Hà Nội hosts seventh HANIFF international film festival next month

HÀ NỘI More than 100 films from 51 countries and territories will be screened at the seventh Hà Nội International Film Festival (HANIFF), which will take place from November 7 to 11.

The festival has a multitude of different sections, including official competitions for short and feature-length films, world cinema panorama, contemporary Vietnamese films and German cinema.

The only Vietnamese film competing for the best feature-length film title is Ngày Xưa Có Một Chuyện Tình (Once Upon A Love Story).

A scene from the movie Ngày Xưa Có Một Chuyện Tình. File Photo

Ngày Xưa Có Một Chuyện Tình is based on the famous novel of the same name by bestselling author Nguyễn Nhật Ánh. Ánh won the Southeast Asian Writers Award presented by the Thai royal family in 2010.

Directed by Trịnh Đình Lê Minh, the film is a love story featuring southern Vietnamese culture and the lives of those who live in the south through its main characters.

Minh received a MA in Film Production from University of Texas at Austin. His debut, Thưa Mẹ Con Đi (Goodbye Mother), has won several awards at various international film festivals, including the Best Narrative Feature Film Jury Award at the Reeling Film Festival 2020, the Audience Award at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival and acclaim at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival 2020.

The film has been released in more than ten international markets, including Taiwan (China), Japan, the US and Australia.

His second feature, Bằng Chứng Vô Hình (Invisible Evidence), has been sold to more than ten Asian countries and won him the Best Director Award at the Việt Nam National Film Festival in 2021.

Ngày Xưa Có Một Chuyện Tình is the latest film from Minh and will be released in theatres nationwide on November 1.

HANIFF was first held in 2010 as one of the many activities celebrating the 1,000th anniversary of Thăng Long - Hà Nội. Since then, it has been held biennially.

The last festival in 2022 saw 800 international and Vietnamese delegates come in from over 50 countries and territories with 123 films in competition, including motion pictures, short films, documentaries and animation.

Award-winners the last festival included best film for the Brazilian entry Paloma in the main competition, the Jury Award for feature-length film Woman on the Roof produced in Poland and Sweden, while the Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema (NETPAC) awards went to Bone Marrow from Iran and Kontrabida - The Villain from the Philippines. VNS