Golden man: Director Dang Nhat Minh (right) was honoured in the US for his great contribution to Viet Nam's film industry. — File Photo

HA NOI — Directors Bui Dinh Hac and Dang Nhat Minh will be honoured at the Viet Nam Cinematography Association's Golden Kite Awards for Lifetime Achievement in March.

Both directors have made great contributions to Vietnamese cinema. Hac, a former head of the Viet Nam Cinematography Association, has made many acclaimed documentaries and features like Ho Chi Minh – Chan Dung Mot Con Nguoi (Ho Chi Minh – A Portrait of Man) and Duong Ve Que Me (Road Back to Mother's Homeland).

Duong Ve Que Me was honoured at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 1972 and won first prize at the New Delhi Film Festival and the Viet Nam National Film Festival in 1973.

The documentary is one of three by Hac about President Ho Chi Minh. The two others are Duong Ve To Quoc (Road Back Home) and Nguyen Ai Quoc Den Voi Le Nin (Nguyen Ai Quoc Comes to Lenin).

Director Nhat Minh is internationally recognised for his award-winning films.

Nhat Minh has directed such classic Vietnamese films as Bao Gio Cho Den Thang Muoi (When the Tenth Month Comes) (1984); Thuong Nho Dong Que (Nostalgia for the Countryside) (1995) and Dung Dot (Don't Burn) – Viet Nam's 2009 entry into the Academy Awards' Foreign Language Film category.

His When the Tenth Month Comes is the first post-war Vietnamese movie to be shown at international film festivals and was named one of the 18 best Asian films by the US Cable News Network (CNN) in 2008.

The director has been honoured in the US and Japan.

Nhat Minh also served as Phillip Noyce's second unit director on The Quiet American in 2002, one of the first western productions to shoot in Viet Nam.

Both directors Hac and Nhat Minh were awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize in 2007. — VNS