Two Vietnamese films have made it onto a shortlist of 12 to vie for Best Picture at the Hanoi Film Festival, along with many big international award winners.
“Remember”, a Canadian drama thriller about an old man with dementia going in search of the person responsible for the death of his family, is a strong candidate for the top award at the fourth Hanoi Film Festival.
The movie won at the Canadian Screen Awards 2016 for original screenplay and its director Atom Egoyan was nominated for best director at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle 2016 and the Golden Lion at last year’s Venice Film Festival, the world’s oldest film festival.
French drama “Marguerite” set in Paris in the 1920s about a rich music lover woman also made the list. The movie also received a Golden Lion at last year’s Venice festival for its director Xavier Giannoli, and won several awards for design and best actress at the César Awards 2016.
The shortlist also includes Thai fantasy “Cemetery of Splendor” by Cannes-winning director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The movie about soldiers suffering a bizarre sleeping illness has won a number of awards including Best Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2015.
India also has a chance to win the award with “Birds with Large Wings”, a movie about pesticide abuse which won Best Film on Environment Conservation at the India National Film Awards.
Other candidates come from Iran, Japan, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore and South Korea.
Vietnam has two candidates – lottery comedy “Jackpot”,and the coming-of-age drama “Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass”. The latter has been submitted for the Best Foreign Film prize at the 89th Academy Awards.
The fourth Hanoi International Film Festival will run between November 1 and 5 and has received around 500 entries including short films from more than 40 countries and territories.
Related news:
>Vietnam movie 'Yellow Flowers' to vie for Oscar's Best Foreign Film
>Hanoi film fest returns this year with larger selection, bigger stars