HÀ NỘI — Central Đà Nẵng City is hosting the annual cinema festival from November 8 to 16, to encourage upcoming filmmakers and promote co-operation between Vietnamese and international filmmakers.

The event, called Gặp Gỡ Mùa Thu (Autumn Meeting), will also include three training courses on acting, film direction, and producing low-budget films.

The film direction session will be conducted by award-winning director Trần Anh Hùng, and will be attended by 12 students from Việt Nam, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Malaysia.  This is the fourth consecutive year that Vietnamese-born French director Hùng has attended the Autumn Meeting and conducted workshops. At the end of the class, Hùng will hand out a Film of Future award to the best student.

Hùng’s latest movie Eternity was released in Việt Nam in August. His Mùi Đu Đủ Xanh (The Scent of Green Papaya) was nominated in the Best Foreign Language category at the Oscars in 1993, while Xích Lô (Cyclo) won the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival in 1995.

The acting class will draw not only new faces selected by directors Charlie Nguyễn and Nguyễn Quang Dũng, but also many young artists. The aspiring actors will be tutored by South Korea’s Lydia Park and internationally renowned actress Moon Sori, the first Korean actress to have become a juror at the Venice Film Festival, where in 2002, she won the Youth Actress award for her performance in Oasis.

The session on how to make low-budget films will be conducted by Indonesian director Joko Anwar and his producer Tia Hasibuan. Joko’s A Copy of My Mind was produced with a capital of US$15,000 and screened at international film festivals such as Toronto Film Festival and Osaka Asian Film Festival. 

Other activities organised at the event include Autumn Meeting 2016 In Focus: Short Film Collection from Kaohsiung, seminars, the Art-House Corner and the Entertainment Film World.

At the In Focus event, nine Taiwanese and two Vietnamese short films will be shown. Representatives from Kaohsiung Film Institute and four young filmmakers from Taiwan will also meet and talk with audiences at their film screenings in HCM City on November 13 and in Đà Nẵng on November 15. 

At Art-House Corner, people will be able to see eight art house film projects by young filmmakers. The best project will grab the Autumn Meeting Grand Prix.

Around 10 entertainment film projects will compete for the Producer’s Choice award. 

The festival was started jointly by independent filmmaker Phan Đăng Di, producer Trần Thị Bích Ngọc and Nguyễn Mỹ Dung in 2013. Since its second edition in 2014, the event has attracted young filmmakers from Singapore and Taiwan. Last year, Korean cameraman Kim Hyung-Koo, director of photography for the huge box-office South Korean hit The Host, joined the film shooting session. 

The festival has become a stepping stone for those who aspire to make a career in cinema. Last year’s Autumn Meeting Grand Prix winner Nguyễn Phương Anh won the Non-Hong Kong Project Award at the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum and the White Light Post-Production Award for her film The Third Wife.

The Autumn Meeting Grand Prix 2014 winner Đỗ Quốc Trung and Producer’s Choice winner Trần Dũng Thanh Huy were in short-list for the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Project Market. — VNS