Besides the Tet movie race with the appearance of 3 "big" candidates, Vietnamese cinema in 2025 is full of promise with many projects of diverse genres.
The year 2024 witnessed an impressive jump in Vietnamese cinema, with many optimistic signals about revenue, leading to unprecedented box office milestones in history. However, on the other hand, most of the successful domestic projects last year revolved around a few fixed genres such as psychology and horror, lacking diversity. The general level of Vietnamese films in 2024 was also commented to have limited scripts. Not to mention, the polarization of domestic cinema is increasingly evident between popular and failed projects.
Entering 2025, in addition to familiar brands, there will also be the appearance of many new faces. This makes observers expect the Vietnamese cinema landscape to become more diverse, leading to healthy development of the market when limiting the situation of "rushing to follow a popular film genre".
Vibrant opening, many new colors
In the first month of the year, there were 4 domestic works released.
Tet At Ty box office witnessed the confrontation between The Guardian Quartet (Director Tran Thanh), Love the wrong best friend (Director Diep The Vinh/Nguyen Quang Dung) and Bud billion dollar kiss (Director Thu Trang).
With the participation of big names in the market, the 2025 Tet movie season is likely to explode with the largest total box office revenue in history. In the same period in 2024, with only Tomorrow and See you again, pregnant lady . Tet season revenue has reached 644 billion VND (34% of the total revenue for the year). With 3 films participating in the race this year, this record can be completely broken.
Also in January, Rain on Butterfly Wings Directed by Duong Dieu Linh, the film attracted attention when it traveled to many international film festivals, winning two awards for Best Film and Most Creative Film within the framework of International Critics' Week at the 81st Venice Film Festival.
Success on the critical front of Rain on Butterfly Wings is a testament to the talent of young directors, and the independent film genre is increasingly gaining attention. In addition to Duong Dieu Linh's brainchild, Skin of youth (Director Nguyen Phuong Anh) also set a March release date in Japan, and is expected to be released in theaters in her home country soon. Previously, Phuong Anh attracted attention with her first project Third wife, launched in 2018 with a series of controversies.
Another notable representative of the indie genre is Movie (English title: Picturehouse), directed by Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh - the face behind the success of Buffalo wool season - won the Best Film award at the 2004 Amiens International Film Festival. November 2024, Movie has announced casting. According to initial information, the project is a psychological/coming-of-age genre, following the journey of maturity of a teenager named Quang during the war.
In the historical film genre, two names are expected. Tunnels: Sun in the Dark (Director Bui Thac Chuyen) and Red Rain (Director Dang Thai Huyen).
Tunnel Set in the late 1960s, when the war against the US was raging, the film stars the one-time box office king Thai Hoa. In the first image released by the crew, the actor plays a guerrilla soldier. Bui Thac Chuyen’s brainchild is scheduled to be released in April, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the country’s reunification.
While, Rain red set to premiere on September 2. The work is adapted from the novel of the same name by writer Chu Lai. The film's content recreates the 81 heroic days and nights of our army and people in the war to protect Quang Tri Citadel in 1972.
Horror genre continues to dominate?
In the commercial film industry, many names have "teased" their release in 2025, typically Strawberry Sale Contract , Under the Lake , Closing the Deal , Five-Hoofed Pig , Detective Kien: Headless Mystery , good Flip side 8...
Among them, Flip Side 8 (director Ly Hai) is a prominent name with great potential to compete for the top 1 revenue position in 2025 with The Conservative Quartet by Tran Thanh. As usual, the film will be released on the occasion of April 30 - May 1, promising to make the Vietnamese box office explode once again after the Tet movie season.
Right from the casting stage, Ly Hai's project has attracted a lot of attention. With the participation of "hot TikToker" Le Tuan Khang in the cast, Flip Side 8 have more advantages in terms of communication. In the immediate future, the milestone that the film has to face is revenue. 482 billion VND belong to Flip side 7. If successful, Ly Hai will continue his winning streak, as each subsequent film surpasses the previous film in box office performance.
Besides Tran Thanh and Ly Hai's projects, 2025 will likely continue to witness the prosperity of horror/spiritual films. So far, at least 4 works in this genre have revealed information.
After the success of Cam , Tran Huu Tan continues to embark on horror projects Bottom of the lake . The film is inspired by scary rumors spreading in the student community, gathering a cast with many young faces such as Karen, Huu Tien, Thanh Duy, Mac Trung Kien...
Adapted from the novel by writer Thuc Linh, Strawberry sale contract belongs to the spiritual horror genre with the participation of Lam Thanh My - star of Bran launched in September 2024. Meanwhile, Ut Lan by director Tran Trong Dan has just finished casting and started filming at the end of December 2024, bringing together two young actors Thua Tuan Anh and Phuong Thanh.
The most notable name to mention is Five-hoofed pig , belongs to the folk supernatural universe of the producer/director duo Vo Thanh Hoa and Mai Bao Ngoc. Also belonging to this universe, Demon Dog and Lynx Both previously recorded impressive revenues of 108 billion and 87 billion respectively. Not stopping there. Pig with Five Hoofs , a series of horror projects inspired by a special animal in Vietnamese folklore will one after another set foot on the big screen until 2030.
In 2024, despite the impressive number of releases, Vietnamese horror films were generally criticized for having weak scripts. However, domestic filmmakers cleverly took advantage of folklore to arouse curiosity. Since then, the series of films released, despite causing controversy over quality and content, still attracted a large number of viewers to the theater.
Entering 2025, audiences expect domestic horror films to have more discoveries and breakthroughs, instead of abusing popular formulas.
Besides horror, comedy/psychological genres also attract attention. Close the deal from the director duo Nam Cito - Bao Nhan. The work revolves around the theme of livestream sales, gathering a "huge" cast with Miss Thuy Tien playing the main role, alongside veteran faces such as Hong Van, Hong Dao, Quyen Linh...
Victor Vu also confirmed his return to the film industry with Detective Kien: The Headless Case - detective genre This film genre has recently been "overshadowed" on domestic screens by the rise of horror, comedy and psychology.
However, Detective Kien: The Headless Case has a significant advantage in terms of brand, attracting attention before its release. The film revolves around the investigator Kien - the most notable character. The Last Wife (2023), the name that caused a fever in Vietnamese cinemas at the end of 2023 with revenue of hundreds of billions. For that reason, Detective Kien: The Headless Case could be an interesting box office surprise when it releases in mid-May this year.
At this point, it is too early to draw conclusions about the Vietnamese cinema picture in 2025. However, with positive signals from the box office, along with a series of colorful projects about to be released, expectations for a booming year for domestic cinema are well-founded.
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