Vietnam filmmaker takes top animation prize

The award ceremony was held on June 3 to kick off the third Vietnam-Korea Animation Cartoon Festival in Hanoi. 

Last year, the cartoon Lu and Robo earned Tuan a second-place prize and a one-week visit to Chuncheon Anitown Festival in the Republic of Korea. 

The Adventure of Egg, Lime and Chilly was the shortest film at the contest, which draws about 23 works from both individual filmmakers and studios across the nation. 

The cartoon is three-and-a-half minutes in length and tells the story of an egg, a lime and a chili who help each other escape from a kitchen. 

“I aimed to make a short cartoon that ended quickly, but was not boring to watch,” said Tuan, who is chief executive officer of Colory Animation Studio. The studio was founded in 2011, and its debut cartoon Under the Tree Shadow was welcomed by the online community. 

The Adventure of Egg, Lime and Chilly was produced to train young artists at Colory Studio. 

“I’m happy with the first-place prize at the contest,” Tuan said. “I wish that Vietnam could organise a similar contest.” 

This year marked the second time the cartoon contest was held. It awards two first-place prizes and two second-place prizes to professional and amateur filmmakers. 

A cartoon entitled Bong Hoa Mat Troi (Sun Flower) by the Vietnam Animation Studio grabbed the second-place prize, and Nguyen Thanh Tuyen and Huynh Anh Kiet took first- and second-place prizes for the amateur filmmaker category. Both hail from HCM City. 

The seven judges decided to give the first-place prize to Tuyen’s film in the amateur category because it was professionally done, according to one of the jurors. However, the cartoon was made four years ago when Tuyen knew little about animated filmmaking. 

“It was developed from motions illustrating curriculum software, which I made for the Software Development Company for students,” Tuyen said. 

Tuyen and Tuan will have the chance to attend Chuncheon Anitown Festival in the RoK.