Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 300: Tearing the Prize
After Li Bingbing left, Fan Bingbing came. After Fan Bingbing left, Zhou Xun called again and invited him for coffee.

Colleagues in China said that Zhang Ziyi, who was still reshooting "The Grandmaster", called the company immediately to arrange a time for Li Qiutang to return to China.

"Zhao Yanzi also said she would invite you back to China."

"You don't have to do that." For most crews, it would be a blessing to be able to invite one of these big stars, but now all the top four actresses and two ice queens, except Xu Jinglei, have contacted Li Qiutang, saying that they are willing to reduce their price to act as long as Li Qiutang gives them a chance. "I said we are still in the creative stage, they are too impatient."

But this is the publicity effect that Zhang Zhao wants, to make a splash in the industry and among movie fans first.

"You don't know how tight the resources are for these big stars now. Xu Jinglei has basically semi-retired. No one wants her to star in a movie anymore. She only plays supporting roles as a guest star to save face.

"The situation is much better for the other few who can make a fuss, but only slightly better. If you release two movies at once, they will try their luck even if they know nothing about it. After all, your reputation as the best director at the Golden Globe Awards will also help them enter the international film industry.

"Just wait, someone will definitely look for you when you return home."

Douban in China has already listed the entries for the two films "Mirage" and "The Invisible Guest" under Li Qiutang's name.

Two movies share one synopsis:
"Autumn Pictures CEO Zhang Zhao revealed at Cannes that director Li Qiutang is currently preparing two new films, "Mirage" and "The Invisible Guest". The projects have been confirmed by Li Qiutang himself. No further information about the films is known at the moment, but netizens expect them to be released in 14 or 15."

Some fans have already started cheering and waiting.

“Looking forward to Director Qiu Tang’s new work.”

"After resting for so long, I finally started working."

"I was at the Cannes press conference. When it was over, I called out to the director and said I would wait for his new film to be released. The director signed an autograph for me and said thank you."

There were only a few people that Li Qiutang could meet in Cannes, and his main job was still a judge.

Finally, it was the closing ceremony. Early that morning, the nine judges, plus the festival chairman Jacob and an assistant to artistic director Frémaux, a total of eleven people, were locked in a small conference room.

The 9 judges began to negotiate and vote on the winners of each award.

There are two sets of processes for the Cannes Film Festival award selection. One is to vote for each award in turn, and the other is to vote for the candidate films first and then allocate awards to the candidate films.

It is entirely up to the chairman to choose which set of procedures to follow.

Nanni Moretti chose to show the films in order of the awards.

The chaos is unsettling!!!

The first award Nanni Moretti took out was the Palme d'Or for Best Film. He nominated Haneke's "Amour", but was opposed by five judges including Li Qiutang. Even Jacob himself opposed giving the Palme d'Or to "Amour".

The other judges also put forward their own candidates for the Palme d'Or, but no single film received a majority of votes.

Program ratings? Media ratings? Audience response?

Who among these judges is not rebellious? The more aggressively the media in the program press hypes you up, the more they will go against you.

It’s no news that a Cannes favorite must die.

The nine judges debated for more than two hours about the Palme d'Or alone. Li Qiutang wanted to give the Palme d'Or to "The Hunt". It's not that "Love" is bad, "Love" is very good and profound, but Li Qiutang would rather give a trophy to Thomas Vinterberg, who is in his early 9s. Haneke already has a Palme d'Or, and a second Palme d'Or would not bring him anything.

In exchange, Li Qiutang was willing to support "Amour" to win the Best Actor award - Chairman Nanni Moretti was extremely fond of "Amour" and said that if possible, he would be willing to give "Amour" the Palme d'Or, Best Actor and Best Actress awards.

But Nanni Moretti rejected Li Qiutang's offer and insisted on giving the Palme d'Or to Haneke.

There were three rounds of voting for the Palme d'Or, and Li Qiutang opposed Nanni Moretti every time. To no avail, the Palme d'Or had to be shelved for the time being.

For the Best Director Award, Li Qiutang was nominated for "Love", while British independent director Andrea Arnold still pushed for "Bright Side of the Clouds".

Arnold's nomination was supported by the other three judges, but Chairman Moretti still did not like the film.

The nine judges began to debate about their favorite movies.

From the text to the afterword, Li Qiutang pointed out that "A Brighter Summer Day" has several shortcomings. In a word, he doesn't like this movie. He even said: "I would rather vote for "Holy Motors".

"Holy Motors" caused great divisions within the jury and was also polarized in the media reviews of the film festival.

But Andrea Arnold's determination pried open the mouth of Chairman Moretti. After an hour of heated debate, "A Brighter Future" won the support of Moretti, but Li Qiutang still voted against it.

The judges of every award will argue, and not only the judges argue, but sometimes Jacob will also join in.

After reviewing for a long time, no French film won an award! This made him very unhappy and even a little angry.

The judges argued until 5 p.m. before leaving the meeting room. The list of winners had already been sealed in a confidential envelope.

The closing red carpet has begun.

"Floating City Mystery" and "Dangerous Liaisons" did not receive recalls from the organizing committee, and the Chinese-speaking army had already returned home ahead of schedule with countless productions.

But Gong Li appeared on the red carpet as an invited award presenter, and Li Qiutang was also on the jury, so Chinese-language filmmakers still had some face.

…………

Gong Li went on stage to present the Best Actor award.

"Mads Mikkelsen, The Hunt."

Li Qiutang really couldn't win the Palme d'Or.

Best Director: "Carlos Reygadas, "The End of the World."

Palme d'Or. "Amour, Michael Haneke."

Everyone stood up to see Michael Haneke off to the stage to receive his award.

Tonight's list of winners seemed incredible to the media. "A Brighter Summer Day", which was criticized a lot in the media circle, actually won the Best Director Award, while the highly anticipated French local film "Holy Motors" did not win anything.

The jury press conference after the award ceremony was full of tension. Moretti did not respond to reporters with diplomatic rhetoric, but answered every sharp question seriously.

Regarding the fact that "Holy Motors", which was well received by the French local media, did not win the first prize, Moretti said: "The jury did not reach a unanimous opinion on this film."

A reporter asked Li Qiutang: "No Chinese films were shortlisted for the main competition this year, and the two films shortlisted for other categories also lost. Can we say that Chinese art films are at a low ebb?"

Domestic art films are indeed in a low ebb, but on the international stage, Li Qiutang cannot say this: "It is unscientific to use film festival nominations and awards as the standard for judging the current state of Chinese art films. French films also had no success this year, which doesn't mean anything." The latter sentence is really poisonous.

Li Qiutang stayed in Cannes for one more day to do some final interviews, and then spent two days in Paris, visiting all the brand stores he could see, from Cartier to Chaumet to Tiffany to Dior, and taking away a picture album from each store.

Two days later, Li Qiutang returned to China.

(End of this chapter)