The Fantasia fest has been held annually in Montreal, Canada, since its debut in 1996. This is one of the biggest cinema events in North America. This year, due to the global outbreak of COVID-19, the organisers only announced the award winners online instead of holding a get-together as in previous years.
“Among the 14 quality contenders, this film was flush with actors we’d never heard of before but now anxiously await to see again, telling a visceral story of desperation with just the right amount of humour and room to breathe. For its thrilling cinematography that took us right out on the street, its economical and artful character development, and its overall inventiveness,” the New Flesh jury expressed about ‘Rom’.
Earlier, in October 2019, ‘Rom’ shared the New Currents prize of the Busan International Film Festival, together with Iraq-Qatar co-production ‘Haifa Street’.
The continued success of ‘Rom’ at international festivals has made the movie increasingly anticipated by Vietnamese audiences for screening in the country.
The film’s publisher recently announced that it will officially be screened at Vietnamese cinemas from September 25, following a period of postponement due to the pandemic, which is good news to both audiences and the film crew.
Director Tran Thanh Huy stated that despite having experienced many levels of emotions with ‘Rom’, he still felt eager to wait for the movie to be screened in his home country of Vietnam. For the director and the film crew, ‘Rom’ will only really reach the finish line when it has officially debuted to Vietnamese audiences.
