HÀ NỘI — A group of four HCM City-based screenwriters have been announced as the winners of the global screenwriting contest The Wanted Writer launched by the VinTaTa Animation Studio.

The group, called The Whale Hunters, has won the VNĐ1 billion (US$44,000) first prize with their script titled Monta Trong Dải Ngân Hà Kỳ Cục (Monta in the Weird Galaxy).  

The Whale Hunters, consisting of 25-year-old Nguyễn Hoàng Vũ, alongside Lương Võ Thành Luân, Sỳ Hữu Vinh, and Dương Minh Lộc (all 30-years-old) overcame seven other  finalists to grab the prize.

The Wanted Writer contest was launched by VinTaTa Animation Studio last October, and attracted more than 800 individuals and groups from a range of different occupations such as directors, writers, scriptwriters, cartoonists, and students.

Eliminated through several rounds, only eight groups were selected to vie for the first prize in the reality show round. In this final round they had four weeks to work with professional cartoonists to develop their screenplay concepts.

The contest had a judging board consisting of Việt Nam’s famous directors, actors, and movie producers.

Monkey business: A demo image from the script Monta Trong Dải Ngân Hà Kỳ Cục (Monta in the Weird Galaxy) by The Whale Hunters. — Photo courtesy by Vingroup

The main purpose of the VinTaTa Studio is to bring laughter to children, therefore the contest also had a group of junior judges, aged from 6 to 12, who could judge for themselves whether the films were funny or not.

The other seven finalists have been given the encouragement prize, each worth VNĐ100 million ($4,400).

Established by real estate developer Vingroup in 2016, VinTaTa Animation Studio aims to spread entertainment with their "made-in-Việt Nam" animated films, employing world-class standards and advanced technology that honours the values of truth, positivity, and beauty, while conveying educational messages, and expressing the characteristics of Vietnamese culture.

The studio’s mascot, the Monta Monkey, has been created based on the Delacour’s langur – a rare and endemic animal species in Việt Nam, known to depict typical positive characters of Vietnamese people – smart, good-natured, happy, agile, resourceful, and witty. Monta Monkey is also the protagonist of all the series made by VinTaTa.

At present, the winning script Monta in the Weird Galaxy is being used by the VinTaTa Animation Studio to produce its first animation movie, which is expected to debut within the year. — VNS