Before it became a hot tourism destination, Bui returned to Vietnam in 1997 as co-producer on THREE SEASONS, starring Harvey Keitel and is a triple award winner at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, it is regarded by many as the inspirational film to pave the way for future Vietnamese filmmakers. Bui followed up with his directorial debut on GREEN DRAGON, the film world premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival in Dramatic Competition and is the recipient of the Humanitas Prize Award.
Bui went on to make such films as the Spirit Award Nominee OWL AND THE SPARROW, INSIDE OUT, POWDER BLUE, starring Jessica Biel, Eddie Redmayne and Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, THE THROWAWAYS for Sony Crackle, starring James Caan and Kevin Dillon, before returning to Vietnam to start Happy Canvas, a development and production company for feature films and digital content.
Bui is proud to have produced two award winning films under the Happy Canvas banner with emerging filmmakers on Ham Tran’s HOW TO FIGHT IN SIX INCH HEELS, stars Kathy Uyen and recently, THE HOUSEMAID for CJ Entertainment, which won the Special Jury Prize for Best Actress (Nhung Kate) at the 2017 Los Angeles Film Festival. Currently, Bui is focused on the diverse slate of projects for Happy Canvas while continuing to develop new talents.