The Venice International Film Festival has the longest history among the three major European film festivals. It once became one of the most popular film festivals among Chinese people. However, unfortunately, its long history did not make it the leader of the three major film festivals.
The increasingly extreme award-winning literary and artistic works have discouraged many film producers. Movie trophies are quite authoritative, but the film market is pitifully small, and even the sales of award-winning works were bleak...
The Berlin Film Festival is much more grand, but it is easy to get nominated and difficult to win awards. Basically all movies are monopolized by European and American movies. Chinese filmmakers have been working hard for so many years, even high-quality movies like "Hero"
I invited them all to participate in the exhibition, but in the end they cheated me and got a scrap award. It was extremely cheating, so the award for "Mineral Bottom" a few months ago was almost unprecedented in China.
The Cannes International Film Festival is quite tolerant among the three major film festivals. There are many Chinese films shortlisted every year. The annual film market turnover of over 100 million makes many Chinese filmmakers flock to it. Even if they don't win, they come here to become famous.
It’s so popular that it’s not a bad idea to show off to those film producers, and because the time in Cannes is just right, it’s just when the summer season is about to begin, so you can not only create a big stunt before the summer season is released, but also advance in advance.
Selling overseas copyrights is definitely the best of both worlds.
Moreover, every few years, a Chinese director will be included in the jury system of the Cannes competition, which is undoubtedly a great incentive for Chinese-language films.
After all, the former "Overlord" was so awesome that its status in Cannes is still talked about by many old guys...
There are 22 films shortlisted in Cannes this year.
Among them are four Chinese-language films.
One is "Bicycle Life" from Taiwan, one is "The Crow" by Wang Shuai, the other is "Hero" by Shen Changwei, and the last one is the literary film "Black" from Hong Kong Island.
Yes.
"Hero", a movie that has already been produced in China, was still brought to Cannes by Shen Changwei for exhibition.
This kind of movie is the first of its kind.
The other two films more or less came here to sell more overseas rights and try their luck to see if they could win awards, while Shen Changwei came here simply because he wanted to win.
There is no screening room for "Hero"?
It doesn't matter!
No sales area?
It doesn't matter!
People don't care at all, they just want to gain reputation in the world and boost their dignity as a great Chinese director.
"Hero" suffered a loss in Berlin. Although the film's box office exploded, becoming the best Chinese-language film, its reputation in China exploded, and its overseas copyrights sold rapidly, there was no honorary positioning to match it internationally. Many people even
"Hero" is classified as the most successful commercial film in the Chinese film industry.
Commercial Film……
This made Shen Changwei feel quite uncomfortable. Before the release of "Hero", he kept winking at the Cannes organizers. After learning that Huang Jiacheng was one of the members of the Cannes main competition jury, Shen Changwei became more thoughtful.
Zhou Yang and Wang Shuai met Shen Changwei in front of the Austin Hotel.
Shen Changwei looks very serious to outsiders, especially when filming movies. Many actresses have been scared to tears by Shen Changwei's look.
But in private, Shen Changwei is quite enthusiastic. At least he doesn't have any airs about Zhou Yang. He invited Bibi to attend this year's Cannes and winked at Zhou Yang, hinting that French ladies are actually quite open-minded, especially
Some artists are very open-minded. If you want to talk to them about the Luminous Script, you will definitely be exhausted by the conversation.
Wang Shuai and Shen Changwei also have a good relationship. Although one is from the Beijing area and the other is from the northwest area, there is a slight competition for resources, but this does not prevent the two from occasionally sitting down and chatting in private. A word about the future of Chinese cinema...
After some conversation, Shen Changwei regained his seriousness and walked towards the hotel room with his staff.
"Shen Changwei is definitely one of the most powerful Chinese directors... It's a pity that he has been a little crazy recently." Wang Shuai looked at Shen Changwei's leaving figure and sighed quietly.
"What's wrong?" Zhou Yang was surprised.
"The box-office success of "Hero" is already high enough, but he pursues artistry and keeps an eye on the major European film festivals. I heard that he has also signed up for this year's Oscar... He has this energy, so he might as well make another movie. Well, but I can understand that even if "Hero" can win a decent international award, it will be enough to become famous..." Wang Shuai shrugged with emotion.
"Why are you so obsessed with prizes?" Zhou Yang was very surprised and asked this question.
"Which filmmaker is not obsessed with winning awards? Aren't you obsessed? Don't tell me that you haven't dreamed of Cannes..." Wang Shuai rolled his eyes at Zhou Yang.
"No……"
Zhou Yang shook his head, but Wang Shuai rolled his eyes again: "You did win an award in Berlin, but that award was in the main competition section and could only be ranked sixth... You haven't seen the real grand prize yet."
“What’s the real prize?”
"This year's Cannes, your nomination award is one of the biggest awards..."
"Um?"
"Best Actor Award, you don't know what this is, do you?"
