A scene from Nguyen Hoang Diep's Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere. — Photo kenh 14.vn

HA NOI (VNS) — Vietnamese director Nguyen Hoang Diep won the Best Director Award at the 16th Bratislava International Film Festival, Slovakia, on Friday night.

She won the award for her debut movie Dap Canh Giua Khong Trung (Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere).

This is one of the most important prizes of the festival, apart from feature film awards such as the Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Documentary Film, as well as Best Short Film awards.

Dap Canh Giua Khong Trung was screened on November 11 and 12, attracting a large number of critics and audience members in Bratislava. In the long feature film category, the film beat eight entries from Norway, France and Serbia, besides the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the United States, as well as Brazil and Iran.

Director Diep did not attend the award ceremony on November 14, as she was attending the American Film Institute (AFI) Fest in Hollywood, where her film was vying for the New Auteurs award for the first time.

According to the Bratislava festival's press release, the organising board said that the Best Director award was presented to Diep for the sensual abilities this young director demonstrated, while taking the audience through the odyssey of a young Vietnamese woman who battles social hardships.

The film will be screened in Viet Nam from November 23 to 27.

At the Bratislava Film Festival, the movie Party Girl, directed by Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger and Samuel Theis of France, won the Grand Prix. — VNS