Originally established in 1979 as the Việt Nam Film Documentation Institute (Viện Tư liệu Việt Nam), the Việt Nam Film Institute has been appointed by the government of Việt Nam to undertake research studies on the art of cinema and to archive its country’s cinematic and audiovisual heritage. The Institute is a member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and a founding member of the South East Asia-Pacific Audio Visual Archives Association (SEAPAVAA), enjoying full institutional membership of the latter organisation. The Institute hosted SEAPAVAA's General Assembly in 1998 and again in 2004. Its headquarters at Kim Mã Street in Hà Nội incorporate a film restoration laboratory, a film studio and two film vaults housing 84,000 cans of film. Further film archive facilities are available at the Việt Nam Centre for Film Research and Archive (Trung tâm Nghiên cứu Nghệ thuật và Lưu trữ Điện ảnh Việt Nam), the Institute’s branch office in Hồ Chí Minh City. The Institute archives deposited copies of each Vietnamese film approved for distribution by the National Film Censorship Committee and of foreign films which have research value or relate to Việt Nam, as well as undertaking all necessary preservation work in relation to films, documents and stills belonging to the National Conservation Fund. The Institute also provides films for public exhibition through cine-clubs, universities and research institutions throughout Việt Nam and exchanges film prints and documents with film organisations overseas with a view to strengthening friendly relations between Việt Nam and other countries in the cinematic field. In addition to functioning as Việt Nam’s national film archives, the Việt Nam Film Institute is charged with the task of undertaking research into the theory, history and sociology of cinema with a view to predicting its developmental tendencies in Việt Nam, a function which is also carried out by its Hồ Chí Minh City branch, the Việt Nam Centre for Film Research and Archive. The Institute publishes the results of its research activities in numerous publications, including its own monthly Điện ảnh Ngày nay (Cinema Today) Magazine and occasional books on the art of cinema. Its Ngọc Khánh Film Company (Hãng phim Ngọc Khánh, see below) makes documentary films and it also provides films for public exhibition through cine-clubs, universities and research institutions throughout Việt Nam and exchanges film prints and documents with film organisations overseas with a view to strengthening friendly relations in the cinematic field between Việt Nam and other countries. The Institute also produces a range of documentary films relating to the history of Việt Nam and Vietnamese cinema using archival footage from its vaults and also makes experimental films with a view to the further development of the cinematic arts in Việt Nam. The Institute incorporates the three-screen Ngọc Khánh Film Culture House (Nhà Văn hóa Điện ảnh Ngọc Khánh), while its southern branch, the Việt Nam Centre for Film Research and Archive in Hồ Chí Minh City, has its own in-house cinema and also manages the Film Culture House (Nhà Văn hóa Điện ảnh tại Thành Phố Hố Chí Minh). The Institute issues numerous publications including its own monthly Điện ảnh Ngày nay (Cinema Today) Magazine.

Related links: Cinema Department, Ministry of Culture and Information (MOCI), National Cinema Centre (NCC), Việt Nam Feature Film Studio, Việt Nam Film Technical Centre