Young Vietnamese directors ready to shine at Busan festival

The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), in its 20th year, will take place from October 1 to 10 in Busan, the Republic of Korea.

For the first time ever, two film projects, “Cha Cha Cha” and “Rom” (The Lottery Boy) by up-and-coming Vietnamese directors Do Quoc Trung and Tran Dung Thanh Huy respectively, have been picked for the BIFF’s Asian Project Market, which is the largest investment and co-production market in Asia, according to apm.asianfilmmarket.org.

This year’s official selections include 30 titles from 15 countries.

The Asian Project Market has chosen a total of 442 projects over the past 17 years, in which approximately 200 were completed and introduced at prestigious international film festivals, the website said.

Up-and-coming independent filmmaker Tran Dung Thanh Huy Courtesy of Tran Dung Thanh Huy

Trung told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that he is confident about his project, on which he had delivered a presentation at “Gap Go Mua Thu” (Meet the Autumn), a yearly program that offers training and financial aid to aspiring young Vietnamese filmmakers, last year.

His brainchild delves into elderly and young people, loneliness and rebellion, all of which has intrigued him for years.

Trung, 25, graduated with distinction in directing from the Hanoi Academy of Theater and Cinema in 2012.

“Ca Chuoi,” one of his shorts, took home the Best Southeast Asian award at the 2013 Chaktomuk Short Film Festival.

The fest, organized annually in Phnom Penh since 2012, is known as the first short film gathering in Cambodia which honors talented Cambodian and Southeast Asian filmmakers.

“Truc Nhat Voi Thu Ky” (On Duty with Thu Ky), an 18-minute film directed by the aspiring filmmaker, claimed a prize at the 2012 YxineFF, an annual online short film festival which targets independent Vietnamese filmmakers and cinema lovers.

A voluntary, non-profit and independent project, YxineFF receives support from many organizations, including the Danish Cultural Development & Exchange Fund, Goethe Institute Vietnam, British Council Vietnam, and the US Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City.

Trung’s other flick, “Dong Vao Mo Ra” (Close, Open), won the Golden Award at the REC-Film Festival 2014 in Berlin, which was open to films by international filmmakers aged 16 to 27.

Young independent filmmaker Do Quoc Trung. Courtesy of Do Quoc Trung

Meanwhile, Tran Dung Thanh Huy said he has put aside several lucrative projects to focus all his time and energy on “Rom,” which will vie with 28 others and Trung’s “Cha Cha Cha” at the upcoming BIFF.

The 25-year-old director is also set to take “Rom” to Hollywood in November.

“My project will offer a window on Vietnamese culture and people. Whether it will claim a prize or find an investor depends on different factors, but I won’t be daunted by the result,” he said.

Like Trung, Huy is also a top graduate in directing at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Theater and Cinema.

One of his critically raved, prize-winning shorts, “16:30,” was screened at the 2013 Cannes Festival.

The film, which won five awards at the 2012 YxineFF and several other local prizes, was part of the Short Film category at the Cannes fest thanks to a program called “Voyage À Cannes” (Voyage to Cannes), which was held for the first time in Vietnam to promote local film talents.

The program also landed Huy an exclusive talk regarding “16:30” and young directors in general with Jane Campion, chair of the Cannes festival’s Cinéfondation and Shorts category.

Campion is the first female director to win the “Palme d'Or” (Golden Palm) award with the Oscar-winning film “The Piano” in 1993.

Huy’s “Rom” film is inspired by “16:30,” the title of which refers to the time when child lottery ticket peddlers end their arduous working days as lottery companies release results.

Both Trung and Huy are upbeat about an independent community of filmmakers which has taken shape in Vietnam over the past few years.

“Though local independent filmmakers have not come up with many films as they are quite particular about topics, storylines and how to develop their stories into a worthy cinematic work compared to their counterparts in commercial films, events like YxineFF, ‘Gap Go Mua Thu’ or ‘Ha Noi Mua Xuan’ [roughly translated as Springtime Hanoi] are excellent starting points,” Trung noted.

He stressed independent filmmaking allows him more freedom and greater creativity, while Huy revealed being an independent filmmaker offers him immense job satisfaction.