VietNamNet Bridge – Five musicians and two scriptwriters have petitioned the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for reconsidering the list of nominees for the Ho Chi Minh Awards and the State Awards on music and movies.
The seven artists who disagree with the list of nominees including musicians: Doan Bong, Dinh Quang Hop, Ngoc Khue, The Song, Le Viet Hoa and scriptwriters Phan Huyen Thu and Phan Thanh Tu.

These artists said that the list of nominees for the Ho Chi Minh Awards and the State Awards for outstanding artists in the fields of music and movies is unsatisfactory.

In late 2010, the five above musicians and 63 others were nominated for the Ho Chi Minh Awards and The State Awards. On January 1, the five musicians were informed to not enter the last round since they did not win 75 percent of the votes of the grass-root jury. The grass-root jury, which comprised of senior musicians: Phan Huynh Dieu, Ca Le Thuan, Tran Long An, Chu Minh, Don Truyen, Pham Ngoc Khoi and Prof. To Ngoc Thanh, selected 28 nominees for the last round.

In their petitions sent to the Association of Vietnamese Musicians, dated January 4, the five musicians wrote that the grassroots jury did not thoroughly and carefully listen to and evaluate the music works of nominees and made “vague comments”.

According to the five musicians, the jury needs up to 100 hours to listen to all over 300 musical works submitted by the nominees, but they worked for only two and half of a day to make the final list. They did not agree with the jury to reject famous songs like “Singing voice from the Lam River” by Dinh Quang Hop, “Your home river, my home river” by Doan Bong, “Spring in the village of rice and flowers” by Ngoc Khue, “From the remote island” by The Song and the famous musical play “Fire and flowers” by Dinh Quang Hop. They proposed to set up a new jury, with jury members nominated by musicians, and organize a meeting with the participation of 68 nominees, where an open vote will be held to choose the last nominees.

On February 22, musician “The Song” sent his petition to Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Hoang Tuan Anh, to confirm that the jury seriously violated the regulations on evaluating musical works. According to the musician, the jury did not listen to or read musical works and selected some musicians, who fail to meet criteria for the last round; for example, musician Le Lan with a song praising President Ho Chi Minh which copied the melody from a Russian song and was penalized by the Ministry of Defense for musical piracy. Another case is musician Nguyen Chinh, who is a conductor and does not have any musical work. Some musicians like Thap Nhat, Vu Thanh, Le Tinh, Vinh Lai and Cat Van whose works are not popular at all are also listed.
Musician “The Song” said he sent the complaint to the Minister because the Association of Vietnamese Musicians has not answered him after two months.

A member of the jury, senior musician Phan Huynh Dieu, confirmed that the five musicians are wrong because if the jury did not listen or read musical works, how could they check them. He said that he could not speak in the name of the entire jury but he emphasized “the jury cannot be wrong”.

In the field of cinema, scriptwriters Phan Thanh Tu and Phan Huyen Thu submitted their petition to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism against director Nguyen Thuoc on July 6.

According to Tu and Thu, director Nguyen Thuoc submitted three documentaries “The hardship of sand”, “Brain” and “@ citizens” to the jury of the Ho Chi Minh Awards and to the evaluation council of the People’s Artist title.

Phan Huyen Thu said that the scriptwriter of “Hardship of sand” is Phan Thanh Tu and she wrote the comment. Thu is both the scriptwriter and comment writer for the “Brain” and “@ citizens”. They won the Golden Lotus Awards for the Best Scriptwriter for these documentaries. Thu said these documentaries are the works of many people, not director Thuoc alone.

Thu said that director Nguyen Thuoc did not inform her and Phan Thanh Tu about this. She argued that it is irrational when Nguyen Thuoc asked for consideration of the People’s Artist for himself by submitting these documentaries as an author.

Phan Thanh Tu said that she did not agree when Nguyen Thuoc submitted the three documentaries, which have great contribution of her and Phan Huyen Thu to apply for the State Awards. Tu explained that if Thuoc submitted these works to apply for titles for himself, Tu and Thu would not allowed using them again in future to apply for titles.
Hai Anh, chief of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Emulation and Rewards Department, said that the ministry set up 13 councils to evaluate nominees for the Ho Chi Minh Awards and the State Awards for stage, music, dancing, movies, fine art, photography, folk art, literature, architecture and nominees for the titles “People’s Artist” and “Meritorious Artist” for state, dance, music, movies.

These councils received the final lists of nominees from grassroots juries for consideration from June 27 through July 7. The winners will be announced very soon.

The Ho Chi Minh Award is presented each five years on September 2 (National Day). The State Award is granted each two years, also on September 2.

VNE