Vietnam to have its own international film festival

MUMBAI: Hanoi will be celebrating its 1000th anniversary with the opening of Vietnam‘s first international film festival in 2010.

This was announced by the cinema department of the country‘s ministry of culture, sports and tourism that will be the co-organiser of the festival. The festival will run from 27 to 31 October, next year.

Said Vietnam Media vice president of sales & acquisitions Ngo Thi Bich Hanh, “We want to start out small but stable so that we can make sure to do things right and not try to grow too quickly. For the first year we‘re going to invite 50 to 60 feature films.”

The festival will have a feature competition section for Asian directors with a focus on South-East Asia and competitions for shorts and documentaries.

An international jury will select the best feature, short and documentary, while the audience will choose a favourite actor or actress.

The fest will also have a ‘Vietnam Cinema Today‘ section that will have recent feature film from Vietnamese directors and a World Cinema Today section.

The ‘Country In Focus‘ section will showcase established directors from a chosen country each year while the Tribute section will showcase films from a certain notable Vietnamese filmmaker, actor or actress.