Chapter 93: Reactions from All Sides and Returning to the Country

On the night the awards ceremony concluded, news of Wei Jin winning the Palme d'Or and Ceng Li taking home the Cannes Best Actress Award had already appeared online.

Many night-owl netizens noticed it immediately, which instantly caused a huge stir.

"The first Cannes Best Actress from the mainland! The youngest Palme d'Or winner in history! Director Wei is awesome, Big Pear is mighty!"

"Congratulations to Boss Wei for taking the Palme d'Or, the people of Beijing send their congratulations!"

"My god, she really won Best Actress? Big Pear is amazing!"

"Boss Wei is going to be the hottest commodity in the film and television circle now; aren't the actresses going to make a move?"

"."

Unlike the unserious netizens looking for fun, many media articles still focused on praising the two points of the first mainland Cannes Best Actress and the youngest Palme d'Or winner in history.

"It is reported that at 10:30 PM local time in France on the 28th, the 59th Cannes Film Festival came to a close. Our country's famous young director Wei Jin won the Palme d'Or for 'Room', and the famous young actress Ceng Li won the Best Actress Award for the first time for her brilliant performance in 'Room'."

"The youngest Palme d'Or winner in history is born—Wei Jin from the 2002 Director Department of Beijing Film Academy."

"The first mainland Cannes Best Actress, the honor goes to Central Academy of Drama."

"."

Regarding the news coming back from Cannes, the reactions from all sides were not the same.

Mango TV took advantage of the momentum of Ceng Li's award to directly launch the official promotion for 'My Love from the Star'.

Beijing Film Academy followed its old tradition, making banners overnight and hanging them up early the next morning: "Warmly congratulate our school's 2002 Director Department outstanding student Wei Jin for winning the Palme d'Or at the 59th Cannes Film Festival."

This time, the neighboring Central Academy of Drama was not to be outdone; almost at the same time Beijing Film Academy hung its banner, they also hung one:

"Warmly congratulate our school's 1996 Acting Department alumna Ceng Li for winning the Best Actress Award at the 59th Cannes Film Festival."

For a time, the Beijing Film Academy students coming to school felt a sense of pride looking at their own banner, but when they turned their heads and saw the neighbor's banner, they felt a chill in their hearts and couldn't help but sigh: Why do our school's outstanding directors all have to find actors from the neighboring school to film? Is the Beijing Film Academy Acting Department really that incompetent? On the Central Academy of Drama side, it was naturally firecrackers ringing and drums beating; the first Cannes Best Actress from the mainland, this is a major honor that can be recorded in school history. The school leaders of the Central Academy of Drama were already thinking about whether to invite Ceng Li back to school to hang some honorary title.

The news of Wei Jin and Ceng Li winning awards, while cheering a crowd of fans, also forced the media and critics to re-examine Wei Jin.

For a long time, the media and critics have had mixed reviews of Wei Jin.

As the boss of a domestic cutting-edge film and television company and a director with high box office sales, Wei Jin's relationship with the media was generally quite pleasant, with few discordant voices.

Wei Jin did not care about the media's tendency to flatter the high and trample the low; he believed that as long as he remained successful, the media would only have praise for him, just like now.

But in the critical circle, Wei Jin's repeated praise for commercial films was actually not well-received by this group of people. The awkward situation encountered before 'Painted Skin' was actually somewhat similar to Feng Dapao's; as a director loved by audiences and a director with high box office, his reputation in the critical circle was average.

However, Wei Jin's status was different from Feng Dapao's after all; he was also a film and television company boss. Relatively speaking, his situation was much better than Feng Dapao's; at least most of the time, they would still give him some face and award him some consolation prizes.

But now it was different. Wei Jin had suddenly won the Cannes Palme d'Or, an honor that many directors of the older generation had worked their whole lives to obtain but could not. This group of people was now collectively silent. Compared to the media's flattery and the critical circle's silence, the news of Wei Jin and Ceng Li winning at Cannes seemed to cause an even greater shock in the circle.

Many companies in the industry were already envious that Wei Jin had won an award and gained fame this time, and could also harvest sky-high overseas copyrights, so they also began to look for some projects with the potential to win awards.

But more wanted to cooperate with Wei Jin, and the desire for cooperation was unprecedentedly strong.

Actresses went without saying; after all, filming Wei Jin's commercial movies could guarantee box office, and filming his art films could win awards, making him simply the best partner for cooperation.

The actresses of the Central Academy of Drama naturally contacted school teachers, preparing to find a breakthrough through Ceng Li.

