Chapter 398: Planting a Flag

In 2001, after serving for twenty-one years as the president of the Berlin Film Festival, the Swiss Moritz de Hadeln retired with honors, and Dieter Kosslick took over as the new president.

Moritz truly retired at the height of his success.

When he first took office in 1980, the Berlin Film Festival was beset by internal and external troubles and was nearly unable to continue.

The main reason was the fallout from "The Deer Hunter" the previous year, which led to a boycott of the festival by socialist countries; eventually, after much running about, he successfully opened a breakthrough from East Germany and repaired relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries.

After more than twenty years of development, Moritz determined the current form of the Berlin Film Festival and established its status.

This made the Berlin Film Festival one of the three major European film festivals, and the Golden Bear Award became one of the most prestigious international film awards.

In 2001, as soon as Dieter Kosslick took office, what he received was a Berlin Film Festival that was at its peak.

However, this period was also the final glory of the Berlin Film Festival, or rather, the three major European festivals.

In recent years, as Hollywood has expanded its territory globally, the Oscars have become the most influential film awards in practice, and the influence of the three major European festivals has decreased year by year.

Especially in the last two years, even the Cannes Film Festival, once the most influential of the three, has begun to open its arms, using commercialization and embracing Hollywood to increase its own influence.

This is also a problem that the Venice Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival have to face.

Everyone is using their own "clever tricks" just to stabilize their declining influence.

For example, this year, Dieter Kosslick adopted three tricks he considered very brilliant.

The first was to invite Cao Yang to bring his new film to the Berlin Film Festival; it was even more of a draw since the film's lead actor was an action superstar like Cheng Long.

To be honest, before inviting Cao Yang, Dieter Kosslick only thought of Cao Yang as the most influential major director among the global youth, bar none.

Cao Yang's arrival meant the attention of the global youth demographic.

Cheng Long's arrival meant the attention of his global fanbase.

However, Dieter Kosslick did not expect that Cao Yang would give him another huge surprise—"Pirates of the Caribbean" was a massive global hit, and Cao Yang's attention and discussion levels were at their absolute peak!

For Dieter Kosslick, this was absolutely a huge, unexpected joy.

The second was to invite the famous Hollywood director Martin Scorsese; old Martin won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director in 2006 for "The Departed," and as a long-time partner of Leonardo DiCaprio, his influence is still very significant.

Plus, Martin Scorsese's new film was a music documentary about the Rolling Stones, and as Dieter Kosslick expected, the "old guys" of the Rolling Stones all came to Berlin.

This invisibly allowed the Berlin Film Festival, at least this edition, to have its attention and influence cover the "elderly" demographic as well.

The third was that Dieter Kosslick had the Berlin Film Festival return to its traditional theme this year—politics and social relevance.

There are two benefits to doing this.

The explicit benefit is to let the Berlin Film Festival return to the "Berlin Film Festival" that people recognize.

The implicit benefit is being able to use the excuse of politics and social relevance to prevent Cao Yang's "Manchester by the Sea" from winning the Golden Bear—no matter how well the film is shot or how deeply it digs into human nature, it doesn't fit the festival's theme.

If it doesn't fit the festival's theme, how can you give it the Golden Bear?

To be honest, it wasn't that Dieter Kosslick didn't want to give Cao Yang the Golden Bear; even under pressure from all of Europe, he never thought about tricking Cao Yang out of it.

There was no way around it; Cao Yang is not Zhang Yimou, nor is he any other director who is one award short of a Grand Slam.

Cao Yang's influence is simply too great.

He doesn't just have influence in the art-house circle; he is also the most influential major director in Hollywood, and that kind of energy is far greater than that of directors who only hang around the art-house circuit.

Dieter Kosslick, or rather the three major European festivals, dares to manipulate those art-house directors.

But it is really difficult to manipulate a director like Cao Yang, who has status in the world art-house circle, huge influence in Hollywood, and a major power behind him.

Especially since Cao Yang is also good at promoting people and is a "living god" to many actors.

How do you manipulate a director who is so well-rounded in almost every aspect?

Dieter Kosslick originally had a good plan: deal with one edition at a time, first "grab" Cao Yang, and use his influence to boost the Berlin Film Festival's attention as much as possible.

He planned to wait another ten or eight years, and once the Berlin Film Festival's attention was maintained, he would "crown" Cao Yang, making him the fourth Grand Slam director in the world.

By then, he would award Cao Yang the Golden Bear one day and announce his resignation from all his Berlin Film Festival posts the next, taking the pressure on himself alone.

As long as he could maintain or even improve the Berlin Film Festival's influence, he would have lived up to this position.

Just like Moritz!

Moritz had always been Dieter Kosslick's idol and the goal he wanted to surpass.

What a pity.

The idea was good.

But after walking the red carpet with Cao Yang, Dieter Kosslick's mood was really not very good.

He was even a bit distracted during interviews backstage, and after giving a few simple, perfunctory answers, he returned to his office alone.

Cao Yang's words made him have to think more.

If Cao Yang was dissatisfied with this Berlin Film Festival, and from now on only went to the Venice and Cannes film festivals, and kept winning awards at those two festivals, Berlin would be truly fucking embarrassed.

Actually, it wouldn't just be an embarrassing matter.

The more awards Cao Yang wins at Venice and Cannes in the future, the deeper Berlin will be nailed to the pillar of shame—everyone in the world will think, why doesn't a director as influential as Cao Yang, who has won countless awards at Venice and Cannes, go to Berlin?

Hmm, there must be something wrong with Berlin!

And this is the ideal scenario where Cao Yang doesn't use his own influence to stop those big stars from attending the Berlin Film Festival.

Never underestimate the influence of a world-class director who has awards, box office, and is good at promoting people.

As long as Cao Yang speaks up, he believes there are many actors in Hollywood who, for the sake of a chance to work with Cao Yang, would not come to Berlin again.

At least while Cao Yang's influence remains, this kind of thing will definitely happen—compared to the Oscars, Hollywood actors don't value the three major European festivals that much, and it's really not worth offending Cao Yang for the sake of them.

And as for Berlin, in today's world where Hollywood's influence is growing, it has already begun to compromise with Hollywood.

Just in this edition of the festival, including the opening and closing films, the United States has 8 films shortlisted, ranking first among all countries and accounting for almost one-third.

If Hollywood stars stop coming, what will the consequences be?

Most importantly, after Cao Yang stops coming to Berlin, will Venice and Cannes boycott him or cater to him?

Dieter Kosslick can say for sure that they will 100% cater to him, and they will keep giving him awards, making Berlin look bad.

If this could cause Berlin's credibility to plummet, making it unable to compete with Venice and Cannes ever again, that would be even better.

Dieter Kosslick knows the thoughts of Venice and Cannes too well, because that is exactly how he thinks.

As a competitor, if you don't step on them, are you going to wait for them to ride on your head?

Dieter Kosslick had specifically watched "Manchester by the Sea," and more than once.

Whether it is the actors' performances, the director's shooting style and lens language, or the storytelling and the exploration and excavation of human nature, this film is of an extremely high standard.

It would be fine if the film's quality were average and didn't meet the requirements for the Golden Bear.

The key is that this film is qualified to compete for the Golden Bear, which makes it difficult.

If this Berlin Film Festival cannot satisfy Cao Yang, what if he develops the idea of giving up the Grand Slam, never comes to Berlin again, and turns to only going to Cannes and Venice?

What to do?

How can Cao Yang be satisfied?

It's hard.

At this moment, Dieter Kosslick wished more than anything that the three major European festivals could unite and act in concert, only then could they be fearless...