Source of capital
Currently, film producers are mostly interested in profits, deciding to invest in scripts that give quick returns or are at least safe bets. It is an adventure to make art films in Vietnam. As a result, art films that showcase artistic value and filmmakers’ creativity have been in short supply in Vietnam. A source of capital to support art film projects is needed.
A cinema development support fund was officially launched at the 17th Vietnam Film Festival in December 2011. According to the director of the ministry’s Cinematography Department, Ngo Phuong Lan, the fund aims to encourage the production of films of humanitarian and political value and films that promote the beauty of the landscape, people and traditional culture of Vietnam.
The fund will also support a series of first film projects by promising young filmmakers, who have new perspectives on artistic values and prospects of participating in international film awards.
The fund won the support of cinema companies, but a stable source of income was still needed, says Ngo Phuong Lan. Funds are to be levied from the ticket revenues of domestic and foreign films screened at the cinema.
Hope for young filmmakers
State-owned studios’ hope of making art films and short films rests on the success of the cinema development support fund of the Vietnam Film Festival, said director Nguyen Thanh Van. “It is a necessary requirement to develop the art film category and young filmmakers”, he said.
According to director Bui Thac Chuyen, similar funds have been established in many countries around the world. Capital has been raised not only for filmmaking projects but also for training projects, he said.
“The large funds of the Berlin International Film Festival or the Venice Film Festival are invested in domestic cinema and outstanding foreign film projects”, he said.
A number of projects by young Vietnamese filmmakers have received support from foreign funds. The World Cinema Fund (WCF) of the Berlin International Film Festival recently gave Phan Dang Di US$40,000 for his project, entitled ‘Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories’.
The cinema development support fund of the Vietnam Film Festival is seen as part of the Cinematographic Development Strategy, which aims to introduce Vietnamese films to the world at regional and international film festivals.
