number of young people, further increasing the heat and vibrant cinema atmosphere.

According to the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City, the city currently has 935 film enterprises with 9,294 employees, generating revenue of 500 million USD, contributing 0.43% of GRDP. The city has 10 cinema systems, 52 cinema complexes with 295 screening rooms and 184 creative spaces where professional art practices are practiced, along with cultural spaces serving the needs of the community in residential areas... According to the project "Developing the cultural industry of Ho Chi Minh City to 2030", the film industry aims to grow by an average of 12% per year, with revenue of over 5,000 billion VND (Vietnamese films account for 30%), contributing 0.4% of GRDP in 2025. By 2030, the indexes will increase to 13%, 10,000 billion VND (Vietnamese films account for 50%), contributing 0.56% of GRDP.

Initiate a long-term strategy

Ho Chi Minh City is known as the “city that never sleeps”, and in this city, cinema is no exception. According to director Tran Thanh Huy, one of the biggest bright spots is the love of film and the passion of the production teams, especially the young people. “The year 2025 witnessed the explosion of many young filmmakers. Despite their lack of experience, they have devoted themselves to projects, committed themselves to their passion, and even had to manage their own finances to complete their works. This powerful young human resource is a valuable resource and the biggest driving force for the development of cinema”, director Tran Thanh Huy emphasized. Recently, many young directors such as Quoc Cong, Tran Nhan Kien, Nguyen Thanh Binh, Thang Vu, Oscar Duong... have continuously released new works. Not to mention the team making short films, web dramas, and television shows that are also active.

The movie Blind Man Catching a Deer premiered in Ho Chi Minh City at the end of October.

The professionalism of the Ho Chi Minh City film market is also demonstrated in the production process with methodical steps from pre-production to production and post-production, especially communication and promotion work. From the casting stage, many film projects such as: Lat mat, Dat rung phuong nam, Ngay xua co mot chuyen tinh, Tham tu Kien ... were organized in a grand manner, attracting thousands of participants. Most recently, the live casting session of the Last Queen project received much attention. Director, Meritorious Artist Vu Thanh Vinh commented: "Currently, the pre-production stage plays an important role. The process of working with actors must also be very thorough, only when they understand the character, grasp the psychological line, then it will be easy to deploy on the scene". Director Vu Thanh Vinh also revealed that the budget for communication is currently also invested significantly, usually accounting for about 20% of the project budget, in some cases it can be up to 30%-50%. A movie is even broadcast a year in advance “to be remembered by the audience”.

In the last months of 2025, the city's film crew is also working at full capacity. The two projects Blood Moon Party 8 and Love Letter to the Nun have just finished filming, while the projects Ghost Entering the Earth 2 and Hero are actively filming. A series of projects have completed plans to be released in late 2025 and early 2026, such as: Blood Paradise, Demon Prince, Who Loves Who, Grandma Don't Be Sad, Kid, Human Trafficking Camp ... In particular, the 2026 Tet film season has been started early by many southern producers with a series of announced projects including: The Smell of Pho, Heaven's Treasure, Rabbit! It is not an exaggeration to compare Ho Chi Minh City to an "open film studio" operating continuously: this project is in pre-production, another project is starting filming, there are crews that have just finished filming this work and then start filming a new work.

Many experts and specialists believe that Ho Chi Minh City being recognized by UNESCO as a Creative City in the field of cinema is not a destination, nor a title. It promises to be the first step in a long-term strategy, aiming to build the brand of a "cinema city" like many cities in Asia such as Busan (South Korea) or Mumbai (India) have succeeded.

Mr. PHAM MINH TOAN - Executive Director of Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival 2024:

As one of the commitments of Ho Chi Minh City when joining UCCN, we see that there are many things that need to be improved to make the Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival (HIFF) better and better. HIFF needs a continuous professional operating apparatus, in the style of a Film Office/Center established based on the public-private partnership (PPP) method with partial funding and infrastructure support from the city. Next, it is necessary to solve the financial problem, because this is the key point to determine the scale and quality of HIFF in the following years. Ideally, the city's Film Development Fund would be formed and the cost of organizing the Film Festival would be covered from the fund. Infrastructure problems will be solved with the initiative to build a Film Park - a complex to organize HIFF like the Busan Film Center model (Korea).

Director TRAN THANH HUY:

From the lesson of Busan City (Korea), to become a cinema center, we must first have a fund system to support Vietnamese filmmakers as well as international filmmakers. Currently, the challenge is still who sponsors the fund, whether it is from the budget or what source of revenue to maintain stability. Once there is a film support fund system with specific commitments to use and the construction of a specialized training network, the fund will bring benefits to domestic filmmakers and film companies with the opportunity to work, learn and gain experience with major film studios and filmmakers around the world . I believe this will be an opportunity and at the same time the fastest way to connect with international filmmakers, promote production cooperation to create international films, contributing to enhancing the voice and position of the city's cinema.

VAN TUAN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/tphcm-thanh-pho-dien-anh-post822542.html