The medal was solemnly given to his wife, Dao Thi Ung, by French Ambassador to Vietnam Jean-Francois Blarel at a ceremony on February 27.

Film director Le Manh Thich was born in 1941. He worked for Vietnam's documentary film studio before becoming a battlefield cameraman in the war in Vietnam. After that, he became a film director for the studio and achieved a number of international awards for his works.

As a partner of the French Embassy in Hanoi in implementing film making co-operation programmes between the two countries, he played an active role in successfully organising the first documentary film festival of its kind in Vietnam in 2002. He died in 2004.