HÀ NỘI – Two young filmmakers Nguyễn Xuân Hoàng Minh and Phạm Thu Thủy won the Golden Lotus Bud Awards for the best documentary film and the best feature film on Sunday.

Minh’s film Khi Sóng Vỗ Bờ (When the waves kiss the shore) tells the story of a man who returns his home after working for a long time abroad. The man feels lonely and cannot reintegrate into his family and society. He decides to leave.

This is the second documentary by Minh under a project launched by the Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents (TPD).

“The best documentary award is a huge surprise for me,” Minh said. “I made it when I participated in the 2^nd Doc project at TPD. I love experiences in filmmaking.”

Minh shot the documentary in three weeks with a hand-held camera. The man in the documentary is a close friend of Minh’s parents.

From her personal observation, Minh felt she had to make a documentary about this man.

“I saw that he had come to a standstill in his life. He was stuck between two societies, one in the Czech Republic and the other in Việt Nam."

Minh, 21, is a fourth-year student at Labour and Social Affair College. She is keen on art, but dared not follow her dream to become a filmmaker.

She attended the We Are Filmmakers Project at TPD in 2014. Her first documentary was nominated for the Golden Lotus Bud Awards.

The award-winning feature film XX2061 by Thủy tells a story set in the future, when every family has robots and depends on them, leading to trouble.

The awards were presented on Sunday at Worker’s Theatre in Hà Nội. Two movies entitled Chanh Đào and Rito Rito, made by Nguyễn Thị Thanh Đào and Nguyễn Ngọc Thảo Ly, respectively, won the best feature and the best documentary awards, decided by audience vote. They also received the best first documentary and the best first feature awards.

The best movie by high-school students was also honoured at the ceremony.

Launched in 2009, the Golden Lotus Bud Awards is an annual prize launched by TPD to encourage young people to become involved in filmmaking.

About 110 documentaries and feature films competed for the awards this year. The jury comprised independent filmmakers such as Phan Đăng Di, Nguyễn Thị Thắm and Nguyễn Hoàng Điệp. — VNS