Rising star: Twenty-five year old filmmaker Tran Dung Thanh Huy won the Feature Film Project Pitching Competition at the inaugural Ha Noi Spring 2015 film workshop with film Thang Rom (Little Rom). — Photo courtesy of Motion Picture Association of America

HA NOI (VNS) — Twenty-five year old Vietnamese filmmaker Tran Dung Thanh Huy is soon to be westward bound, heading to Los Angeles, USA for a special five-day training programme.

An international panel at the inaugural Ha Noi Spring 2015 Film Workshop announced yesterday that the budding filmmaker won the first place prize, a trip to Hollywood, for his feature film pitch, Thang Rom (Little Rom).

Thang Rom is the story of a young boy selling lottery tickets to make ends meet in a poor neighborhood in a big city. The idea for the film comes from his short film 16.30 which won Best Short Film at the 2012 Golden Kite Awards.

Huy was already making waves in the industry when just a student at the University of Theatre and Cinema Arts of HCM City. His film Duong Bi (Path of the Marble) won Best film, Best director, Best cinematography and Best Props at the 48 Hour film Festival in HCM City in 2011.

Huy and six others were given just five minutes to present their film pitches to an impressive jury of Vietnamese directors – Dang Nhat Minh, Pham Nhue Giang, Bui Thac Chuyen – and actress/producer Nguyen Hong Anh.

The three special jury guests included Jon Kuyper, a Hollywood film producer, and Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) representatives, Stephen Jenner, and Edward Neubronner.

The training course in Ha Noi was the joint project of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA), the Danish Embassy, the French Embassy and Vblock Media.

Bright future

The 10-day independent film workshop held classes at L'Espace, drawing the participation of fourteen young directors wanting to specialise in the long feature format.

The workshop participants were selected by independent filmmaker Nguyen Hoang Diep, director of the award winning film Dap Canh Giua Khong Trung (Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere).

"I hope the workshop helps make a new young generation of Vietnamese independent filmmakers and producers who will present their works with confidence to the global film industry," said Diep.

At the closing ceremony of the workshop, Kuyper led a master class on the responsibilities and tasks required of today's film producers – from development through pre-production, production and post production.

"The film workshop is an excellent occasion for filmmakers to share their experiences," Neubronner, MPA's Senior Vice President & Regional Operations Officer of Asia-Pacific Region, told Viet Nam News.

"Viet Nam's film industry has huge potential, young people occupy 80 per cent of the population.

"I am happy to see that the screen industry is growing, more people are attending the cinema, new high quality cinemas are being built and filmmakers are showing an intense interest in producing quality feature films."

American film producer Kuyper said, after just a sort stay in the country, he is already making plans to come back to shoot scenes for several Hollywood movies in the near future. — VNS