Several film-makers in Vietnam have raised doubts over the VND 700 bn (USD31.8m) in revenue that was claimed to have been earned by local films in 2015 when the figures were announced at a workshop held on March 28 in Hanoi.

  A scene in "Yellow flowers on Green Grass"

The report was released at a four-year review workshop on the UNESCO Convention 2005 on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions for 2012-2016, which is a component of the Capacity Building Programme funded by the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency.

The report which was compiled by the National Report Building Team showed that there were 384 film companies in Vietnam which produced 89 films and earned VND 700 billion in 2015. Combined with revenue of VND 1.590 trillion (USD63m) from foreign films, the country's film industry boasted a revenue growth rate of 21%. 2015’s brightest results was the success of the locally produced Yellow flowers on Green Grass.

While the National Report Building Team saw this as a significant achievement of the local film industry, several film-makers have expressed doubts over the number.

Director Vu Hoang Diep said that the revenue figures could not be right.

"I don't know how the team arrived at this figure," Diep said. "In reality no film companies will make public their real revenue, or they will give bogus numbers. But it is easy to predict much lower revenues when looking at local cinemas. And I think it's time we need an independent agency to collect these kinds of figures."

Musician Quoc Trung agreed with Diep's opinion, saying that the local film industry had recorded no significant achievements last year.

“The Vietnamese film industry had a terrible 2015," Trung said. "Apart from the Yellow Flowers on Green Grass, there were no other films worth mentioning.

Trung also expressed concerns over the efficiency of the state-funded film projects.

"As far as I know, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism have been pouring lots of money into many film projects over the past few years, but Yellow Flowers on Green Grass was their only success," Trung explained. "It may be difficult to assess a film's quality but we should have its revenue made public so that critics and officials can carefully consider the funding for future film projects.

Trung also suggested giving loans instead of funds for film makers, as he believed this would force them to develop better quality products.

State-funded movies have long been criticised for their low quality despite benefiting from huge investment.

Many government-sponsored films, including locally award-winning pictures, have had tremendous difficulty reaching their intended audience.

The Legend Makers, a war film which has won national awards and enjoyed critical acclaim, struggled hard in late 2013 to even be shown to local audiences.

In August 2013, another state-funded historical film which was produced to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi in 2010 was actually not even finished on time, and had to be donated to national broadcaster Vietnam Television for free in a desperate attempt just have it aired.

Dtinews