Phạm Thiên Ân

Biography

Phạm Thiên Ân (born November 1989 in Lâm Đồng Province, Vietnam) is a Vietnamese film director, screenwriter and editor. He initially studied Information Technology at Hoa Sen University in Ho Chi Minh City before turning toward filmmaking. He taught himself cinematography and editing and worked as a wedding videographer, experiences that eventually led him to independent cinema. His short films include The Mute (2018), which screened at international festivals including Palm Springs, Tampere and Uppsala, and Stay Awake, Be Ready (2019), which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival and won the Illy Prize. His feature debut, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023), premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Caméra d’Or for Best First Feature. The film subsequently received several international awards, including the Young Cinema Award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, the Roberto Rossellini Best Film Award at the Pingyao International Film Festival, the Grand Prize at Tokyo FILMeX, and the Silver Screen Award for Best Asian Feature Film at the Singapore International Film Festival. In 2024, Phạm Thiên Ân received the Best Director award at the Da Nang Asian Film Festival for Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell. In 2026, he returned to the festival as a member of the Asian Competition Jury at its fourth edition. He continues to develop new projects while working primarily within Vietnamese cinema.