director of the millennium

After a meeting, Wang Xiaoshuai and Wu Yuan, a pair of brothers, reached a tacit understanding.

No matter what the final outcome of this year's Berlin Film Festival is, it will not affect the relationship between the two.

As for Zhang Yimou?
As a director who established the influence of Chinese films in Europe, it is impossible for any Chinese director to have any conflicts with him in Europe.

And his personality simply doesn't like socializing and negotiations outside of movies.

Yes, the meeting between Wu Yuan and Wang Xiaoshuai was also a negotiation.

Although the two did not have any in-depth conversation during the meal, they already knew each other's bottom line through a few words of probing.

The bottom line for "Forever Young" is the Best Actor, and the bottom line for "Cai Wenji" is the Best Actress.

It is precisely because the goals of both parties do not conflict that Wu Yuan and Wang Xiaoshuai smiled at each other.

In the coming days until the closing of the film festival, they will work hard for these two awards.

This is not public relations, and the Big Three in Europe have never been very receptive to public relations.

It’s just that both sides need to use their public opinion offensives in the right place, where they are worthwhile, rather than fighting against each other due to poor communication.

If there had not been a meeting today and if they did not know each other's goals, a more embarrassing situation might have occurred, where both sides would have spent money to find the media and critics at the film festival to publish some reviews or press releases supporting themselves for the Best Actor/Best Actress award.

Then the same people started to fight each other, which was really funny.

(Issuing press releases and film reviews to guide public opinion does not mean that one can influence the jury's decision, but doing so can use public opinion to influence the views of global film professionals attending the Berlin International Film Festival. It is a form of publicity in order to sell copyrights.)
Guangying Times is wealthy and does not care about the publicity expenses, but Wang Xiaoshuai is not a rich man who can spend a lot of money on press releases in order to win awards.

Seeing that he didn't spend much money on press releases in China after winning the Best Actor and Best Actress awards at the Berlin Film Festival in his original time and space, you can see how tight his financial situation was.

Who doesn’t want the news of their winning to be known to the whole country?
Is it that Wang Xiaoshuai doesn’t want to?
Yes, I have no money!
After all, in this day and age, rather than paying attention to the film festival far away in Berlin, various media would rather pay attention to what the young stars of the domestic entertainment industry eat for lunch.

Yes, the current domestic entertainment industry is so chaotic and traffic is paramount.

If any top-tier young star posts a microblog about having lunch, it will trigger hundreds of thousands of reposts, likes and comments, and become a hot topic on Weibo. Various self-media will rush to repost it and take advantage of the popularity.

But when an art director wins an award overseas, few people care and he has to spend money to find his own media to publish press releases for publicity, which costs a lot of money.

This is an era that relies on traffic. If there is traffic, even a dog's poop will be reported and forwarded. If there is no traffic, no one will pay attention even if you hold one of the three major European titles.

If the person who won the award was a director like Wu Yuan or Zhang Yimou who has high status and popularity in the business field, he would definitely be praised to the sky by various domestic media and self-media.

It’s a pity that Wang Xiaoshuai didn’t have this treatment.

Wu Yuan has thought it through. When the awards of the Berlin International Film Festival are announced, if both "Cai Wenji" and "So Long, My Son" win awards, Wang Xiaoshuai will definitely be included in the domestic promotion of Guangying Times.

Anyway, there will be a lot of press releases and interviews, so it is convenient to involve "So Long, My Son". It's nothing more than adding a few lines of text, a few photos and videos to the report. It can be regarded as his support for his senior brother as a junior brother!

I just hope the final result can be so perfect.

Wu Yuan was also unsure about the Berlin International Film Festival. Whether it was on-site publicity or film reviews, they were just side battles, just playing a supporting role. The real battlefield was in the final selection by the jury.

He was not familiar with the jury members of this year's Berlin Film Festival! The next day, the time finally came to February 2019, 2.

According to Dieter Kosslick, president of the 69th Berlin International Film Festival, nearly 400 films from many countries and regions around the world will compete at this year's festival.

Among the 23 films shortlisted for the main competition unit, 17 will compete for the most important awards of the Berlin Film Festival - the "Golden Bear Award" and the "Silver Bear Award".

Three Chinese-language films will join the main competition unit, and nine will be shortlisted for Panorama, New Generation, Short Film, Forum and other units.

Originally, under normal circumstances, since the Berlin premieres of "So Long, My Son" and "Cai Wenji" were both scheduled for the second half of the film week, there was actually no need for them to come to the opening ceremony early, after all, the film week lasted for 10 days.

But under the instigation of Wu Yuan's little butterfly, on the evening of February 2, the crews of "So Long, My Son" and "Cai Wenji" who arrived in Berlin in advance and the crew of "Dinosaur Egg" led by Wang Quanan attended the red carpet of the opening ceremony together.

It has been many years since so many Chinese-language films were shortlisted for the main competition unit in Berlin.

The last time was the 64th edition five years ago. That year, there were also three Chinese-language films shortlisted in the main competition unit. In the end, "Black Coal, Thin Ice" won the highest honor, the Golden Bear Award and the Best Actor Award.

Yes, that was the year when Liao Fan won the Best Actor award.

But the problem remains. After 2010, basically domestic media no longer pays special attention to European awards. Everyone is busy paying attention to the booming local entertainment industry. The situation in the past where domestic big directors won awards abroad and all mainstream and non-mainstream media newspapers rushed to report on it is gone forever.

If the film and television companies behind the winning crews and the agencies behind the actors have the strength and funds, they can also spend their own money to launch a massive wave of publicity for the awards.

Unfortunately, Liao Fan does not have any large agency to back him up, and the producer of "Black Coal, Thin Ice" is just a small company under the provincial radio and television, which cannot afford to spend money on national publicity, so their award did not attract much attention.

But this year is different.

With Zhang Yimou on the list, the domestic media would be very interested.

The relationship between Zhang Yimou and the Berlin Film Festival has a long history.

As early as 31 years ago, his first film "Red Sorghum" won the Golden Bear Award for Best Film at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival.

19 years ago, his film "My Father and Mother" won the Silver Bear Award at the 50th Berlin International Film Festival.

Taking the Golden Bear Award as a starting point, Zhang Yimou began his journey to win gold and silver medals at the "three major European film festivals", but he received many nominations but few wins.

The last time he won an award was in 2003 for "Hero", when he won the Berlin Film Festival's Special Innovation Award.

This is Zhang Yimou's return to period art films after Coming Home in 2014.

The nomination of "Cai Wenji" marks his fifth participation in the Berlin Film Festival after 9 years, and his first participation in one of the three major European film festivals after 16 years. It is so popular!
The domestic media, which had originally lost interest in the three major European events, all showed up this time. Under the leadership of the central bank, they became a prominent media army on the red carpet!
When the crew of "Cai Wenji" walked onto the red carpet, the atmosphere on the scene even reached its climax on the Berlin red carpet tonight!

After many years, the Berlin Film Festival has once again received great attention from the Chinese media!

In the backstage, Dieter Kosslick, the festival chairman who learned the exciting news from the front stage, was silent for a long time, then turned around and whispered a few words to his assistant.

Today's Chinese films are no longer the same as before and must be given the highest respect and attention. (End of this chapter)