The long read · Vietnamese cinema
Light After Rain: Vietnamese Cinema and Its Global Stars
Vietnamese cinema is young, lyrical and suddenly everywhere, from Cannes prize-winners to box-office records at home, and its landscapes have played Skull Island. Here is the story, and where to watch in Hanoi.
Updated October 2026
From the Hanoi studio to Cannes
Through the long years of war, Hanoi’s Vietnam Feature Film Studio kept making films, and its masterpiece came soon after: Đặng Nhật Minh’s When the Tenth Month Comes (1984), a young widow’s quiet story, honoured in Hawaii and still counted among the great Asian films. Its black-and-white images of the northern countryside remain unforgettable.
Abroad, Trần Anh Hùng, raised in France, won the Caméra d’Or with The Scent of Green Papaya in 1993, the Golden Lion with Cyclo and, in 2023, best director at Cannes for The Taste of Things. That same year Phạm Thiên Ân won another Caméra d’Or, and at home Trấn Thành’s Mai became the highest-grossing Vietnamese film of all time.
Must-watch films
To understand Vietnamese cinema, start with these.
- When the Tenth Month Comes (1984): Đặng Nhật Minh’s tender classic of loss in a northern village.
- The Scent of Green Papaya (1993): Trần Anh Hùng’s sensuous portrait of a young servant in 1950s Saigon.
- Cyclo (1995): Trần Anh Hùng’s Ho Chi Minh City drama, winner of the Golden Lion in Venice.
- Furie (2019): Ngô Thanh Vân’s action thriller, a big hit at home and on Netflix abroad.
- Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023): Phạm Thiên Ân’s spiritual journey, winner of the Caméra d’Or.
The stars
Vietnam’s stars at home and abroad.
- Ngô Thanh Vân (Veronica Ngo): action star and producer, from Furie to Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
- Trấn Thành: comedian, actor and director of Vietnam’s biggest hits.
- Trần Nữ Yên Khê: the luminous star of Trần Anh Hùng’s films.
- Kiều Chinh: a star in Saigon before her Hollywood career, from The Joy Luck Club onwards.
- Ke Huy Quan: born in Saigon, winner of the Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Where to watch in Hanoi
Hanoi’s modern multiplexes show Vietnamese hits alongside Hollywood, and the Hanoi International Film Festival brings world cinema to the capital in its festival years. For the city’s oldest screen art, nothing beats the water puppets, whose shows tell village legends on a stage of water.
Our advice: catch a new Vietnamese comedy with a Hanoi audience, then see the water puppets at Thăng Long.
Thăng Long Water Puppet Theatre Hanoi’s arts: the back story
Hidden on the silver screen: international productions filmed in Vietnam
Vietnam’s limestone bays and river valleys are made for the big screen.
- Indochine (1992), Hạ Long Bay, Huế and Phát Diệm: Catherine Deneuve’s epic, winner of the Oscar for France.
- Kong: Skull Island (2017), Hạ Long Bay, Ninh Bình and Quảng Bình: the giant ape’s island was Vietnam’s karst landscape.
Vietnamese talent in Hollywood
The Vietnamese diaspora has given Hollywood some of its most loved recent stories. Ke Huy Quan, born in Saigon, won the Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once; Hong Chau, born to Vietnamese parents, was nominated for The Whale; Kiều Chinh starred in The Joy Luck Club; and Ngô Thanh Vân fought alongside Charlize Theron in The Old Guard.
Questions and answers
Which Vietnamese films have won at Cannes?
The Scent of Green Papaya (1993) and Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023) won the Caméra d’Or, and Trần Anh Hùng won best director for The Taste of Things in 2023.
Where was Kong: Skull Island filmed in Vietnam?
In Hạ Long Bay, in the Tràng An and Tam Cốc landscapes of Ninh Bình and in Quảng Bình province. The Ninh Bình set has since been removed.
Join the conversation
Which Vietnamese film or star do you love most? Share your favourite scenes and the films we should add.
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Sources: the Festival de Cannes, the Venice Biennale, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Vietnam Television and VnExpress, checked on 6 November 2026. The trailers are from Kino Lorber’s, IFC Films’, Warner Bros.’ and Rialto’s official channels.