Moreover, the representative of the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival also said that the festival attracting 7,000 participating a year only receives 2 entries from Vietnam each year.
“Cuba even sent us 100 movies per year,” he added.
François Serre who is also the sound instructor from the LISA – High School for Image and Sound in Angoulême said he and his students have been stunned by Vietnamese short movies as they are interesting.
However, the problem of local filmmakers is that they have not thought about bringing their works into the outside world, as Heinz Hermans, festival director of the Berlin International Short Film Festival once told local filmmakers .
“In 2000, young director Bui Thac Chuyen sent his first movie Cuoc Xe Dem (The Night Bus) to Clermont-Ferrand and was advised by the festival’s chairman, Christian Denier, to bring it to Cannes. He then won the Cinefondation Award that year,” he shared.
“That was a small door leading him to bigger doors in his career.”
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival always has short film markets which offer new talents chances to show the world what they have, he added.
The director also shared that the most common trouble for local moviemakers is the not-so-good post-production aspect, for example, the sound.
He gave the example of Dao Minh Nguyet who won the highest prize, Philips Lighting, at the French environment film festival Science Frontìeres for her 4-minute clip titled “Mot thong diep nho” (A small message) last November.
“She won because she knew how to express her ideas very well through the sound in the movie,” he said.
“To be honest, you need to adapt with every condition life offers you,” the director responded when some Vietnamese students complained they had many difficulties.
“The most important thing is a good screenplay as well as a good idea for your movies.”
Besides showing how good and not good the Vietnamese short film industry is, the France director also gave information about some websites where Vietnamese filmmakers could visit for free sounds for their movies like http://www.jamendo.com/en/, or sites via which moviemakers can enter their works for international festivals like http://shortfilmdepot.com/.