Tony Bui

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tony Bui (b. Vietnam, 1973) is a Vietnamese American independent film director, most famous for his 1999 film Three Seasons, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and became the only film ever to win both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize there. The film was based on Bui's own experiences dealing with the changing landscape and people of his ancestral home of Vietnam. The film starred Harvey Keitel.

Bui was born in Vietnam and in 1975 came to the U.S. at the age of 2 with his family, as a refugee of the Vietnam War, leaving Vietnam approximately one week before the Fall of Saigon. He was raised in Sunnyvale, California. His father ran a video store which led to his interest in cinema. He studied film at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He visited Vietnam several times before making first short film, the highly successful short film Yellow Lotus, which also debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to play at festivals all around the world.

Bui has also produced Green Dragon, starring Patrick Swayze and Forest Whitaker, for his older brother Timothy Linh Bui, as well as writing several screenplays for production companies. He is believed to be developing another feature film project. For a brief time he was associated with Lazarus, a film in development at Warner Brothers.

Bui is the brother of Timothy Linh Bui (who is also a film director and producer; the two have worked together on several films), and the brother of Boston-based public interest attorney Simone Bui. He is also the nephew of the Vietnamese actor Đơn Dương.