Chapter 65: Strength and Luck Coexist

Having won the Best Director award at Venice, Babak Payami was visibly very emotional.

This was his second feature film. According to him, his life had been quite unsatisfactory; born in Tehran, Iran, he followed his parents, who worked in foreign trade, to live in Afghanistan for a long time, and then pursued a master's degree in film studies at the University of Toronto in Canada.

After graduation, due to suppression by the authorities, he had no opportunity to film for ten years and could only return to Toronto to work at a multinational corporation...

The filming of this movie was also extremely difficult; only with the help of funding from Canada and Italy was he able to return to his home country to complete the shoot.

Well, it was clear that Director Babak Payami was indeed very emotional, as his words were contradictory and incoherent.

Someone who could afford to study abroad and hold a position at a multinational corporation—no matter how difficult things were, shouldn't he be better off than most Iranians?

This life, even if not smooth sailing, could absolutely not be called unsatisfactory.

Hmm, long live understanding.

This movie is roughly about a female supervisor who keeps lobbying voters in the barren desert regions of Iran, adopting a man-to-man strategy for every voter, swearing to get the ballots into her hands...

To summarize, an Iranian who grew up in Afghanistan, studied in the "democratic" country of Canada, returned after his studies, and with the help of foreign funds, shot a movie promoting democratic systems in Iran.

Ballots represent the democratic system, the female supervisor represents women's rights, and the story takes place in the Middle East, in Iran—with buffs stacked like this, it would be hard not to win an award.

Next to be presented is the Grand Jury Prize.

Cao Yang felt that if, with so many forces intervening, the film festival chairman Alberto Barbera still hadn't been swayed, then the Grand Jury Prize would be the most likely one to get—on the premise of guaranteeing the film's quality. If it were just a double-yolk egg for Best Actress, the combined forces of so many parties would be too useless.

The presenter on stage read: "The winner of the 58th Venice Film Festival Grand Jury Prize is, Ulrich Seidl, 'Dog Days'."

After speaking, the presenter looked down at the stage. Cao Yang's heart was about to jump out; could there still be an "and"?

No, only one movie, "Dog Days," won the Grand Jury Prize.

Cao Yang couldn't help but look at Old Tian beside him. Old Tian was staring at the stage with a somewhat stiff expression, but from his tightly clenched fists, one could tell that Old Tian was not as calm as he appeared on the surface.

Old Tian was an old hand; what Cao Yang could think of, he couldn't possibly have missed.

On the contrary, Yu Feihong and Liu Ye on the other side were smiling the whole time. They were both very satisfied with tonight's harvest and probably never thought about how much high hope Cao Yang and Old Tian had placed in this movie.

The Tianya Forum was still discussing Yu Feihong's Venice Best Actress award. No one expected that the Four Huadan, who had been selected by the media less than a year ago, would have their balance broken by Li Xiaoran, vaguely turning into two Qingyi and three Huadan.

That's right, the press releases for International Zhang had long since stopped acknowledging the so-called Four Huadan. Ever since Li Xiaoran's rise, their press releases now all claimed they were Great Qingyi.

In traditional Chinese theater, the Qingyi focuses on singing, is dignified and serious, and often plays virtuous wives and good mothers; the Huadan focuses on recitation and acting, is agile and clever, and often plays young women.

The Qingyi has a higher social status, while the Huadan can represent characters of lower social status.

Now you can see the difference, right?

Now that Yu Feihong has also won the Venice Best Actress award, it is estimated that there will be no shortage of tearing each other apart, and it is unknown whether it will end up as two Qingyi and four Huadan, or three Qingyi and three Huadan.

Those night owls on the Tianya Forum were discussing this with great fervor.

Generally, the gossip about these female stars, especially the gossip and tearing apart of the most famous female stars in the country, is what the vast number of netizens love to see most.

Everyone sticks to their own views and opinions, no one can convince anyone else, arguing until their faces are red on the internet, wishing they could slap the other person to death with their keyboards.

