Published:  00:00 Friday - December 19, 2008

Vietnamese actress, Hong Anh, won the Best Actress title at the awards ceremony of the 5th Dubai International Film Festival, which was held from December 11-18.

Playing the role of a Hue woman in the film ‘Trang Noi Day Gieng’ (Moon at the Bottom of the Well), Hong Anh became the first Vietnamese actress to bring home an award in a prestigious international film festival.

The result was announced officially on the website of the 5^th Dubai Int’l Film Festival www.dubaifilmfest.com on December 19.

Based on short story ‘Trang Noi Day Gieng’ (Moon at the Bottom of the Well) by writer Tran Thuy Mai, the film, which has the same name as the story, describes the tragedy of a modern Vietnam’s family. The film, directed by Nguyen Vinh Son, was shot in Hue city in June, 2007 and finished its scenes in France in mid-2008.

The film was also selected to take part in Pusan International Film Festival held in Republic of Korea (RoK) in October, 2008.

The Dubai film festival’s awards are divided into two categories for Arabic Winners and Asia-Africa Winners. There were 186 films from 66 countries sent to take part in the event. In the Asia-Pacific region, Vietnam competed with 44 other films, the Best Film award went to Treeless Mountain, directed by the RoK’s So Young Kim, and the Actor award was bestowed upon Askhat Kuchinchirekov in the film Tulpan (from Kazakhstan).

On the sidelines of the 5^th Dubai International Film Festival, a collection drive for charity was launched to support for the American Foundation for AIDS Research.