In the aftermath of Reunification (1975) a revolutionary documentary film unit known as the Giải phóng (Liberation) Film Studio (Xưởng phim Giải phóng), which had been operating at the front since 1963, became Hồ Chí Minh City's principal film studio. Its brief, like that of the Việt Nam Feature Film Studio in Hà Nội, was to produce films dealing with social reality. Thereafter Vietnamese feature film output increased steadily; by 1978 the number of feature films produced each year had increased from around three annually during the war years to 20. The studio has since been renamed several times, becoming the General Film Studio (Xưởng phim Tổng hợp) in 1976, the General Film Enterprise (Xí Nghiệp Phim Tổng Hợp) in 1986, and finally reverting to the title Giải Phóng (Liberation) Film Studio (Hãng Phim Giải Phóng) in 1988.

In the field of documentary filmmaking output was also boosted with the inception of Hồ Chí Minh City's Nguyễn Đình Chiểu Film Studio (Hãng phim Nguyễn Đình Chiểu) which thereafter shared the workload of producing domestic public information films with its northern counterpart, Hà Nội's National Documentary and Scientific Film Production Studio (Hãng phim Tài liệu và Khoa học Trung Ương). During the 1980s the Nguyễn Đình Chiểu Film Studio split into two separate institutions - the Hồ Chí Minh City Current Affairs and Documentary Film Studio (Xưởng phim Thời sự-Tài liệu Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh), and the Nguyễn Đình Chiểu Film Enterprise (Xí nghiệp Phim Nguyễn Đình Chiểu). However, it once more became a single institution in 1997.

It was at this time too that numerous other new film agencies were established, including the Việt Nam Film Institute (Viện Nghệ thuật và Lưu trữ Điện ảnh Việt Nam), the Secondary School of Film II Hồ Chí Minh City (Trường Trung học Điện ảnh II tại Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh, now part of the Hồ Chí Minh City College of Stage Arts and Film) and a number of cinema production and service companies. In 1980 the Việt Nam Film School (Trường Điện ảnh Việt Nam) merged with the Việt Nam School of Stage Arts (Trường Nghệ thuật Sân khấu Việt Nam) to become the Hà Nội University of Theatre and Cinema (Trường Đại học Sân khấu và Điện ảnh Hà Nội). It has remained ever since the most important centre for the training of cinema practitioners.

For some time after Reunification in 1975, revolutionary heroism, the human suffering created by military conflict and the social problems of post-war reconstruction continued to dominate feature film production. Hồng Sến's Mùa gió chướng ('Season of the Whirlwind', 1978) drew heavily on his unforgettable experiences at the front, whilst his most famous film Cánh đồng hoang ('The Wild Field', 1979) vividly conveyed the futility of war. Other important features of this period included Nguyễn Khánh Dư's harrowing Mẹ vắng nhà ('Mother is Not at Home', 1979), Đặng Nhật Minh's Thị xã trong tầm tay ('The Town is Within Range', 1982) and Bao giờ cho đến tháng 10 ('When Will October Come', 1984), Nguyễn Xuân Sơn's Chuyện cổ tích cho tuổi mười bảy ('Fairytale for Seventeen Year Olds', 1987) and two films which dealt with the remorse of US-backed South Vietnamese soldiers, Phạm Kỳ Nam's Tự thú trước bình minh ('Confession Before the Dawn', 1979) and Bạch Diệp's Trừng phạt ('Punishment', 1984).