Breaking into the Film Industry
03:30 pm – 05 pm, Sat 26 Apr 2025
Complex 01
Tây Sơn, Đống Đa, Hà Nội
Registration link
Languages: English and Vietnamese (bilingual)
From the organizer:
Are you an emerging filmmaker wondering how to get your work seen by international audiences? Curious about navigating the film festival circuit, building a professional profile, and positioning yourself for long-term success in the independent film world?
Join us for Breaking into the Film Industry — a hands-on info session with filmmakers Luki Areal and Quang Nong. This workshop offers practical insights into how to submit to festivals, write compelling cover letters, choose the right platforms, and shape your identity as a filmmaker. With years of experience participating in regional and global festivals, our speakers will share their own journeys and tips on how to take your first steps — and next steps — with confidence.
About speakers:
Luki Areal-Coulombe (she/he/they) is a queer filmmaker originally from a mixed background in the Netherlands. They have worked in festival markets at IDFA (International Documentary Festival Amsterdam) and as the 2025 Ambassador for IFFR (International Film Festival Rotterdam). Through their work at film festivals, the reality that big festivals can be intimidating and isolating for first time independent filmmakers has become clear, even more so with cultural, economic, or linguistic barriers. This visit to Ha Noi is primarily to build connections with local filmmakers, with festival and filmmaking collaboration in focus. Creatively they are also documentarians, with recent professional attendance at Cannes and Ake Dikhea in Berlin, their documentaries explore the themes of Queer artistry and Romani feminism. Alongside documentary, making fiction short films is something they have been experimenting with. Already having exposure to Vietnamese cinema and culture through friendship and collaboration, they hope to meet with more filmmakers whilst residing at the AiRViNe in Ha Noi, being more than happy to answer any questions. Having worked as a producer for two documentaries and multiple short fiction projects, they understand what it means to be on both ends of the festival experience.
Fresh off the hill from Lao Cai to Hanoi, Quang has been learning documentary filmmaking by practicing. From programs at TPD and Hanoi DocLab, he continued with making short documentaries on queer experience, creative industry, youth culture and heritage. His first feature debut “Baby Jackfruit Baby Guava” is in production and has received support from numerous international film institutes, including Sundance, IDFA, Docs By The Sea, Vision Sud Est, SGIFF, DMZ and EIDF. Quang currently works as a program officer at doc cicada, a Vietnam documentary development initiative. In 2024, Quang founded duckymentary – a documentary production studio based in Hanoi. The studio recently collaborated with Runway Studio to experiment with using AI in documentary, and the film premiered at Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival in 2025.
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