director of the millennium

Beijing.

The headquarters building of Light and Shadow Times.

After more than ten years of development, Guangying Times has grown from a shell company to a large film and television company with more than 500 employees.

In the entertainment industry, which is not a labor-intensive industry, it is rare for a company to have more than 500 people.

However, the current era of light and shadow is not busy at all.

Although the variety show department and the agency department are still bustling, the employees in the production department, which is the company's largest pillar, are very idle.

There is no other reason. Currently, the only film project that Guangying Times is promoting is "Glass Love".

The company has no plans to shoot any movies next year.

This made the production department, which had more than 100 and nearly 200 people, particularly inconvenient.

Although Chinese people do not have the mentality of the Japanese who feel uncomfortable if they do not work every day, it is not a big deal to slack off every day.

However, the company's strategic plans are formulated by senior leaders. If the leaders say that they will not make a movie next year, then they will not make a movie, and the junior employees have no ability to influence it.

Anyway, the salary is still paid and the classes are still attended, so it’s okay even if I play Plants vs. Zombies at my workstation every day.

However, unlike the relaxed clerks, Li Xiaoping on the top floor is under tremendous pressure.

After holding another meeting and calming the minds of several middle and senior management staff in the production department, Li Xiaoping returned to her office, massaging her temples with a frown, feeling a headache.

Ever since Wu Yuan suggested that the market was overheated and that it was necessary to calm down next year and not start producing new films for the time being, Li Xiaoping has been implementing this plan.

The leader opens his mouth and his subordinates run around for him.

Guangying Times is no longer the shell company it once was. Hundreds of mouths depend on the company for their livelihood.

It is not an easy task to properly appease the emotions of the production department and make them understand and execute.

Even if Wu Yuan is the shareholder with absolute control over the company, he cannot do this so casually.

Yes, in Li Xiaoping's opinion, Wu Yuan was just being casual.

Although the reasons he gave are barely plausible, it is too absurd to arbitrarily stop the film production project plan in the first half of next year just because of the so-called "overheated market bubble" that has not yet appeared.

Well, for the time being, Li Xiaoping has only managed to convince people not to start filming the movie in the first half of next year. As for the second half of next year, work must not be stopped again.

Even this took a lot of her energy to prevent several key managers of the company's production department from resigning.

You know, employees and management from Guangying Times are very popular outside, and other film companies are eager to poach them all.

If the production department of a company is really upset and chooses to resign, other film companies will definitely welcome them with open arms.

Leading companies in the industry are so influential.

Fortunately, Wu Yuan also expressed his understanding and approved of Li Xiaoping's decision to temporarily stop for only half a year and wait and see the market conditions.

Li Xiaoping didn't know, but Wu Yuan knew very well that if we wait until the second half of next year, no film company in the industry would dare to start filming new movies, but TV series could still be filmed.
Wu Yuan was also thinking about resuming TV drama production next year. He couldn't really shut down the company for so long, or he would feel bad for paying his salary in vain. However, he would have to wait until he came back from the United States to discuss these specific matters.

"Knock, knock, knock..." At this moment, the door of Li Xiaoping's office was suddenly pushed open, and her secretary walked in with a document.

"Mr. Li, the Golden Rooster Awards have announced this year's shortlisted films. Our film "Cai Wenji" has been shortlisted for seven awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Recording, and Best Art Direction!"

Li Xiaoping, who was rubbing her eyebrows, raised her head and said, "I've been busy with other things recently and forgot about the Golden Rooster."

"Show me the shortlist."

Starting this year, in order to keep up with the development of Chinese-language films, the Golden Rooster Awards was changed from being held every two years to being held once a year, and the venue was changed from being changed every year to being held at a fixed location.

However, it is not fixed forever, but is held five times in one place.

From 2019 to 2023, the Golden Rooster Awards will be held in Xiamen, Fujian Province.

Speaking of which, as the older generation of so-called "film predecessors" have passed away or retired completely, the Golden Rooster Awards are finally not as closed and small-circle as before.

In other words, the so-called Beijing circle is no longer a circle that can influence Chinese films and can no longer hold the right to speak at a time when it is swept by big capital.

Nowadays, Chinese films are in an era where capital has the final say.

Just look at this year's shortlist of films.

The films nominated for Best Feature Film include "Operation Red Sea", "Dying to Survive", "The Wandering Earth", "Us and Them", "So Long, My Son", and "Cai Wenji".

All six films are from large companies or have strong capital behind them. The era of relying on so-called master-disciple relationships and seniority to be nominated is over.

And because of that incident, after the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards were banned in mainland China, the Golden Rooster Awards became the most important and authoritative film award in the country. It also made the Golden Rooster Awards, which had originally been ignored by the audience and was "old-fashioned and outdated", return to the public eye and become the most popular mainland film award.

After taking a quick look at this year's shortlist, Li Xiaoping said with satisfaction: "Not bad, being shortlisted for so many awards is already a recognition of Cai Wenji."

"However, this year, Cai Wenji did not win the Best Film Award at the Berlin Film Festival, so it is unlikely to win the Best Film Award at the Golden Rooster Awards."

"In terms of box office, it is not as good as "Dying to Survive" and "The Wandering Earth", and in terms of artistry, it is also slightly inferior to "So Long, My Son".

"I guess the Best Picture award will go to one of these two films. I don't know if there will be a double yolk this year."

"But the Golden Rooster has never given out double yolks for Best Picture, it only gives out double yolks for Best Actor and Best Actress."

"It seems that this year's best film will still be very suspenseful!"

"Cai Wenji" was released in China in April, and ultimately earned less than 4 million yuan at the box office.

There is no way. Biographical films that take the artistic route are not inherently attractive at the box office, and they cannot resonate with the whole nation like "Hidden in the Dust" and create any miracle of box office comeback.

It's already very good to have a box office of more than 100 million yuan, plus the income from overseas copyrights, it's not only breaking even but also making a small profit, which is already a very good result.

As for this year's Golden Rooster Best Picture, will it be given to "The Wandering Earth", which has the highest box office and a strong "main theme" flavor, or to "So Long, My Son", which won the Berlin Jury Grand Prix and won glory for the country in Europe?
This suspense is really hard to say~ (End of this chapter)