"Southern Forest Land" earned more than 100 billion VND but still left empty-handed at the Film Festival, why?

The film "Dat Rung Phuong Nam" by director Nguyen Quang Dung premiered from October 13 to November 25, earning nearly 140 billion VND (according to Box Office Vietnam).

This is a movie that has caused a lot of controversy in public opinion regarding historical factors. The fact that the movie was selected as one of 16 works competing in the Feature Film category at this year's Vietnam Film Festival also created a wave of public opinion.

Previously, at the press conference of the 23rd Vietnam Film Festival in Hanoi , the press asked: "The participating feature films, including the film Dat rung phuong Nam, are receiving many conflicting opinions. How does this affect the judging results and the film's competition for awards?"

Mr. Vi Kien Thanh, Director of the Department of Cinema, Head of the Film Festival Organizing Committee, replied: "The awards of the Film Festival will be based on the results and evaluations of the Council and the Jury. Public opinion and audience opinions will be reflected in the awards voted by the audience for their favorite film."

A scene from the movie "Southern Forest Land" (Photo: Provided by the film crew).

On the evening of November 25, the closing ceremony and award ceremony of the 23rd Vietnam Film Festival took place. As a result, Glorious Ashes won big in 5 important categories including: Golden Lotus for feature film; Best Supporting Actor for feature film (Le Cong Hoang); Best Director for feature film (Bui Thac Chuyen); Best Cinematography for feature film (Nguyen K'Linh) and Best Music for feature film (Ton That An).

Meanwhile, Dat Rung Phuong Nam and Nha Ba Nu were left empty-handed despite high revenue.

Dan Tri reporter contacted People's Artist Dao Ba Son - Head of the Jury of Feature Films - to answer questions related to the results of the 23rd Vietnam Film Festival.

The reporter asked: "Is the public controversy surrounding the film Southern Forest Land the reason that influenced the judges in evaluating this work?"

People's Artist Dao Ba Son frankly answered that the audience's controversy about Southern Forest Land did not affect the judges' evaluation and did not cause any pressure on the judges.

He said that when the Organizing Committee brought the film " Dat Rung Phuong Nam" to the 23rd Vietnam Film Festival, the jury's job was to judge the film equally like other films, without any distinction between private or state-owned films.

However, each issue and element in the film will be thoroughly dissected by the judges, not for any other reason.

People's Artist Dao Ba Son (right) is the Head of the Feature Film Jury at the 23rd Vietnam Film Festival (Photo: Anh Vu).

According to Mr. Son, the jury judges and votes based on 4 criteria: The film has good content, ideas and art; Creativity in storytelling and cinematic language; The work must be humane, must protect humanity, which is the beauty in the Vietnamese soul and people; and finally, the work must be rich in Vietnamese cultural identity.

People's Artist Dao Ba Son also said that he and the jury of the 23rd Vietnam Film Festival assessed the film Southern Forest Land as a work with very elaborate investment from setting construction, filming, music , design to staging, post-production...

"The film was well invested, the filmmakers did it very carefully and meticulously, but there are other films that have good investment like Em and Trinh. Moreover, meticulousness is not necessarily a perfect thing, meeting the criteria for awards," said Mr. Son.

Regarding the reason why the film "Glorious Ashes" received 5 awards at the same time and his assessment of this work, People's Artist Dao Ba Son said that the film "Glorious Ashes" brings viewers a high level of authenticity.

It is a very pitiful story of two couples as the audience already knows. But the filmmakers have shown the content consistently from the way of filming, acting to the setting... Everything is very real, following the characters and the story.

Director Bui Thac Chuyen (holding flowers) receives the Golden Lotus award for feature film (Photo: Mai Vinh).

"Bui Thac Chuyen's film Glorious Ashes is presented as a documentary and has a lot of creativity in the storytelling as well as the style of the story. The film has many bright spots, as does the music in the film.

The jury includes musicians, when analyzing the film, there are many great things. And when comparing Ashes of Glory with Em and Trinh , we see that this film has more bright spots than Em and Trinh . Unfortunately, I also really like many films this time with good music," Mr. Son shared.

People's Artist Dao Ba Son shared that the jury easily agreed in evaluating the film Glorious Ashes, only finding good points in the way the film was presented. Therefore, the jury immediately awarded the director award to Bui Thac Chuyen .

Assessing the quality of this year's movies, People's Artist Dao Ba Son said: "The quality of this year's movies is generally very good. Making such movies is not easy at all, for months the crew had to "sleep in the open". I just hope there will be more awards to give out. There are many movies that deserve awards, but unfortunately the awards are limited."

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/van-hoa/dat-rung-phuong-nam-thu-hon-100-ty-dong-van-trang-tay-tai-lhp-vi-sao-20231126123346000.htm