For three days in late November, Hải Phòng — Vietnam's largest port city — gets an unusually rich cinema line-up. From November 21 to 23, eleven Vietnamese films will screen across 22 showings at two venues, CGV Aeon Mall Hải Phòng and Thống Nhất Cinema in Hải Dương Ward, all open to the public. It's the headline activity of the Hải Phòng Film Port Forum, organised by the Vietnam Film Development Association (VFDA) together with the city.
The programme opens at 9.30am on November 21 at CGV Aeon Mall Hải Phòng, then rolls across both venues through the weekend. The selection is deliberately broad: historical and war epics like Mưa đỏ (Red Rain), Địa đạo: Mặt trời trong bóng tối (The Tunnel: Sun in the Darkness) and Tử chiến trên không (Hijacked) sit alongside family dramas such as Cục vàng của ngoại (Grandma's Golden Treasure) and Mang mẹ đi bỏ (Taking Mother Away), plus action films and social-issue stories. If you want a fast tour of where Vietnamese cinema is right now, this is a compressed sampler.
The real draw for visitors may be what happens after the credits. Post-screening exchanges put audiences in the same room as directors, actors, producers and crew — a chance to hear how these films got made and ask questions directly. That kind of access is rare even at big-city festivals, and it's the forum's stated goal: closing the gap between filmmakers and the public.
There's a city-building story behind it too. Hải Phòng is pushing cultural industries, cinema included, as a new growth engine — and wants to position itself as a production and filming location. The forum doubles as a networking event for industry partners, and ties into Politburo Resolution No. 80 on cultural development and Việt Nam Cultural Day on November 24. For travellers, that ambition means more film-related events and possibly recognisable locations around the city in future years.
Why should a traveller care? If you're in northern Vietnam in late November, this is an easy, low-cost way to see contemporary Vietnamese cinema with the people who made it — and to experience a working port city that most itineraries skip. Hải Phòng sits an hour or so from Hanoi by train or highway, and it's the usual jumping-off point for Cat Ba Island and Lan Ha Bay, so the forum dates slot neatly into a wider northern loop. Come for a screening or two, stay for the crab noodles and colonial-era opera house.
