Hà Nội's first World Cultural Festival has picked up a Bùi Xuân Phái Award for Good Deeds, one of the capital's most respected cultural honours, handed out at a ceremony in the Temple of Literature — itself a UNESCO-listed gem and one of the city's loveliest spots to wander.
The awards, run since 2008 by the Vietnam News Agency's Thể Thao & Văn Hóa daily, are named after painter Bùi Xuân Phái (1920–88), famous for his atmospheric canvases of Hà Nội streets. They reward people and projects that add to the capital's cultural life. This year's 19th edition saw the festival honoured alongside the centre that runs the Temple of Literature–Imperial Academy, which staged a programme marking the site's 950th anniversary.
The inaugural Hà Nội World Cultural Festival took place in 2025, organised by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism with the foreign ministry and the Hà Nội People's Committee. It was framed as a response to Politburo Resolution 59 on international integration, but on the ground it was far more fun than that sounds: art exhibitions, international music performances and food exchanges that pulled locals and foreign visitors into the same rooms. Organisers now want to make it an annual fixture in the city's calendar, positioning Hà Nội as a meeting point for cultures rather than just a stop on a Southeast Asia circuit.
The ceremony spread its honours widely. Poet Bằng Việt took the Grand Prize for decades of work on the capital — he's written roughly 30 poems about Hà Nội and researched the history and culture of Thăng Long, the old name for the city. Artist Thành Chương won the Works category for his Long Biên Bridge painting series, shared with the Hà Nội Cải Lương Theatre for its production Người Con Gái Hà Thành (The Daughter of Hà Nội). The Ideas award went to Cầu Giấy Ward's pilot project for a cultural space and pedestrian street on Thành Thái Street — worth keeping an eye on if you like exploring neighbourhoods most tourists skip.
Across 19 editions the awards have recognised more than 170 authors, works and initiatives, with over 75 prizes including 17 Grand Prizes for figures like writer Tô Hoài, composer Phú Quang and filmmaker Đặng Nhật Minh.
Why should a traveller care? Because Hà Nội's cultural calendar is quietly deepening. Between the millennium-old Temple of Literature, a possible annual world culture festival, new pedestrian street projects and a thriving theatre and gallery scene, the city is offering more reasons to linger than the usual Old Quarter beer-street loop. If the festival returns in 2026, timing a trip around it would pair street food and lakeside walks with international music and exhibitions — a good excuse to give the Vietnamese capital more than a quick two nights.
