Ho An Phong, Vietnam’s deputy minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, has told an audience of 300 at a Director’s Guild of America event in California that Vietnam intends to simplify film permits, offer tax incentives, and provide industry support to studios that choose to make films in Vietnam, according to The Ankler.
Among the guests was Phillip Noyce who directed The Quiet American which was filmed in Vietnam two decades ago.
“For a country that’s struggled against and defeated major empires, you can expect that a film crew there is gonna fight with the same tenacious sort of attitude,” he told the crowd, “and they did. They would do anything — but with a high degree of creativity. And that was 20 years ago; it can only have got better since then.”.
Of note, however, is that the business environment in Vietnam has changed significantly in terms of regulatory oversight and censorship, both of which have proven key obstacles for foreign studios looking to make films in Vietnam.