The Vietnamese-German director & writer Duc Ngo Ngoc was born in Hanoi and later moved to Berlin as the son of GDR contract workers. In award-winning films such as “Apples and Oranges,” “Farewell Halong” and “Trading Happiness,” he processes his personal experiences of migration and presents his perspective on the issue. His short film “Apples and Oranges” won the Best Short Film award at the Viet Film Fest in 2018. “Farewell Halong” and “Trading Happiness” were also part of the official selection at the Viet Film Fest.
Đức Ngô Ngọc completed his bachelor’s degree in media design/media art at the Bauhaus University Weimar. As part of his master’s degree in film directing at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, he studied for a semester at the Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema.
Triggered by the lack of diversity in the film business, Ngô Ngọc founded the documentary-based workshop “Dreh’s Um” for Vietnamese-German youth. For his intercultural media work he was awarded with the Dieter Baacke Prize 2022. His passion for documentary film also influences his approach on fictional sets. He enjoys working with amateur actors and loves to play with hybrid formats, especially when developing scripts and rehearsing with actors. Ngô Ngọc is particularly interested in merging comedic elements with tragic tones to reach large audiences. In addition to cinema, he therefore worked on Grimme Award nominated series such as “Wir” and “Echt ” in 2021 and 2022.
Recently, he wrote and directed an episode of the six-part drama series “Made in Germany,” which tells the stories of a group of friends who grew up in Berlin in the second generation. Together, they face challenges in establishing their roles in society, chasing individual aspirations, contemplating their identities, and confronting life’s profound questions.