The editors of the three major portals felt that the awards ceremony was nearing its end. Today's news was already explosive enough; one Best Newcomer and one Best Actress could already be considered one of the best results imaginable.

Secretly praising Cao Yang for being awesome, they left a miserable intern to follow up on the final results, and off to get off work they went.

Then, while the Tianya community was arguing about three Qingyi or two Qingyi, suddenly a post instantly left the arguing parties dumbfounded.

"Holy crap! Cao Yang won the Golden Lion!" "I fucking dare not even think about it, Cao Yang won the Venice Golden Lion!"

"Grass grass grass... Golden Lion, brothers, that son of a bitch Cao Yang won the Venice Golden Lion!"

This person posted three posts in a row, which shows their excitement.

"Is it true? Is the news from the poster accurate? I just checked Sina and Sohu, and I didn't see any reports."

"I just went to check too, didn't see their latest news."

"Is it fake? Why haven't I seen any reports?"

"Go check quickly, Sina has updated the latest news."

"It can't be, it can't be!"

The number one person in the circle was extremely angry, gritting their teeth as they clicked on the Sina webpage. Instantly, a short message popped up: "Cao Yang bravely wins the 58th Venice International Film Festival Best Film Golden Lion Award!"

——Intern reporter Li Xueyi.

"Go to hell!"

!

The number one person in the circle kicked the computer desk, only hating that the protagonist of the news wasn't themselves.

At this time, the interns of the other two portals were on the phone with their editors. With such big news, should we follow the plan and just give a short bulletin, or should we report it as a priority?

The key is that Cao Yang unexpectedly won the Golden Lion. If we only give a short bulletin, wouldn't that be unjustifiable?

If we report it as a priority, which piece should we use? We didn't prepare much in advance.

The editors of NetEase and Sohu were furious. Can't you fucking send out a short bulletin first and then call me?

I haven't even left the office building yet. Now it's fine, no need to get off work tonight, there's plenty to be busy with.

The moment the presenter read out "Cao Yang, 'Empty Room'," Cao Yang was not as excited as he had imagined. He calmly straightened his jacket, and before he could even stand up, he was hugged directly by the excited Yu Feihong.

Old Tian, who had stood up, was originally prepared to hug Cao Yang, but as soon as he stretched out his hands, Cao Yang was snatched away by someone else.

Who says Liu Ye has no emotional intelligence? Seeing Old Tian turn around and stretch out his hands, he twisted his waist and stretched out his long arms from a position two people away, hugging Old Tian in an awkward posture, and said excitedly: "Golden Lion, we are the Golden Lion!"

This year's Golden Lion was another double-yolk egg. Not only Cao Yang's "Empty Room," but also the Indian female director Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding" shared the Best Film Golden Lion Award.

So, as long as the film quality passes, political correctness is truly a sharp weapon for winning awards. No wonder there were three female judges out of the seven on the jury this year. This is a rare occurrence; it turns out it was to ensure female directors win awards.

A double-yolk egg does not diminish the gold content of the Golden Lion, and it is not the only year with a double-yolk egg.

In the history of the Venice Film Festival, there have been 13 double-yolk Golden Lion awards so far, which were the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 24th, 27th, 37th, 50th, and 51st editions. This year is the 58th.

The most recent Golden Lion double-yolk egg was the 51st Venice Film Festival in 1994, which gave the Best Film Golden Lion Award to Tsai Ming-liang's "Vive L'Amour" and Milcho Manchevski's "Before the Rain."

Not only the Venice Film Festival, but Cannes and Berlin have also awarded many double-yolk top prizes, not much less than Venice.

The 46th Cannes International Film Festival awarded the Palme d'Or to Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" and Jane Campion's "The Piano."

That's right, the Palme d'Or that Kaige won was also a double-yolk egg at the time.

The Berlin Film Festival has even awarded a hat trick.

So, stop criticizing the Golden Rooster's double-yolk eggs at every turn; no one is more noble than anyone else.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 66 =====