Chapter 64

The three major European film festivals each have their own characteristics.

The Venice Film Festival is the world’s first international film festival, emphasizing art and avant-garde cinema; the Cannes Film Festival boasts Europe’s largest film market, favoring films that blend commerce and art; while the Berlin Film Festival focuses most on political and social themes.

But for short films, the differences aren’t significant, since everyone treats shorts as experimental works—mainly meant to encourage new directors—and as long as you can see the soul and brilliance in the work, no one cares much about the subject matter.

Compared to Cannes’ sunny May weather, February in Berlin is biting cold.

But Romance-language countries have terrible public safety. Major cities in France and Italy are often dens of thieves—Cannes and Venice are no exception; reporters constantly lose belongings at both festivals, and even the press center has insiders stealing things.

Berlin, however, is excellent in this regard—very safe. The festival venue is in the city center, and even walking at night poses no security concerns.

Wu Yuchen and Jiang Qin arrived in Berlin five days ago, and they attended the opening ceremony of the Berlin Film Festival the day before yesterday. No, they should say they merely observed it.

Red carpets are reserved for spotlight films, like Li An’s “Sense and Sensibility” or Sean Penn’s “Dead Man Walking,” while Wu Yuchen is just a newcomer directing shorts.

Moreover, “Bus 44” will not receive any special exhibition hall or promotion—all nominated shorts share one hall and play in rotation.

Of course, there are advantages: short films attract more concentrated attention. A small group of people specifically enjoy shorts under thirty minutes, gathering solely in this hall, where the same amount of time lets them experience five times as many stories and ideas.

At this moment, a short film had just finished screening, and two men chatted during the break.

“That last one, ‘The Forgotten Toy,’ wasn’t bad.”

“It had touching moments, but it’s an animated film. Honestly, I’d rather see something realistic.”

“It’s still the best one I’ve seen today. Better than ‘Alkali, Iowa,’ which clearly aimed for the Teddy Award.”

“Hmm, lately there seem to be more and more films of this same type.”

In 1987, the Berlin Film Festival established a dedicated “Teddy Award” to encourage LGBT-themed films—mostly gay films. Yeah, Europe’s version is far ahead of America’s.

After chatting a while, when the theater darkened again, they saw the title of the next short: “Bus 44.”

Eleven minutes later, the film ended, but the entire theater remained utterly silent.

Only after the music faded and the lights came on did the theater erupt like a calm lake suddenly exploding.

“My God!”

“Jesus Christ!”

“The darkness and light of humanity!”

“This is definitely the best short I’ve seen this year!”

“What the hell kind of story is this?!”

“Why did that guy laugh at the end? Is he also evil? Is he the robber’s accomplice?!”

“You idiot, how could he be evil!”

“That final laugh gave me chills!”

“I need to meet this director—is this even based on a real event?!”

Unlike before, when audiences chatted casually after screenings, now people screamed, shouted, and some even demanded the film be replayed or demanded to meet the director.

This naturally caught the staff’s attention and was reported to the organizers.

But Wu Yuchen wasn’t in the screening hall—he had just taken Jiang Qin to watch a mainland entry, “The Sun Has Ears,” adapted from Mo Yan’s novel, about a woman, mountain bandits, and her husband.

The film had the unmistakable tone of Fifth Generation directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaizi—you’d never guess it was made by a Hong Kong director. And because the director was from Hong Kong, even though he ultimately won the Silver Bear for Best Director, it caused zero stir on the mainland.

What interested Wu Yuchen was the producer—a once-famous mainland actress from ten years ago: Zhang Yu.

She was the female lead in mainland China’s first romantic film, “Lushan Love,” and delivered the mainland’s first on-screen kiss, becoming wildly popular at the time. Ten years ago, Liu Qiaojing and Siqin Gaowa were both behind her.

Just look at Jiang Qin now, starstruck, begging her for an autograph!

Many Chinese attended the screening hall—for example, Zhang Fengyi, lead actor of the mainland entry “Sunlight Canyon,” and Yang Dechang, the Hong Kong director. Zhang Yu’s status was undeniable, and she had even spent two years developing her career in Hong Kong.

The two mainland crews were surprised to see Wu Yuchen and Jiang Qin suddenly appear, but once they learned they were self-submitted short film creators, they didn’t look down on them—they offered plenty of encouragement, since everyone was a compatriot in a foreign land.

When Wu Yuchen returned to the hotel with Jiang Qin in the evening, he found a staff member waiting for him.

“Director Wu, we’ve finally found you!” Since Wu Yuchen had no phone, the staff couldn’t reach him earlier.

“Dear Director Wu, could you please stay a little longer in the short film screening hall tomorrow? Many viewers who saw your film want to speak with you.”

After the staff left, Jiang Qin, who didn’t understand English, asked:

“Why did he come to find us?”

Wu Yuchen picked up Jiang Qin, spun her around, and laughed:

“You’re about to go viral!”

Three days after the screening, the short film hall had transformed: the organizers displayed posters for five shorts, including “Bus 44,” and significantly increased the screening times and frequency of these five, occupying half the hall.

Now Wu Yuchen had no time to drag Jiang Qin to other films—they stayed in the hall daily, fielding countless questions. Jiang Qin, once flustered and speechless, gradually grew comfortable posing for photos and exchanging simple phrases with people.

By the fifth day of the festival, buyers had already come knocking, offering to purchase screening rights—for a modest $20,000.

Wu Yuchen was thrilled: someone wanting to buy was a good sign!

Even $20,000 was over five times the original production cost of 30,000 Chinese yuan.

But Wu Yuchen politely declined for now, saying everything would be discussed after the festival’s award ceremony.

He wasn’t foolish—based on the buzz in the short film hall these past days, “Bus 44” was clearly among the most popular, with the highest visibility and discussion.

Although audiences aren’t the jury, they clearly signaled that “Bus 44” had a much higher chance of winning.

The day before the awards ceremony, distributors had raised their offer to $40,000—but Wu Yuchen still held firm.

That afternoon, he received a call from the committee inviting “Bus 44” to attend the final night’s award ceremony.

After hanging up, Wu Yuchen raised his fist in excitement.

Although all nominated participants in the closing ceremony could attend, if the committee specifically invited you, it meant you were guaranteed to win an award—no matter how minor.

The Berlin Film Festival’s short film category has three awards: Golden Bear, Silver Bear, and Teddy Bear.

The Teddy Bear is awarded only to LGBT-themed shorts—“Bus 44” has nothing to do with that.

So it was clear: at least one Silver Bear!