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Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Vietnamese authorities are ordering the producer of an award-winning Vietnamese film to pay a fine and delete the work, according to a South Korean press report. Tran Thanh Huy's Rom, a coming-of-age drama about a teenage boy who sells lottery tickets in a slum in Ho Chi Minh City after being abandoned by his parents, is being targeted for not complying with Vietnam's censors, Yonhap reported Tuesday.
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Director Huy screened the film at the 24th Busan International Film Festival in South Korea this month, winning the top New Currents Award, along with Mohanad Hayal's Iraq-Qatar co-production Haifa Street.
The film's production company was fined about $1,700 by Vietnam's culture ministry. It also ordered film producers to delete the film so that it is no longer available for viewing.
The production company is being penalized for entering Rom into competition before being screened by Vietnamese authorities. According to Yonhap, the film's producers had reportedly asked the film festival coordinators to withdraw the entry, but the festival went ahead with the screening.
Rom was screened in Busan, and won the New Currents Award, worth $30,000.
It is unclear whether the Vietnamese government ordered all copies of the film to be deleted, or only those copies available for viewing in Vietnam.
The Busan International Film Festival is one of the world's biggest film events where Asia's emerging filmmakers are invited to showcase their work.
South Korean television network KBS reported Monday more than 189,000 people visited BIFF this year, down from 195,000 people in 2018.
More film industry personnel visited BIFF this year, however, up 22 percent, including buyers who are seeking content distribution rights to new films, according to the report.
