Academy Members To Take Part in Vietnam’s First "American Film Week"

Beverly Hills, CA — Seven distinguished members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who have collectively earned 14 Oscar® nominations and two Oscars®, will travel to Vietnam to participate in a week’s worth of screenings, workshops, seminars and other exchanges with local film professionals and students in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The group was invited by the Vietnam Cinema Department, the country’s national coordinating body for the domestic and international film industry, to participate in Vietnam’s first-ever “American Film Week” beginning May 3.

Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, documentary filmmaker Freida Lee Mock, producers William Horberg and Tom Pollock, writer-directors Susannah Grant and Phil Robinson and writer-director-producer Curtis Hanson will comprise the Academy delegation.

“This is the first time that a group like ours from the United States has been officially invited to Vietnam,” said Academy President Sid Ganis. “It is a tremendous opportunity for the members representing our organization to act as teachers about American film from both artistic and practical perspectives. And of course, it is an amazing opportunity for all our members to learn about their filmmaker counterparts and the state of the industry in Vietnam.”

American Film Week will include public screenings in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The titles that the delegation will present are “Erin Brockovich,” “L.A. Confidential,” “The Quiet American,” “Children of Men,” “Ice Age,” “Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner” and “Field of Dreams,” which were selected to represent each delegate’s work as well as provide a varied sampling of American films from recent decades. In addition, “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” will be shown in celebration of the film’s 25th anniversary.

The delegation will meet with representatives of the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture and Information and the Ho Chi Minh City Culture and Information De-partment, as well as visit such universities and production studios as the Vietnam Film Institute, Hanoi Cinema and Theater University, the Vietnam Cinema Technical Center, Giai Phong Film Studio, HK Film, Dofilm and BHD Studio. The Academy delegation also will have the opportunity to meet with professional filmmaker members of the Vietnam Cinema Association and the Ho Chi Minh City Cinema Association, as well as with press representatives in each city.

The Academy has long had a Visiting Artists Program through which Academy members participate in classes and programs at colleges, media arts centers, film festivals and other film-related events to give students and faculty direct contact with working film professionals, and thereby establish an important link between the academic study of film and practicing in the field. However, this is the first time in over 25 years an official delegation from the Academy has been hosted by a country’s governmental film agency.