Vietnamese film wins two awards at Venice Film Festival

Don't Cry Butterfly, directed by Duong Dieu Linh, won the Best Film (IWONDERFULL Grand Prize) and Most Creative Film awards at the International Film Critics Week program, part of the 2024 Venice Film Festival.

Actress Tu Oanh, who has participated in many TV series, played the main character and shared her joyful feelings, exclaiming, "I was stunned" when the name of the movie was announced.

Actress Tu Oanh, director Duong Dieu Linh (fourth and fifth from left) and the film crew at the award ceremony. Photo courtesy of the film crew

The jury praised the uniqueness and creativity of the film, commenting that it "combines humor, social tragedy, and fantasy elements while depicting the complexity of the mother-child relationship".

The film premiered on September 4 and received a 2.5-minute standing ovation.

Don't Cry Butterfly begins with the jealousy of mother and daughter Tam and Ha (played by Tu Oanh and Nam Linh, respectively) after they discover their husband and father are having an affair at a nationally televised soccer match. Tam searches online for a shaman, hoping his charms will make her husband change his mind, but accidentally awakens a mysterious supernatural force in her own home.

The drama, which mixes comedy, horror, and mystery, is Duong Dieu Linh's personal journey of discovery about the fate of Vietnamese women. Why women have to endure so much, both in real life and in TV dramas, is one of the questions she keeps asking herself. Her first feature film, Don't Cry Butterfly, is Duong Dieu Linh's way of expressing her own views and attitudes.

IndieWire (a famous online publication covering film) called Don't Cry Butterfly a magical, dramatic, and compelling debut film. Josh Slater-Williams of the article gave the film a B and commented: Duong Dieu Linh's talent for creating indelible images never falters, despite having previously released a number of short films.

“This makes her a remarkable artist, worth watching, in a period of booming Vietnamese cinema abroad,” Williams commented.

At this year's Venice Film Festival, Don't Cry Butterfly was one of seven films selected from 700 submissions from around the world for International Critics' Week (Settimana Internazionale della Critica). The program, which runs parallel to the festival, has launched the careers of many acclaimed directors, including Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea), Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep), and Mike Leigh.

A scene from the movie Don't Cry Butterfly.

Ten years ago, also at the Venice Film Festival, director Nguyen Hoang Diep's Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere won the Best Film award at the International Film Critics Week. The prize was awarded by the Federation of European and Mediterranean Film Critics (FEDEORA) for debut works.

After Venice, Don't Cry Butterfly will head to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) - a film festival considered a stepping stone to the Oscars - and then to the Window on Asia program at the Busan International Film Festival. CGV will release the film in Vietnam.

Director Duong Dieu Linh is an independent film director who released many short films with the same theme about the inner life of Vietnamese women, especially middle-aged and elderly people, such as Mother, Child, Dreams (2018), Sweet, Salty (2019), and Heaven Calls Name (2020). In which the film Mother, Child, Dreams attended the Busan Film Festival, Lorcano, also revolved around the conflicted relationship between the main mother and daughter with gentle language, but not lacking in "crazy touch".