Chapter 76

Why does Cao Yang tend to seek out actresses who are currently sad or distressed?

According to experience, when in a state of sadness or distress, mental fluctuations are greater, and the effect of getting into character is better.

Since he has decided on the film to shoot and decided to produce another Best Actress, he must certainly make every effort to prepare and try his best to ensure nothing goes wrong.

Cao Yang considers Gao Yuanyuan an important backup candidate; now that he has put out word that he is making a film, as long as they have the schedule, domestic actresses will absolutely be infinitely enthusiastic.

There is no need to rush now; the script hasn't even been written yet. It won't be too late to slowly scout for candidates while writing the script.

On September 18, the 24th Hundred Flowers Awards announced its list of winners, and the 21st Golden Rooster Awards announced its list of nominations.

Currently, the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers are not held in alternating years, but once every year. Starting from 2005, the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers will be awarded in alternating years, with the Hundred Flowers Awards held in even-numbered years.

The Hundred Flowers Awards gave Best Actress to Gong Li, and "On the Beach at Night Alone" became one of the three Best Feature Films.

This will likely be controversial when the time comes; Li Xiaoran won the Berlin Best Actress award this year, and the film's box office was over 20 million—how could she lose the popular vote to Gong Li?

Gong Li had no films released this year; the award-winning film was still the one released in February of last year.

But, well, it's the Hundred Flowers Awards; since they say it's a popular vote, let's just treat it as a popular vote.

However, if she can't get the Hundred Flowers Best Actress despite being a Berlin Best Actress, the Golden Rooster Best Actress is likely in the bag; otherwise, it would be a disservice to the title of Berlin Best Actress.

The Golden Rooster won't suppress Li Xiaoran, who won the Berlin Best Actress, just to show off its authority; otherwise, it would become an international joke.

"On the Beach at Night Alone" received five nominations from the Golden Rooster Awards: Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Cinematography.

This film has been criticized by many for having shots that are too simple, so why is there a Best Cinematography nomination?

Because when the Beijing Film Academy submitted the awards, they claimed this was a New Wave film, praised by a host of judges at the Berlin Film Festival, and is a model of New Wave cinema in recent years.

See that? A film that won the Berlin Film Festival Jury Grand Prix, and is also a model of New Wave cinema—is it too much to give it a Best Cinematography nomination?

As a New Wave film, you can say the shots of New Wave films are unique, but as a professional, you cannot say the shots are simple—are you denying New Wave cinema?

This heavy label is not something everyone can afford to bear.

Hou Ke told Cao Yang in private that, in fact, at the beginning, the Golden Rooster internal committee only gave two nominations: Best Directorial Debut and Best Actress; they didn't even give Best Film.

But before the nominations were announced, Cao Yang unexpectedly won the Venice Golden Lion on September 8, becoming the youngest Golden Lion-winning director in the world, and even the News Broadcast mentioned it.

What else could the Golden Rooster do?

Of course, they modified the nomination list overnight, not only changing the Best Directorial Debut award to Best Director but also giving Cao Yang's film five nominations all at once.

If they really gave the Best Directorial Debut award to a Golden Lion-winning director, it would truly become a global laughingstock.

And after announcing the nomination list, the Golden Rooster officials also tipped off the Beijing Film Academy, asking Director Cao to be sure to attend the film festival.

Generally, if the Golden Rooster tips you off to attend the awards ceremony, they will definitely give you an award.

Being able to win an award again, the school was still very happy.

However, Hou Ke did not reply to the Golden Rooster without authorization; instead, he consulted Cao Yang's opinion, asking if he was willing to attend, and said that the Golden Rooster Awards have an unwritten rule: no attendance, no award, unless there are special circumstances.

He also said that if Cao Yang really didn't want to attend, it would be fine; the school would try to find a way to make it a special circumstance...

Cao Yang was still thinking about how much prestige the Golden Rooster could add, so he said he would go when the time came.

Hou Ke left very happily.

In the blink of an eye, it was almost time for the release of "3-Iron," and Han Zong from China Film Group specifically called to set a time for everyone to discuss the film's release.

This time the film brought even more heat; even now, the media is still reporting related news, so there is no need to worry about promotion at all.

However, after Boss Han discussed it with Cao Yang, they decided to hold another tour premiere event, running through several major cities one by one. They chose Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Wuhan, and the filming location, Ludong Island. Besides that, they also selected a few media outlets to prepare for exclusive interviews.

Han Zong confidently stated that with the reputation of the Golden Lion and the existing heat, plus the popularity brought by the tour premiere, the box office would definitely break the 30 million mark.

This time, the Youth Film Studio, in conjunction with China Film Group, released 320 prints, 50 more than Cao Yang's first film; they must have sufficient confidence in the Golden Lion.

On October 1, "3-Iron" premiered in Jingcheng.

The premiere location was still chosen at the Jingcheng Theater.

This time more guests came; the Fourth Generation directors who were still slightly active all came, and most of the Fifth Generation directors were also present.

National Master Zhang Yimou even put down the filming of "Hero" and brought International Zhang and the Beijing Film Academy staff from the crew together.

Besides International Zhang, quite a few actresses with a little bit of connections came this time; they were all dressed to the nines, and their eyes lit up when they saw Cao Yang, being both humble and enthusiastic.

Cao Yang smiled, shook hands with Zhang Yimou, asked about the filming progress of "Hero," and exchanged a few polite words.

After exchanging pleasantries with National Master Zhang Yimou, Cao Yang thought that since International Zhang had come, he couldn't just ignore her, right?

Just as he was about to shake hands and exchange pleasantries, he didn't expect that before he could even reach out his hand, International Zhang directly hugged Cao Yang, acting very close, and kept congratulating Cao Yang in his ear for winning the Golden Lion, being incredibly ambiguous.

!

Are we that close? This woman is really something.

Zhang Yimou's face also darkened significantly; he gave a couple of awkward laughs and quickly led the group toward their seats.

Today, the great poet Chen Kaige didn't come; his wife, Chen Hong, came in his stead.

Chen Hong explained with some pride that Chen Kaige was doing post-production for a film at MGM in the US and really couldn't make it back this time.

Cao Yang didn't mind; a while ago when the Beijing Film Academy held a forum... no, a symposium, Chen Kaige came back, stayed in Jingcheng for two days, and then went back to the US.

Everyone knew about this.

Last October, Hollywood's MGM invested 30 million USD and invited the great poet Chen Kaige to be the director to start filming "Killing Me Softly"; this was Chen's first blockbuster film entering Hollywood.

According to him, he was well-prepared and wanted to make a big splash in Hollywood...

Chen's reputation was still very loud; before the film was even finished, Japan had already spent 4.5 million USD to buy the rights in Japan.

Not bad, at least he recouped 4.5 million in one go, and in USD at that.

Good luck to Chen; I hope he can punch Hollywood and kick the Oscars.

Alright, I hope Chen doesn't lose too badly, otherwise his Hollywood road will be cut off.

It seems I haven't heard of Chen entering Hollywood again later, so perhaps, probably, maybe it was this film that cut off his path forward.

But it doesn't matter; MGM doesn't care about this little bit of Chen's.

Last year, MGM not only invested 30 million USD for Chen to make a film, but also invested 115 million USD to invite Wu Yusen to make the war blockbuster "Windtalkers."

At this time, there were still nine years until MGM truly went bankrupt; MGM could still hold on until November 2010, so they could still afford to lose this little bit of money.

At worst, they would just enter the auction process again; it's no big deal.

(End of chapter)