>> Screenwriters and director at loggerheads over awards
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has raised its voice over the recent complaints of some artists over the list of nominees for the state awards but related sides are not satisfied.
Director Nguyen Thuoc and scriptwriter Phan Huyen Thu
Early, five musicians and two scriptwriters had petitioned the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for reconsidering the list of nominees for the Ho Chi Minh Awards and the State Awards on music and movies.
Five musicians - Doan Bong, Dinh Quang Hop, Ngoc Khue, The Song, Le Viet Hoa – complained that the grassroots jury did not thoroughly and carefully listen to and evaluate the music works of nominees and made “vague comments”.
According to the five musicians, the jury needs up to 100 hours to listen to all over 300 musical works submitted by the nominees, but they worked for only two and half of a day to make the final list.
They did not agree with the jury to reject famous songs like “Singing voice from the Lam River” by Dinh Quang Hop, “Your home river, my home river” by Doan Bong, “Spring in the village of rice and flowers” by Ngoc Khue, “From the remote island” by The Song and the famous musical play “Fire and flowers” by Dinh Quang Hop.
They proposed to set up a new jury, with jury members nominated by musicians, and organise a meeting with the participation of 68 nominees, where an open vote will be held to choose the last nominees.
At the same time, scriptwriters Phan Thanh Tu and Phan Huyen Thu had submitted their petition to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism against director Nguyen Thuoc.
Musician Doan Bong
According to Tu and Thu, director Nguyen Thuoc submitted three documentaries “The hardship of sand”, “Brain” and “@ citizens” to the jury of the Ho Chi Minh Awards and to the evaluation council of the People’s Artist title. The scripts of these films were written by Tu and Thu but the director did not ask for their agreement.
The Ministry has asked film director Nguyen Thuoc to have two script-writers--Phan Huyen Thu and Phan Thanh Tu’s agreement to submit the documentaries to compete for the State Award, and told the award organizing board to add the five song writers to the final list of nominees.
The Ministry said that it would consider granting the State Award to the three documentaries with director Nguyen Thuoc as a representative, and not grant the award to the director alone, on the condition that he must have the agreement of the co-authors, meaning scriptwriters Tu and Thu.
Scriptwriter Phan Huyen Thu said the director has not contacted her yet. Both scriptwriters withdrew from the list of nominees for the State Award for the three documentaries, which are represented by director Nguyen Thuoc, saying that these works are incomparable to the works of nominees who are late directors and artists. They said they would not complain but wait for the results.
However, director Nguyen Thuoc and officials of the Vietnam Cinematography Association said that the State Award is granted to the author, not for artworks.
Nguyen Thuoc confirmed that he would not ask for the two scriptwriters’ agreement and petition the Vietnam Cinematography Association and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
“In foreign films, they always write Un film de in French or A film by in English. It means the director is the main author of the film. I saw the Certificates of State Award of other directors and they only noted the names of directors, not the names of the entire film crew,” he said.
Thuoc suggested the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to reconsider its instruction because the State Award is the award for author, not for artworks.
“If the Ministry asked me to have the agreement of co-authors, I think the remaining 15 nominees must do this to ensure just,” he added.
Dang Xuan Hai, Chairman of the Vietnam Cinematography Association agreed with the director. He suggested related agencies to reconsider instruction documents and discuss in terms of law to avoid similar complaints in the future.
On July 15, the list of nominees for the State Awards on music was republished. Besides the 28 old names, the five musicians and a new name – Doan Phi Liet - were added. However, the five musicians said they were not informed of that change and there was no official announcement about it.
“We’re struggling for the truth, not for having our names in that list. They quietly added our name to that list, it means they admitted their mistake but they do not apologise. In addition, the names of 28 nominees are still maintained, including 11 unworthy nominees: Do Hong Quan, Duc Trinh, Le Lan, Le Tinh, Vinh Lai, Nguyen Chinh, Cat Van, Thap Nhat, Vu Thanh, Thanh Anh and Doan Tien. These are two mistakes that we cannot accept,” said musician Doan Bong.
He said that besides the five musicians, many other musicians who are deserved to be in the list but they were rejected, for example Truong Tuyet Mai, Van Thanh Nho, Phan Long, Tran Van Binh, Trieu Dang and Hoang Ha.
These 11 musicians will send their petition to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism this week, asking to annual the current list, set up a new jury and dissolve the current steering board of the Vietnamese Musicians’ Association.
“We will pursue this case to the end to take back the honor for the Vietnamese Musicians’ Association,” Doan Bong said.
The State Award is granted each two years, on September 2, with three levels of consideration: grassroots jury, ministerial council and state council.
