The Language of Cinema: Tran Anh Hung Delivers a Master Class in Filmmaking

_{Tony Bui and Tran Anh Hung at Asia Society New York on April 8, 2026. (LiAnn Grahm/Asia Society)}

Speaking at Asia Society New York on April 8, internationally renowned French-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung joined fellow filmmaker Tony Bui for a remarkable conversation that explored his distinctive approach to moviemaking through selected scenes from his work and films by other acknowledged masters. The packed Asia Society auditorium included such guests as Ambassador Do Hung Viet of Vietnam and Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont of France, both representatives of their respective countries at the United Nations. 

Co-presented by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute with Asia Society New York, and co-sponsored by Columbia University School of the Arts, the talk was also an impressive public launch of Weatherhead’s new Viet Arts in Action (VAiA) program, a cross-disciplinary platform for Vietnamese and Vietnamese diaspora expression led by Bui, an instructor in Columbia’s School of the Arts and a recent Weatherhead Artist in Residence.

Tran Anh Hung was born in Da Nang and emigrated to France at the age of 12, following the end of the Vietnam War. He has been a presence in international cinema since his debut feature The Scent of Green Papaya won the Caméra d'Or prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. His follow-up, 1995’s Cyclo, received the Golden Lion award at the 1995 Venice International Film Festival, and he later consolidated his standing with releases like The Vertical Ray of the Sun (2000), the third film in his unofficial “Vietnam trilogy,” and 2010’s Norwegian Wood, a Japanese-language adaptation of a Haruki Murakami novel. His most recent feature, The Taste of Things, earned him the Best Director award at Cannes in 2023.

In his introductory remarks, Bui lauded Tran as “a filmmaker of rare sensory precision and emotional depth,” whose films remind us that “cinema can be passionate, sensual, intimate, heartbreaking, hopeful, and sometimes even inspiring.”

Bui explained that the evening’s program grew out of a series of private conversations he’d recently had with Tran in Paris, where the other filmmaker offered so many valuable insights into cinematic process and craft that Bui found himself wishing they could be shared with a wider audience.

Bui opened the conversation by explaining that he was going to ask Tran one question and then step out of the way. That question was: What is cinema?

_{Above: Tony Bui and Tran Anh Hung with a scene from Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru. (LiAnn Grahm/Asia Society)}

“I prefer to say that cinema is a language,” Tran answered. “As a language you can learn it—learn how to speak, how to read, how to write this language. But we need to find the specific language of cinema.”

By “specific language,” Tran was referring to the tools filmmakers rely on to create meaning and emotion. For him, some of the most crucial tools are the transitions from one shot to another; staging; and close-ups, provided the latter are used sensitively and sparingly.

The director illustrated his precepts with several clips from his own films as well as from personal favorites like Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1952) and Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers (2003). The cumulative effect was of a seminar-level immersion in the fine points of filmmaking technique.

Tran clearly had more to share, but unfortunately time constraints meant that he wasn’t able to continue after the 90-minute mark. He concluded with a playful admonition for his listeners: “If you don’t know what to do with your life, make a movie.”

Bui similarly expressed his regret that the program had to end when it did. “We’re going to have to invite Mr. Tran Anh Hung back for maybe a series of these things,” he said, “because there’s so much more to discuss.” Judging by the resounding applause in the Asia Society auditorium, it was a sentiment shared by many members of the audience.

Watch "The Language of Cinema: In Conversation with Tran Anh Hung" on the Asia Society website

Below: Photos from the event and from Tran Anh Hung’s visit to the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University on April 9, 2026. 

_{L–R: Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont of France, Weatherhead East Asian Institute Director Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, and Ambassador Do Hung Viet of Vietnam at Asia Society New York on Apr. 8, 2026.}

_{L-R: Tony Bui, Ocean Vuong, Tran Anh Hung, and Mailman School of Public Health Professor Thoai D. Ngo at the "Language of Cinema" reception on Apr. 8, 2026.}

_{L–R: Tony Bui, Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, and Tran Anh Hung at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute on Apr. 9, 2026.}