A still irom the movie Kỳ Nam Inn directed by Leon Lê in 2025. Photo courtesy of the production company

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese film Quán Kỳ Nam (Kỳ Nam Inn) has won several awards at the 25th Imagine India International Film Festival (IIIFF) in Madrid, including Best Director.

The Best Director prize went to Leon Lê for his second feature film. A director with a background in dance, singing and acting, Lê works between New York and HCM City. His short films Dawn (2012) and Talking to My Mother (2014) have been screened at more than 100 film festivals worldwide.

His feature debut, Song Lang (2018), won more than 50 awards, including the Tokyo Gemstone Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival and Best Narrative Feature at the Seattle Queer Film Festival.

Lê also won the Best Director Award at the Asian Art Film Festival (AAFF) 2026 last May in Macau, China. 

Set in Sài Gòn in 1985, Kỳ Nam Inn follows a lonely widow whose life is reinvigorated by the arrival of a charming young man amid the social upheaval of post-war Việt Nam.

Evoking the tenderness of a romantic watercolour painting, the film reaches its emotional peak in a late-night sequence in which the two walk through the streets of Sài Gòn, enacting a dreamlike farewell ritual.

Carried by the young man’s narration, the scene leaves their shared story suspended in an eternal present.

The film also won Best Production Design for Lã Quý Tùng and Best Director of Photography (DOP) for Bob Nguyễn.

Tùng is a visual artist and production designer whose work bridges cinema, contemporary art and design. Known for his distinctive approach to visual storytelling, he has created the visual worlds of numerous Vietnamese and international film productions and received three awards for Outstanding Art Direction at the Việt Nam Film Festival.

Nguyễn is an accredited member of the Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) whose international career has been defined by his commitment to the art and craft of celluloid filmmaking.

His Mười – The Curse Returns earned him two Gold Awards at the ACS Victoria Awards and two National Golden Tripods.

At the 56th National ACS Awards in 2026, Nguyễn was named Australian Cinematographer of the Year for the second time and received his second career Milli Award.

The 25th IIIFF also presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai and Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda. — VNS