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, focusing on art and avant-garde films; the Cannes Film Festival has the largest market in Europe, focusing on films that combine commerce and art; while the Berlin Film Festival is most concerned with politics and social issues.

But for short films, the difference isn't actually that big, because everyone's attitude toward short films is that they are experimental works, mainly to encourage new directors. As long as one can see the spirituality and brilliance of the work, they won't be picky about the subject matter.

Compared to the bright sunshine of the Cannes Film Festival in May, Berlin in February is somewhat biting.

However, the public security in Romance-language countries is very poor. Large cities in France and Italy are often dens of thieves, and Cannes and Venice are no exceptions. Reporters' experiences of losing things at the two major film festivals are endless, and there are even inside thieves stealing things in the press centers.

Berlin is quite good in this regard; it is very safe, and the film festival venue is located in the city center, so there is no need to worry about security issues even when walking at night.

Wu Yuchen had brought Jiang Qinqin to Berlin 5 days ago, and they had also attended the Berlin Film Festival opening ceremony the day before yesterday. No, it should be said they were bystanders.

The red carpet and such were the treatment enjoyed by those high-profile films, such as the great director Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility" or "Dead Man Walking" starring Sean Penn, while Wu Yuchen was just a newcomer director who made short films.

Moreover, "Bus 44" wouldn't enjoy any dedicated exhibition hall or promotion; all the shortlisted short films shared one exhibition hall and were screened in turns.

Of course, it wasn't without benefits; the attention on short films was more concentrated. For example, a small group of people just liked watching these short films under 30 minutes, so they would just congregate in this hall, able to watch several times more stories and creativity in the same amount of time as a feature film.

At this moment, a short film had just finished screening in the hall, and two men were chatting during this break.

"The 'Forgotten Toys' just now was pretty good."

"It had touching parts, but it's an animation. Honestly, I'd rather see some realistic types."

"This is already the best one I've seen today. It's better than that 'Alkali, Iowa'; that short film was clearly aiming for the Teddy Award at first glance."

"Uh, it seems like there have been more and more same-sex type films in recent years."

The Berlin Film Festival specifically set up a "Teddy Award" in 1987 to encourage LGBT-themed films, which are actually mainly same-sex films. Well, this version in Europe is much further ahead than in America.

The two chatted for a while, and when the cinema went dark again, they saw the name of the next short film: "Bus 44."

11 minutes later, the film came to an end, but the entire hall remained silent.

Until the music faded and the lights came on, the hall was like a calm lake that had suddenly exploded.

"My God!"

"Jesus!"

"The darkness and brilliance of human nature!"

"This is absolutely the best short film I've seen this year!"

"What the hell kind of damn story is this!"

"Why did that guy laugh at the end? Is he also a bad guy? Is he an accomplice of the robbers?!"

"You idiot, how could he be a bad guy!"

"That laugh at the end gave me goosebumps!"

"I want to see this director. Is this really a true story?!"

Unlike the relaxed chatting after the previous films, this time some people were exclaiming, some were shouting, and others were demanding that it be replayed immediately or that they meet the director.

This situation would naturally be noticed by the staff and fed back to the organizers.

However, Wu Yuchen wasn't in the exhibition hall. At this moment, he had just taken Jiang Qinqin to attend a screening of a film from the mainland, "The Sun Has Ears," adapted from Mo Yan's novel—a story about a woman, a mountain bandit, and her husband.

This film had the style of the Fifth Generation directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, making it impossible for people to tell it was shot by a Hong Kong director. Also, because this director was from Hong Kong, even though it eventually won the Silver Bear for Best Director at this festival, it didn't cause any ripples in the mainland.

What actually interested Wu Yuchen was the film's producer, Zhang Yu, a popular female star who was a household name in the mainland 10 years ago.

She was the female lead of the mainland's first romance film, "Evening Rain," and also offered the first kiss on the mainland screen; she was incredibly popular at the time. 10 years ago, stars like Liu Xiaoqing and Siqin Gaowa were all ranked behind her.

Look, isn't Jiang Qinqin currently pulling her for an autograph with a face full of admiration!

There were quite a few Chinese people here to support the screening, such as Zhang Fengyi, the lead actor of the mainland entry "Sun Valley," and the Taiwanese director Edward Yang. Zhang Yu's status was established, and she had even developed her career in Taiwan for two years.

Both mainland crews were quite surprised by the suddenly appearing Wu Yuchen and Jiang Qinqin. Only after learning that they had signed up for the short film section themselves did they understand. They didn't look down on them and said quite a few encouraging words; after all, everyone was a compatriot in a foreign land.

By the time Wu Yuchen brought Jiang Qinqin back to the hotel in the evening, he discovered that staff members were specifically waiting for him.

"Wu Dao, we've finally waited for you!" Because Wu Yuchen didn't have a cell phone, the staff hadn't been able to contact him before.

"Dear Wu Dao, could you please stay a bit longer in the short film exhibition hall tomorrow? Many viewers today, after watching your film, want to communicate with you."

After the staff left, Jiang Qinqin, who didn't understand English, asked:

"What did he come to find us for?"

Wu Yuchen picked up Jiang Qinqin, spun her around, and said with a smile:

"It's probably because you're about to become famous!"

Three days after the screenings, the short film exhibition hall had changed its appearance; the organizers had put up posters for 5 short films, including "Bus 44." At the same time, the screening times and frequency for these 5 short films had greatly increased, occupying half of the entire exhibition hall.

Now Wu Yuchen didn't have time to take Jiang Qinqin to see other movies. The two of them waited in the exhibition hall, welcoming many people every day who asked various questions. Jiang Qinqin also slowly changed from being slightly flustered and unable to say anything at the beginning to generously taking photos with people and communicating with them using a few common phrases.

And when the film festival reached its 5th day, someone had already taken the initiative to come to them to buy the screening rights. The offer wasn't high—20,000 US dollars.

This made Wu Yuchen happy; having someone come to buy it was a good sign!

Even at 20,000 US dollars, compared to the price of 30,000 RMB, it had already increased more than fivefold.

However, Wu Yuchen naturally declined for the time being, only saying that everything would be discussed after the film festival's awards ceremony ended.

He wasn't a fool. From the situation in the short film exhibition hall over the past few days, it was clear that "Bus 44" was definitely one of the most popular, with the highest topicality and level of discussion!

Although the audience doesn't represent the jury, it could indicate that the chances of "Bus 44" winning an award had greatly increased.

The day before the awards ceremony, the distributor had already raised the price to 40,000 US dollars, but Wu Yuchen still remained patient.

That afternoon, he received a notice from the organizing committee inviting "Bus 44" to attend the final day's awards ceremony.

After hanging up the phone, Wu Yuchen excitedly waved his fist.

Although all the shortlisted crews could go to the closing ceremony, if the organizing committee specifically notified you to attend, it meant you were definitely going to win an award, regardless of the size of the award.

The Berlin Film Festival short film section had three awards: the Golden Bear, the Silver Bear, and the Teddy Bear.

Among them, the Teddy Bear for short films was awarded to same-sex themed works, which "Bus 44" had absolutely nothing to do with.

Therefore, it was very obvious: at least one Silver Bear!