Vietnamese Cinema: Trần Anh Hùng, Tết Blockbusters and the Indie Scene
Vietnamese cinema lives in two parallel worlds — quiet art house films that win at Cannes, and Tết comedies that earn ten million dollars in a week.
Vietnamese cinema has produced two of the past three decades' most acclaimed Southeast Asian art directors and, separately, a robust domestic comedy industry that ignores them entirely. Both deserve attention.
Origins and what it is
State studios dominated until Đổi Mới economic reform allowed private production from the late 1980s. The breakthrough generation came in the 1990s.
Trần Anh Hùng (b. 1962, France-based since childhood) directed The Scent of Green Papaya (1993), nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Cyclo (1995), which won the Golden Lion at Venice. His 2023 French-language film The Pot-au-Feu won Best Director at Cannes. His Vietnamese-set films are slow, sensual, and use natural light in a way that influenced a whole later generation.
Phan Đăng Di is the most prominent home-based art director. Bi, Don't Be Afraid (2010) and Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories (2015) both premiered at Cannes and Berlin. His films focus on family, sexuality and the rural-to-urban transition.
Bùi Thạc Chuyên directs in a more naturalistic mode. Living in Fear (2008) is set in post-war landmine clearance country. His 2024 film Don't Cry, Butterfly won the FIPRESCI prize at Venice's Critics' Week.
Younger directors include Phạm Thiên Ân (whose Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes 2023), Lê Bảo, and the documentary-maker Nguyễn Trinh Thi.
Modern practice — the Tết blockbuster
Lunar New Year is the box office event of the year. Mới Tết ("Tết season") films are family-friendly comedies released in late January or February, often featuring crossover V-pop stars and broad sketch humour. The genre's biggest commercial figures are:
- Trấn Thành, whose Mai (2024) and Nhà bà Nữ (2023) each grossed more than 400 billion đồng (around 16 million US dollars), making them the highest-earning Vietnamese films ever.
- Lý Hải, whose Lật Mặt franchise has run eight instalments since 2015.
- Director-producer Charlie Nguyễn and his frequent collaborator Johnny Trí Nguyễn, the action duo behind The Rebel (2007).
Horror is the other consistently profitable genre, with films like Kẻ Ăn Hồn (2023) drawing on northern folk belief.
What visitors should know
Cinema chains CGV, Lotte Cinema and Galaxy Cinema dominate the multiplex market and screen Vietnamese films with English subtitles only sometimes — check listings before buying a ticket. The art house circuit is thinner: in Hanoi, DOCLAB at the Goethe-Institut and the Hanoi International Film Festival (HANIFF, biennial) are the main showcases. In Saigon, Idecaf and the DCINE Bến Thành programme occasional repertory.
For viewing abroad, Trần Anh Hùng's older films are available on Criterion Channel and MUBI. Newer art house Vietnamese films circulate at festivals first and reach streaming slowly — Phạm Thiên Ân's Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell is on MUBI in most territories.
Honest take
The split between auteur cinema and mass entertainment is sharper here than in most Asian film industries. Trấn Thành's hits genuinely speak to Vietnamese audiences about family, debt and migration — they are not empty spectacle — but they rarely travel because the comedy relies on dense regional dialect and reference. The art house films travel better but reach fewer Vietnamese viewers than they deserve. The most exciting development in the past three years has been younger directors finding ways to bridge the two registers: emotionally direct, visually unhurried, and willing to be funny.
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