Hanoi (VNA) - The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has just opened a non-profit online workshop for Vietnamese filmmakers, entitled ‘On The Reel Film Lab 2022’, from March 21 to 23.

As the second hosted by UNESCO, the course will provide useful lessons for Vietnamese filmmakers who want to bring their works to the world.

The course is part of the “E-MOTIONS: Mobilizing film professionals for regional cooperation in Asia”. It was launched in 2020 by UNESCO Vietnam in coordination with the Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents (TPD), the Wallonie-Bruxelles delegation in Vietnam, HK Film, WallSound, Hanoi Grapevine, and Colab Vietnam.

The course includes three sessions conducted via Zoom Webinar, featuring the participation of internationally acclaimed guest speakers Sarah Schlüssel from Berlinale’s Short Form Station, Delphine Jeanneret from Locarno International Film Festival and Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, and filmmaker-author Clarissa Jacobson.

The first session, hosted by filmmaker-author Clarissa Jacobson, will dive deep into her film-making journey, film promotion, and submitting films to festivals. It will focus on how to have a successful run and create buzz for a film. This includes from how to get the film out into the festival circuit to getting reviews, handling rejections, promoting on social media, and handling the networking.

During the second session, German cultural manager Sarah Schlüssel will share her insightful and interesting observations into the changes of submitted and selected films over time. Additionally, she also will help the participating filmmakers get to know other resources at film festivals such as Berlinale Short Form Station and Berlinale Talents.

The last session will present film curator and educator Delphine Jeanneret, who will dissect the opportunities and challenges for both filmmakers and audiences recently seen at offline, online and hybrid film festivals and events during the pandemic.

At the closing ceremony of the On the Reel Film Lab 2021 (Photo courtesy of the Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents)

The On the Reel Film Lab 2021 was held virtually from October 4 to 24. The Organizing Committee received more than 200 film project submissions with diverse ideas and genres from film-making individuals and groups.

The course included two sessions, with the first featuring lessons about the aesthetics of short films and low-budget filmmaking given by Vietnamese director Pham Ngoc Lan.

In the second session, Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer Pimpaka Towira shared the international film industry and skills in film production.

After two weeks of training, the Organizing Committee and the lecturers selected the two best projects for cash prizes worth 2,000 USD each. In addition, the two selected projects also received two packages of camera and lighting equipment from the sponsor HKFilm; one audio post-production package from the sponsor WallSound.

Recognizing that there are many young filmmaking talents in Vietnam, the Organizing Committee hoped that ‘On The Reel Film Lab’ would serve as a good start for the selected projects. They see the lab as helping young filmmakers to further develop their careers and have better access to regional and international film festivals.

According to Pham Thi Thanh Huong, head of Culture Department - UNESCO in Vietnam, making a short film and having it selected for an international film festival is considered a stepping stone for the careers of filmmakers to be promoted.

However, the ways in which one would be able to reach that goal seem rather abstract and overwhelming while the film festival world has been standardized and dominated by the West.

Filmmaking never has a one-size-fits-all approach yet especially during the time of the pandemic, a looming uncertainty forces filmmakers to reassess how they have been traditionally working and how they can adapt to many awaiting changes.

“Therefore, the UNESCO and TPD’s idea of ‘On The Reel Film Lab’ would revolve around the qualities of flexibility, versatility, and diversity of a filmmaker,” she said./.