The best actor and actress awards of the 40th National Television Festival have been presented to Nguyen Le Viet Anh for his role in the film Sinh Tu (Life and Death) and Nguyen Ngoc Lan for her role in Luat Troi (The Law of Heaven), respectively.

The awards ceremony of the festival was held on December 16 in a virtual format for the first time to ensure COVID-19 prevention and control.

Speaking at the event, Tran Binh Minh, general director of Vietnam Television (VTV), said it was the first time that the festival was held without the presence of any delegates but just judges to honour the excellent works.

“This year’s television festival has 422 entries in nine categories. Basically, the works have closely followed the mainstream of the nation, focusing on profound humanistic messages rather than the investment in terms of scale and sophisticated expression.

“The number of entries and the level of investment by the television units, despite being inequivalent to the previous festival due to the impact of the pandemic and the significant decline in revenues, still promote and innovate the ideological values, content and modes of communication,” he said.