RISING STAR - Young filmmaker Hồ Thanh Thảo is one of five winners at the 2021 CJ Short Film Making Project 2021 with the film titled Điềm Báo (A Bad Omen), featuring a widow’s fight against a stranger in her dreams who causes bad luck for her son. Photo courtesy of the organisers

HCM CITY – The 2023 CJ Short Film Making Project, a prominent national contest in the genre, has kicked off in HCM City.

Vietnamese residents aged 18-40 are encouraged to send their entries to the contest by May 28 at http://duanphimngancj.cgv.vn.

Eligible entries include short films (not animation or documentary) made in the last three years, an outline for a new film project, and a detailed plan for filmmaking.

The contests will be judged by the country’s leading directors, including Phan Đăng Di, Nguyễn Hoàng Điệp, Trịnh Đình Lê Minh, and Trần Thanh Huy, and film producer Trần Thị Bích Ngọc.

The judges will seek 10 projects for a Q&A session on June 14, and then select the best five projects which will be given VNĐ300 million (US$13,000) each to make the films.

They will also become the mentors of the final five during the filmmaking process to ensure that the films meet qualifications for international film festivals.

Director Phan Đăng Di, an independent filmmaker who has won many awards at international film festivals, said, “every director needs a quality and well-invested short film as a platform to start his or her career, so the contest is doing a good job to help Vietnamese filmmakers to make their dreams come true.”

Di is well known for his drama Bi, Đừng Sợ! (Bi, Don’t Be Afraid), which won the Best Screenwriter at the Critics Week category of the Cannes Film Festival 2010. He is also a founder of Autumn Meeting, an international cinema event providing opportunity for young filmmakers in the region.

The winner of this year’s contest will be announced in December.

The CJ Short Film Making Project was initiated by the CJ Cultural Foundation and CJ CGV Vietnam in 2018, aiming to bring works by Vietnamese filmmakers to top international film festivals.

The contest received 250 entries in 2018, 300 in 2019, and 298 in 2021.

All the entries have featured different genres, and various topics and stories covering aspects of life and humanity.

Many productions from the contest have been selected to screen and compete at over 50 international film festivals around the world.

Some of them won top prizes, such as Một Khu Đất Tốt (Blessed Land) by Phạm Ngọc Lân winning Best Film at the International Competition for Fiction & Documentaries at the 16th VIS Vienna Shorts Festival in Austria in 2019.

All productions from the contest are screened for the public at CGV Art House after they compete at international festivals. – VNS