Film Festival «HANIFF VIII» (Hanoi International Film Festival)

   Every two years the Vietnamese capital turns into a meeting point for filmmakers from five continents, and you do not need an industry badge to get in. For a week at the end of November Hanoi runs public screenings, a cinema exhibition in the heart of the city and mobile shows staged right inside residential wards.

   The eighth Hanoi International Film Festival was fixed by the city People's Committee in Plan No. 318/KH-UBND. By June 2026 the pre-selection council had received about 300 films from Asia, Europe, the Americas, Australia and Africa — these are entries submitted for consideration, not the final line-up, which will be announced later.

   The week is split by day:

• — 26 November – 2 December: screening and meet-the-makers space at the Vietnam Exposition Center, with 1,000 to 1,500 seats planned per show;
• — 27 November – 2 December: an exhibition promoting Hanoi through cinema at 93 Đinh Tiên Hoàng;
• — 28 November: the opening film at 3 pm at the National Cinema Center (87 Láng Hạ), red carpet and opening ceremony at 8 pm, broadcast live on VTV and HTV;
• — during November: mobile screenings at five points in Ba Đình, Hoàn Kiếm, Đông Anh, Sơn Tây and Cầu Giấy, combined with performances and audience talks;
• — 2 December: closing ceremony and awards at 8 pm, also live on television.

   The novelty of this edition is a film market — the first time a trading platform has been folded into the festival, alongside the HANIFF Campus talent programme and a project market for films in development. The city also hands out its Hanoi Award for the best films about the capital: 100 million dong for a feature and 50 million dong for a short.

   The festival started in 2010, when the first edition ran on 17–21 October as part of the millennium of Thăng Long – Hanoi; organisers received 96 films from 30 countries and the best feature prize went to «Sandcastle» from Singapore. The second edition in 2012 carried the theme «Asia-Pacific cinema, united and developing» and drew more than 200 films from 38 countries and territories. The most recent edition, in 2024, ended with a sweep for Iranian cinema.

   Director Bùi Trung Hải, deputy head of the pre-selection council, says Vietnamese cinema still lacks variety and directness in the way it tells stories — qualities that affect how far a film travels abroad (An ninh Thủ đô, 19 August 2026). Watching here is therefore also a chance to put Vietnamese work next to the rest of the world.

   The week suits arthouse viewers, students and young people entering the industry, and equally families who simply want an open-air screening near home thanks to the mobile programme.

   Please note: the gala performance and reception on the evening of 29 November at Hồ Văn, part of the Văn Miếu – Quốc Tử Giám complex, and the 1 December trip to Đường Lâm ancient village or the Bát Tràng pottery village are for delegates and invited guests, not open to the public. Entry conditions for the public screenings and the detailed programme have not been published yet, and every date in the plan is marked as provisional: a report of 19 August 2026, citing the Ministry of Culture's own plan, gave a different window — 24 to 28 November.

   If you want world cinema in Hanoi without waiting for a general release, the last week of November is the one to mark in your calendar.