MINH ANH NGUYỄN

MINH ANH NGUYỄN
FILM / WRITER AND DIRECTOR

Minh Anh Nguyễn is a German-Vietnamese filmmaker. Born to Vietnamese contract workers who fled from former Czechoslovakia to Germany, she initially studied sculpture and video at the Kunstakademie Karlsruhe before completing her film studies at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe. She lives and works in Hà Nội and Cologne, and is currently completing her postgraduate studies in film at the Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln.

Nguyễn’s work explores trauma, silence, and memory across fiction, documentary, and hybrid cinematic forms. The latter combine narrative storytelling with performative reenactments captured in a documentary mode, as well as archival material. Her films disrupt linear narratives to make visible what has been repressed or forgotten, transcending cultural and identity boundaries to create a shared canvas for empathy.

Her films have been shown at various festivals, among them Filmfest Schleswig-Holstein (Kiel), Independent Days – International Filmfestival (Karlsruhe), and Sehsüchte – International Student Film Festival (Babelsberg). Since 2021, Nguyễn has been a scholarship holder of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), and in 2025 she was awarded the Prize of the Federal Competition for Art Students (27. Bundeswettbewerb für Kunststudierende).

FILMS

SO MUCH WATER, SO CLOSE TO HOME
2026 / 47 min
Essay Film

As a child, Minh Anh Nguyễn was sexually abused. Her film is an attempt to put words onto this difficult part of her life, to speak the unspeakable and regain a sense of self through the reflection and projection that the act of filmmaking allows. It reveals intimate conversations between the filmmaker and her mother, navigating the challenging process of bringing this trauma into the public sphere. The film moves through a wounded intimacy — blending fiction, archival footage, and documentary in search of a language to articulate the past and embrace the future.

Instagram
@somuchwaterfilm

THUẬN & THÚY
2026 /60 min
Pilot Episode of a Documentary Series

Thuận and Thúy, two former GDR contract workers, have been running the Peking restaurant in Germany for over 20 years. After hours, the musician Thuận, connects with the world via livestream, while Thúy holds the family and business together, despite the toll of many years of hard work. Their eldest daughter, Hà Linh, now living in Berlin and expecting a child, reflects on the third generation. Her younger sister, Hà Vy, who barely speaks Vietnamese, searches for a connection to their family’s story. Through archival footage and quiet, intimate observations, the film explores the Vietnamese diaspora in Germany — and the intergenerational challenges of identity and belonging.

Instagram
@onkelthuan.film

EINE MASCHINE FLIEGT IN DIE LUFT
ALL STARS BURN OUT EVENTUALLY
2024 / 49 min
Tragicomedy

Mr. Seins is the top student at the Butler Academy. His achievements are nothing short of outstanding, while many of his classmates struggle with the high expectations of the director and the constant pressure of competition. But slowly, an unspeakable horror lurking behind the academy’s structure begins to unfold. Seins’ precisely structured world starts to unravel.

2025
Nomination for Best Medium-Length Film at the 29th Filmfest Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel

Instagram
@butlerfilm

TO CUT A LONG STORY SHORT
2021 / 71 min
Tragicomedy

The brunette meets the macho. Their shared odyssey takes them to an island, a swimming pool, and a Dionysian bathroom. Too bad she’s a fish who’s afraid of the water. The redheads meet on the dance floor and speak as if with one voice. Magic sweeps them away — but why does the schizophrenic have to show up just then? And then there’s the night porter, secretly dancing in the hotel staff restroom. He’s clearly infatuated with the pretty waitress from the diner around the corner, but while he admires her over the pages of his Camus novel, the stranger suddenly appears — and everyone takes a different path …

2024
Nomination for Best Comedy at the Beyond Filmfestival 2024 in Feuchtwangen

2023
Award for Best Film Score at the 22nd Independent Days Internationale Filmfestspiele in Karlsruhe

2022
Nomination for Best Production at the 51. Sehsüchte Film Festival in Babelsberg

Instagram
@storyshort.film

NEXT

SUMMON SPIRITS IN HÀ NỘI
90 min / Experimental Docu Fiction