Vietnamese movie withdrawn from Busan International Film Festival

The Vietnam Cinema Department Wednesday said Hoan Khue company, the producer of "Rom", had sent the movie to the festival before it was censored. Under the Cinematography Law, films must have been certified by the Vietnam Cinema Department or approved for broadcast by television broadcasters before being sent to festivals.

The company then had to write to the Busan festival organizers and ask for its withdrawal.

The department has also asked the company to explain why the film had been produced by foreigners without getting the script approved as required by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Developed from the critically acclaimed short film "4:30 p.m.", which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, "Rom" is about a teenage boy named Rom who lives in a slum in Saigon and buys lottery tickets for people in the neighborhood. His aim is to collect enough money to find his parents, who had abandoned him as a child.

"Rom" was entered in the New Currents category, considered the most important at Busan, meant for the first or second feature film of a director.

The festival, to be held from October 3-12, will screen 303 films from 85 countries, with 97 feature films and 23 short films making their world premiere.

Vietnam has four features, two short films and three projects entered in the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) to be held in October.

This is the first time that Vietnam has so many films selected for the festival, one of the biggest in Asia.