The year 2023 marks an important milestone in the history of Vietnam’s cinema when film director Pham Thien An won the Camera d'Or (Golden Camera) for ‘Ben Trong Vo Ken Vang' (Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell). 

2023 has also been a special period when a Vietnam-made film Nha ba Nu (The House of No Man) saw record high revenue of VND475 billion. The film, hitting screens on Tet holiday, sold 5.8 million tickets.

Prior to that, in March 2021, Bo Gia (Dad, I’m sorry), became a phenomenon when it attracted people back to cinemas after the Covid-19 pandemic. As many as 5.2 million tickets were sold which brought revenue of VND427 billion.

The appearance of successful movies has heated up the film industry and put filmmakers in high spirits. 

However, it was regretful that many famous film makers and directors who are believed to change the face of the cinema market, including Tran Thanh, Ly Hai, Victor Vu and Nguyen Quang Dung, were absent.

The level of development of the film industry is not just measured by the number of films produced, prizes at festivals and products with high revenue. 

According to head of the Cinema Department Vi Kien Thanh, one of the important goals in the Vietnam’s culture industry development strategy by 2020 is developing cinematography into both an art and business field as well. 

Vietnam strives to build cinema into a key culture industry, which helps foster economic growth, attract tourists, and create a position for Vietnam’s cinema in the region and the world.

To achieve that end, Vietnam needs to gather strength of experts including cinema activists, investors, audiences, businesses and state management agencies, and cooperation between the finance sector, tourism, and science and technology.

Bui Hoai Son, member of the National Assembly’s Committee of Culture and Education, said the film industry is a creative business field, using cinema talents and cultural resources in association with technology and business skills to create cinema products and cinema services.

“Big data in the film industry mentions the collection, storage and usage of large digitized information volume to improve all aspects of the industry,” Son said.

Son believes that it is necessary to heighten awareness of the whole society, especially those working in the film industry, about the use of Big Data; build policies related to Big Data and apply to in the movie industry; and make investment for Big Data.

He stressed that using Big Data will improve the quality of Vietnam’s film industry. This will not only help produce creative content and attractive style, but also help step up the sustainable development of the film industry.

“Companies and film makers can use Big Data to better understand demand from audiences, improve production management and optimize marketing strategies,” he explained.

Phi Tien Son, a film director, said: “The path to becoming an industrial cinema is really thorny. We can buy modern equipment for filming, we can set up large studios and equip them with modern facilities, but we will still not be able to develop the film industry if we don’t have industry workers,” he said.

The director of ‘Dao, Pho va Piano’ (Peach Blossom, Pho and Piano) said a large cinema must have masterpieces, with humanistic, artistic, and ideological values. 

"Making films that are highly entertaining that attract many audiences is a very difficult thing and it is necessary. But that is not the only dream of filmmakers and the film industry,” he said. 

“They not only want good selling cinema products, but also want artistic works. Only when producing masterpieces will Vietnam’s movie industry become better known to the world,” he said. “But it is not easy to do this."

The role of mass media in developing Vietnam’s film industry was also a topic of discussion at the workshop. Nguyen Thi Hoang Lan, Editor in Chief of To Quoc newspaper (Fatherland), said this is the fastest way to reach the public.

Tinh Le