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Ho Chi Minh City has launched a new student short-film festival that combines competition with an extended filmmaking development programme, giving emerging filmmakers access to free training, professional mentorship and a route from initial script to completed film.
The Young’s Lens 2026 – The Luminous Source student short-film festival was launched on 25 September by Ho Chi Minh City University of Culture in collaboration with the UNESCO office in Vietnam and the Vietnam Film Institute.
Rather than operating solely as a conventional festival accepting finished films, the initiative is structured as a filmmaking programme running from September 2026 until April 2027.
Students will first develop and submit ideas and scripts. Selected projects will then progress through training, mentoring and production before completed films move into preliminary selection, screenings and the festival’s final round.
The programme accepts fiction, documentary and reportage projects of up to 30 minutes under its main theme of Diversity – Creativity – Sustainability.
A separate category centred on coffee and coffee culture accepts works of up to five minutes and allows fiction, documentary, animation, experimental work and hybrid forms.
The initial idea and screenplay selection phase runs from late September through November 2026. Selected filmmakers are then expected to enter the training and production stage between November 2026 and March 2027.
Workshops and mentorship will cover areas including story and screenplay development, cinematography, staging, editing and post-production. Participation in the training programme is free.
Filmmakers involved as mentors include Hà Lệ Diễm, Hồ Thu An, Vũ Hoàng Triều and Hồ Trung Hiếu, alongside lecturers and other film professionals.
The screening and final competition phase is scheduled for March and April 2027, with the awards ceremony currently planned for 23 April 2027.
Organisers have also indicated that winning and other selected high-quality films may receive television exposure through outlets including VTV9, Vĩnh Long Television and cable television networks, while films may also be submitted to international film festivals.
The initiative arrives as Ho Chi Minh City develops its film sector following its entry into UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network in the field of Film in 2025.
For student filmmakers, the extended development structure is particularly notable. Instead of requiring participants to arrive with a completed short, Young’s Lens is designed to help filmmakers move through development, production and post-production with professional guidance.
That approach places the programme somewhere between a student film festival and a filmmaking lab, potentially giving first-time filmmakers practical production experience as well as a public platform for their completed work.
For filmmakers beginning their first short, Indie Shorts Mag’s guide to what defines a short film also explains how runtime, form and festival requirements can differ across the international festival circuit.
Students interested in participating should follow announcements from Ho Chi Minh City University of Culture and the organisers as the script-selection phase continues through November. The wider programme will continue through production and mentoring before culminating in screenings and awards in April 2027.
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