Overseas Vietnamese director Leon Le and his movie “Song Lang” have been honoured at the third edition of the Sharm El-Sheikh Asian Film Festival (SAFF).

A scene from Song Lang movie

Le won the Best Director award while his film grabbed the Samir Farid Prize.

“Song Lang” is Le’s first feature length film and was written by himself and Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc, depicting his childhood dreams of “cai luong” (reformed opera).

The director boasts a deep understanding of and passion for this long-standing art form.

Leon Le was born in 1977 in Vietnam. When he was 13, he moved to the US with his family and carved out a successful career in musical theatre on Broadway in New York as an actor, before starting to write and direct short films.

The SAFF took place on March 2-8 in Egypt.-VNA