The 20^th Viet Nam Film Festival is set to become a favourite rendezvous for cinema lovers as the best entries will be presented for free, organisers said on Tuesday.

Carrying on: A scene in 'Em La Ba Noi Cua Anh', based on the Korean drama Miss Granny. Remade films can be featured at the 20th Viet Nam Film Festival, but cannot win its major awards. — Photo aphim.co

The biennial event will take place in Da Nang between 24 and 28 November, the Head of the Culture Ministry’s Cinema Department, Ms Ngo Phuong Lan said.

The festival will feature the best Vietnamese films and filmmakers, and introduce the country’s culture and tradition to the world.  This year, the festival will take the ‘Building a Modern and Humane Cinema Industry’ as its theme.

The festival will be a great opportunity for domestic filmmakers, distributors and producers to exchange and promote Vietnamese cinema, Ms Lan said.

The 5-day event will include free outdoor screenings of films, seminars introducing the ASEAN film industry and an exhibition on Vietnamese cinema.

The highlight of the event this year is the ASEAN Film Award, introduced for the first time by Viet Nam.  It aims to introduce the best movies in the region to the world, and affirms the role of the cinema industry in strengthening friendship amongst the ASEAN community.

Various films will be screened in Ha Noi, Da Nang and HCM City. The Viet Nam Film Festival, founded in 1970, is considered as the major event of the national Cinema Department with awards for numerous categories, including feature films, documentary films, scientific films and animations.

The most prestigious prize of the festival is the Golden Lotus, followed by the Silver Lotus and the Special Jury Prize.

Films remade from foreign works (based on foreign films’ scripts) can be sent to the festival but won’t have a chance win the top awards, Ms Lan said.

(Source: VNS/ DA NANG Today)