"Uh, I don't know!"
"The best actor, the best actor in Cannes!"
"ah?"
……………………
Zhou Yang was curious about everything about France, the people of different skin colors, the different languages, the road signs on the streets, and the rows of cars.
But Zhou Yang could only huddle in the hotel, looking at the crowds of people coming and going below, but never thought of going out for a walk.
In a foreign country, he doesn't understand French and his English is very poor. If he gets lost, he might suffer.
Staying in the room is actually quite boring.
Wang Shuai was visiting old friends at various places. Bi Funan, the second oldest in the crew, followed the rest of the crew and invited a bunch of blond ladies to have a party elsewhere. Zhou Yang was also invited, but Zhou Yang refused. .
Zhou Yang felt that this so-called party was not the kind where everyone sang and danced.
In short, everyone had something to do, but Zhou Yang had nothing to do. Apart from being tossed over and over by the image art master "Toilet Brother" and trying on all kinds of messy fashion brand clothes, he just stayed there. In a daze in the hotel.
When he went downstairs to eat at the buffet at noon, he met Song Yiyi. He took the initiative to say hello to Song Yiyi, and by the way, Song Yiyi asked about the details of the red carpet. However, Song Yiyi seemed not to see him and was minding her own business with those French women. The friends chatted and made a clucking sound from time to time, which made Zhou Yang feel embarrassed!
In the next two days, Zhou Yang and Song Yiyi met several times, but Song Yiyi basically regarded Zhou Yang as nothing.
Zhou Yang naturally didn't have the habit of sticking his face to others' cold butts. After touching his embarrassed brows twice, he never took the initiative to speak again. Occasionally, Zhou Yang also learned from Song Yiyi and treated the other person as if he were nothing. , eating by himself...
In his heart, he even felt that the Song Yiyi in front of him was not Song Yiyi, but maybe her twin sister.
Two days passed quickly...
One day before the film festival party, Wang Shuai brought some bad news.
The overseas copyright sales of "The Crow" were quite average, not even as good as "The Bottom of the Mine". Wang Shuai even felt that "The Crow" was closer to blockbuster movies like "Warring States".
This made Wang Shuai very disappointed.
The movie "The Crow" was almost solely owned by him, but the overseas rights were sold so poorly that he was depressed for a long time.
And the screening effect in Cannes was very deceiving.
There was not enough people in a small screening room, and when the movie was about to end, there were only a few people in the entire large screening room...
Although he knew that the screening of "The Crow" would be disappointing, the attitude was too deceiving, and Wang Shuai once had the idea of dragging Zhou Yang over to sell tickets.
But then I felt it didn’t make any sense…
Unless Zhou Yang is willing to seduce those rich film producers, talk to them about film art, and dedicate himself to art when the time comes, it will have no effect on selling films.
Everyone is very realistic...
Since the bad news came, Bi Funan and others who were having a party stayed in the hotel room in a state of depression and never went out again.
Everyone's mood is generally very low...
They realized that the overseas copyright of "The Crow" should be sold out.
If I don't get any awards again, I guess this trip to Cannes will be in vain.
June 20th.
night.
Zhou Yang stayed in the room as usual, reading the music scores and thinking about the arrangement, when the alarm bell rang at the door.
Didn’t Director Wang just leave?
Zhou Yang opened the door in confusion and was stunned when he saw a girl wearing a green dress.
"Teacher Song?" He asked uncertainly, as if it was hard to believe that Song Yiyi would take the initiative to come to her so late.
"Zhou Yang, are you saying that I don't talk to you, and you don't talk to me anymore? Are you going to die of old age and never interact with each other?" After Song Yiyi saw Zhou Yang, she took a deep breath, her crystal-clear beauty There was a hint of helplessness in his eyes.
"Ah, no...I said hello to you, but you ignored me."
"I ignored you, why can't you ask me why I ignored you?" Song Yiyi looked at Zhou Yang, as if she was defeated by Zhou Yang.
"Uh..." Zhou Yang was speechless for a moment, and could only be dumbfounded. He felt that he was wrong, but he also felt that he had done nothing wrong.
"You promised to treat me to dinner?"
"Well, I replied to the text message, but you didn't answer me..." Zhou Yang was still at a loss.
"Can't you be sincere and call me? Are you worried about the phone bill?"
"without……"
"Oh my God, your emotional intelligence, oh, forget it, forget it, you can't get angry even if you want to. Wait, you are going to let me stand outside and talk to you? Are you really planning to walk the red carpet alone tomorrow? ?”
"Ah, please come in..." Zhou Yang nodded subconsciously.
"Zhou Yang, are you in a room alone, fighting... or something?" Song Yiyi suddenly felt suspicious.
"well?"
"Forget it……"
"Fighting?" Zhou Yang thought for a while, then looked at Song Yiyi in disbelief, "No, I'm not that kind of person..."