Good news for Vietnamese films
On the morning of November 5, the first press conference of the 24th Vietnam Film Festival took place in Hanoi.
The festival will take place from November 21 to November 25, 2025 in Ho Chi Minh City. This year's festival takes place in a special context when Ho Chi Minh City is recognized by UNESCO as the first Creative City in the film industry in Southeast Asia.
With the slogan "Vietnamese cinema - Sustainable development and international integration in the new era", the festival fully promotes the spirit of welcoming a first step of the era of growth.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Head of the Steering Committee of the Festival Ta Quang Dong commented: In 2024 - 2025, especially in July and August this year, Vietnamese cinema has never been so well received by audiences. Even foreign films released at the same time, domestic films still outperform at the box office.
The hundred-billion-dong film club has a large number of Vietnamese films. That is a very good thing, there are films that achieve box office records. These are very surprising records. To be able to break that record is also a challenge for future works. I hope that the following records will break even more. That is proof that cinema always has a special vitality in the flow of history.
For a film to be released, from the release, production, post-production, actor selection, machinery and equipment - playing a very important role, being coordinated very synchronously to create a work worth hundreds of billions of VND".
The Deputy Minister also emphasized that the film's soundtrack is also one of the important things that underlies the success of the work. Within the framework of the festival, a separate music and film night will be held at Nguyen Hue Walking Street (HCMC).
Outstanding activities of the Festival
The organizing committee received 30 feature films, 120 documentaries, 21 science films, and 32 cartoons. At the same time, a Council was established to select films for the competition and films shown in the Overall Program of the 24th Vietnam Film Festival.
In addition, the Hop Celebration Film Week takes place from November 15 to November 20, 2025 in many provinces and cities. 15 films were shown for free, including Red Rain; Dao, Pho and Piano; Scent of burnt grass; Hong Ha Nu Si; Nga ba Dong Loc... "Red Rain" was also shown for free in 9 provinces and cities.
The festival organized 3 seminars and seminars, creating an environment for connecting managers at all levels, domestic and international film actors.
From November 21 to November 25, the photo exhibition "HCMC strives to join the country through the perspective of Cinema" will take place. The local film promotion and development program is organized as a place for filmmakers, artists... to meet and exchange experiences.
This year, the total number of films participating in the festival is the largest with 202 films participating. In addition to the awards, this year's festival also awarded certificates of merit from the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism (if any), including certificates of merit for the unit that released the most Vietnamese films from 2023-2025; certificates of merit for Vietnamese and foreign individuals with outstanding contributions to the development and promotion of Vietnamese cinema.
The awards of the festival are divided into awards for films and for individuals.
The awards for films are divided into the fields of feature films, documentaries, science films, and animated films. Each film category has awards: 1 Golden Lotus, 2 Golden Lotus, 2 Jury Awards. In addition, there is 1 award for outstanding film effects for feature films.
The individual awards include the awards for Director, Screenwriter, Director of First Feature Film, Film Score, Best Actor/Actress, Supporting Actor, Painter, Music, and sound.
In addition, there was also the audience voting award for the Most Favorite Vietnamese Film. The audience voted for feature films to participate in the Pan-Scale Film Program.
Regarding the criteria for considering awarding certificates of merit, if the works of the unit or individual with the award (if any) will be considered one of the criteria. In addition, the criteria for the number of viewers are given top priority.
In the first press conference of the festival (November 5), the organizing committee could not announce the specific names of the 16 feature films competing because they are still in the qualifying round.
