During the colonial era French companies imported between 150 and 200 feature films each year for distribution throughout the country. French film production in Việt Nam during this period was mainly confined to documentaries and government newsreels, although after World War I a number of private French film companies were established, leading to the production of several silent films shot in Việt Nam and featuring Vietnamese actors.

During the 1920s a group of Vietnamese intellectuals launched the Hương Ký Film Company in Hà Nội, which produced documentaries on the funeral of King Khải Định and the enthronement ceremony of his successor, Bảo Đại, followed by a silent feature entitled Một đồng kẽm tậu được ngựa ('A Penny for a Horse').

In 1937-1938 two Vietnamese feature films with sound - Cánh đồng ma ('The Ghost Field') and Trận phong ba ('The Storm') - were shot in Hong Kong under a Cantonese director, each using Vietnamese actors and dialogue. However, both failed at the box office and neither are considered to be of major significance in the history of Vietnamese filmmaking.

It was Nguyễn Văn Đinh's Asia Film Group and Trần Tấn Giàu's Việt Nam Film Group, established in Hà Nội during the same period, which produced the first truly Vietnamese talking movies. Asia Film Group productions of this period included the features Trọn với tình ('True to Love', 1937), Khúc khải hoàn ('The Song of Triumph', 1940) and Toét sợ ma ('Toét's Scared of Ghosts', 1940), made with the participation of artist Tám Danh, while the Việt Nam Film Group, led by Trần Tấn Giàu and with the participation of artists Khương Mễ and Đỗ Hữu Thơm, made the feature films Một buổi chiều trên sông Cửu Long ('An Evening on the Mekong River') and Thầy Pháp râu đỏ ('The Red-Bearded Sorcerer').

As early as 1945 a Film and Photography Department was established within the Ministry of Information and Propaganda of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Democratic Republic of Việt Nam, and in the years which followed filmmakers were organised into teams, travelling to the front lines to shoot historic war footage such as that contained in the remarkable series of documentaries Trận Mộc Hóa ('Mộc Hóa Battle', 1948), Trận Đông Khê ('Đông Khê Battle', 1950), Chiến thắng Tây Bắc ('North West Victory', 1952), Việt Nam trên đường thắng lợi ('Việt Nam on the Road to Victory', 1953) and Điện Biên Phủ (1954).