Those from Beijing Film Academy went without saying; they had already made up their minds that they must show up at Wei Jin's graduation ceremony this time to build connections.

As for those from Shanghai Theatre Academy and the "wild path" ones, they were mostly showing goodwill to Wei Jin Company; there were quite a few hanging around the company entrance these past two days.

Currently, the mainstream actress group in the film and television industry was still the post-70s generation; after all, among the post-80s actresses, only Liu Yifei had made some name for herself, so the competition was very fierce.

The Four Dan Actresses and Two Bing, Li Xiaoran, Jiang Qinqin, Chen Hao, Xu Qing, Ning Jing, and so on, were so envious and jealous of Ceng Li; the first Cannes Best Actress from the mainland, why was it her! Wei Jin naturally did not know about the disturbances in the country; at this time, he had already taken the crew members and boarded the plane back to the country.

The overseas copyright quote for 'Room' was quite high, with a total price reaching 13 million USD. Chen Zhiming was grinning from ear to ear, but strangely, Wei Jin did not choose to trade, but instead entrusted the public relations team to continue participating in other international film festivals.

His ambition was already clear; this was aimed at the Oscar Best Foreign Language Film. Wei Jin thought very clearly that even if he didn't win in the end, the copyright price of this film wouldn't drop too much.

What's more, the film's production cost was only 10 million, most of which was Wei Jin and Ceng Li's salary.

This time Wei Jin only took a base salary of 3 million. Due to her explosion in popularity last year, Ceng Li's salary had now risen to 2 million, only slightly lower than Zhou Xun. After winning this award, Ceng Li's salary would have to rise significantly.

So why not give it a try and let himself, let Li Jie, completely become a god? After more than ten hours of flight, Wei Jin and his party returned to the country; it was already May 30th.

Just as they walked out of the security passage, a dense crowd surrounded them.

"Director Wei, may I ask if you have anything to say about winning the Palme d'Or?"

"Director Wei, may I ask when the movie will be released?"

"Ms. Ceng, may I ask what your thoughts are on winning the Cannes Best Actress?"

"Big Pear, I love you!"

"."

Reporters surrounded and intercepted Wei Jin and Ceng Li, and fans holding cheering signs also rushed forward. Fortunately, there were security guards to maintain order, otherwise, there might really have been some trouble.

Seeing this situation, the group had no choice but to stop and accept interviews.

"Everyone, please don't crowd, pay attention to safety. We will hold a press conference through the company for relevant information, and please contact the company for relevant interviews, thank you."

As the company spokesperson, Chen Zhiming dismissed the reporters with a few simple words, and the group broke away from the crowded crowd and got into the cars sent by the company.

"It's really too crazy."

Ceng Li looked through the car window at the reporters and fans who were still holding long guns and short cannons and chasing relentlessly, feeling lingering fear.

"It's very normal; after all, we made big news this time. Li Jie, how will you reward me tonight?"

Wei Jin thought it was perfectly normal; chasing hot topics was the media's duty, and he started flirting with Ceng Li instead.

"You have no proper behavior, Li Na is still here."

"Cough, Boss, congratulations."

Li Na, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, said awkwardly. The boss was good at everything, but he was too romantic.

The young girl had been with the company for almost three years. This time, as an administrative secretary, she followed the motorcade to welcome Wei Jin.

"Thank you, Li Na, how has the company been during this time?"

Wei Jin had been away for nearly 20 days, and he was not very clear about the progress of many things, so he asked this question.

Immediately, Li Na began her work report. Listening to the report, Wei Jin nodded from time to time; it seemed the company was operating well.

'Lost on Journey' had already been taken off the screen, with a final box office of 148 million. It seemed the May Day schedule still had good potential.

The filming of *The Temptation to Go Home* is currently in its final stages, and it is estimated that it will wrap up in about ten days or so.

*Beauty's Rival in Palace* has also officially started filming, with an initial production cycle set for three months, estimated to wrap up at the end of July.

*Time-Space Cohabitation* completed its post-production long ago and has already been scheduled for release on July 28th.

*My Love from the Star* is scheduled for release on June 6th.

The recruitment of contestants for *Boys and Girls Rush Forward* is nearing completion, and recording is expected to begin in two weeks.

Upon hearing the last piece of news, Wei Jin began to ponder that it was time to recruit a new Assistant. The second update of the day, please subscribe, please follow, please add to your library, please recommend, thank you everyone!

(End of this chapter)