Chapter 534: Visiting the Film Festival

Times Square, Las Vegas Boulevard, Statue of Liberty, Seattle.

The crew took a few days off, so Gu Wei and the young lady went traveling together.

In just three or four days, the two of them had a lot of fun. In the end, they were so excited that they even pretended not to hear Leonardo's call urging them to go back.

When they arrived in Seattle, the two saw promotional posters for the movie "Seattle" in many places.

I called home to ask and found out that in order to promote tourism, Seattle directly awarded the "Cultural Communication Award" to the "Seattle" crew.

After listening to Song Ge's explanation, Gu Wei felt that this was a pleasant surprise, and he also ordered that this matter be publicized in the country.

"It was promoted a long time ago, otherwise the movie's box office wouldn't have grown so rapidly."

Before we knew it, "Seattle," which still has more than a week left before it is released, has already grossed over 600 million.

You have to know that in the original time and space of this movie, it is still a bit far from 600 million.

"Well, how about we hold a cultural award after we finish filming The Revenant? Maybe it can increase the box office." Having made up his mind, Gu Wei immediately put the matter behind him. After all, there was still some time before the filming was completed, so there was no need to rush.

At this moment, his goal was to accompany his young lady and relax for a few days together.

Cities like Seattle are not as prosperous as New York, Washington and other areas.

It is technically a medium-sized city, but it is located on the Pacific coast of northwest Washington state, between Puget Sound and Lake Washington.

Therefore, most of the time throughout the year, it can be described as warm as spring.

The temperature in Seattle in April is not too high.

In the morning, the warm sunlight had already filled the entire hotel room through the window, shining on Liu Yifei and Gu Wei, filling it with a lazy feel.

"Wake up, lazy pig!"

Looking at the sleepy young lady, Gu Wei said gently.

"Well, I'll lie down for a while, you get up first..."

Hearing this, Gu Wei smiled and shook his head. He ignored her and got up to wash up.

About twenty minutes later, Gu Wei finished washing up and walked out of the bathroom, he heard the young lady shouting.

"Quick, come and check the domestic news. Zhou Xingchi and Huayi are in a lawsuit."

Gu Wei took the phone and looked at it carefully. After reading it, he said disdainfully: "These two brothers must have drunk too much. Could it be that Zhou Xingchi is only worth 80 million?"

"Yeah, those two are such bastards. Not only do they refuse to share the money, they also mock others for being greedy for money in a sarcastic way." Liu Yifei was also very angry when she saw this, and she pouted and muttered.

Gu Wei picked up the phone and made a call.

.........

On the evening of April 4, the closing ceremony of the Capital University Student Film Festival officially began.

The venue for this event is the Olympic Sports Center.

Although Gu Wei and Liu Yifei are not in the country, there are many people coming from Xingchen Film and Television.

Led by Song Ge, directors including Zhang Yimou, Ning Hao, Lu Yang, Wu Ershan, Xu Zheng and others have almost all arrived.

Several people walked together, got off the car far away, and walked towards the red carpet.

Reporters saw it from afar and swarmed over.

The reason why the reporters were so crazy was that since the New Year, Gu Wei had hardly appeared in public and had very few media interviews.

"Hello, Director Xu. Do you think Lost in Thailand can beat 1942 and win the Best Picture award?"

"Director Xu, Lost in Thailand is your second film that you directed and starred in. Are you confident that you will win the Best Director and Best Actor awards?"

The questions asked by these reporters are really meaningless!
How could Xu Zheng answer? Naturally, he gave a very official and polite answer, while striding towards the red carpet.

"Director Zhang, may I ask about Parasite..."

"Director Ning, may I ask if there is a specific completion date for your film "Partners"..."

"Director Wu, the script of Painted Skin 3 has been submitted to the General Administration for review for nearly a week. May I ask..."

Reporters followed, taking photos and asking questions.

Of course, all the questions were about movies, and Zhang Yimou, Lu Yang and others had no interest in answering them.

Instead, Wuershan answered several questions from reporters in succession and promoted "Special Identity" at the same time. After all, the purpose of coming to the film festival was just for this.

The actors and filmmakers who were in front or had just arrived were all amazed at the popularity of several directors of Xingchen Film and Television.

When Song Ge, Zhang Yimou and others entered the venue, there were naturally etiquette ladies who guided them to their seats, but they were in the first row of directors' seats.

At this moment, directors including Feng Xiaogang, Chen Kaige, Guan Hu, Wang Quanan, and Gu Changwei have already taken their seats.

After they sat down, they greeted each other and then started chatting quietly.

Mainland China’s film festivals and awards always give people a feeling of being a bit low-class.

As a result, people in the circle don't give much face, and the absence of big stars is common.

For example, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" and "The Grandmaster", which were also nominated this time, did not have any big names in attendance.

Maybe it was because of the mainland film festival that the group of Hong Kong directors felt a little resistant.

"Old Xu, you're here too." As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Zheng turned around and saw who else was there but Wang Baoqiang, so he immediately smiled and said, "Well, by the way, congratulations, Baoqiang, for being nominated for the Most Popular Actor!"

Wang Baoqiang said: "Oh, it's just a nomination. It's still unclear whether I can win the award."

Xu Zheng smiled and said, "If you are nominated, you will definitely have a chance." He then turned to Huang Bo beside him and said, "By the way, Old Huang, what are you busy with recently?"

……

At red carpet ceremonies, the less famous usually go first, and the more famous ones go last.

Like the actors who came on stage at the beginning, many of them I had never even heard of their names.

After all the guests were seated, the award ceremony officially began.

The opening dance is a must, the college student hosting group is there to set the mood, and the real main creator is the beautiful Tu Jingwei.

After a few brief remarks, he directly awarded the prize "Most Popular Actor among College Students".

Director Xu Zheng came on stage to announce the winner, and Wang Baoqiang won the award.

Wang Baoqiang has a high emotional quotient. He said in his acceptance speech: "Thank you to the College Student Film Festival for giving me this honor. I haven't even entered college yet, but I have received this honor from college students who have encouraged me. I think it is very precious."

As soon as his signature smile came out, a large group of students immediately shouted "Beijing Normal University, come to Beijing Normal University."

Wang Baoqiang laughed and said: "I want to go to university, so I'll go to whichever university accepts me."

Seeing the louder cheers from the audience, he smiled and said, "Thank you, I know you all like me. I would like to go and spend a few days at each university." The audience cheered even louder, and the guests below couldn't help laughing. The atmosphere was very good.

"It's not easy for Director Xu Zheng. He gave me such an opportunity. I tortured him from beginning to end in a movie. I tortured him to the point that he almost collapsed.

Actually, when I saw him collapse...!"

Baoqiang said this with an expression of reluctance, but suddenly smiled and said, "Actually, I'm very happy too!" The audience laughed again.

Speaking of Wang Baoqiang, he has great comedic talent, high emotional intelligence, and a high IQ. No wonder he is so successful in the entertainment industry.

After that came the Best Newcomer and Best Debut Awards. The winning actors and directors were still not very popular a few years later.

Then Wang Likun came on stage to announce the "Best Artistic Exploration Award" and "Best Viewing Effect Award".

In another time and space, the "Viewing Effect Award" actually went to "Painted Skin 2" defeating "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons".

"Painted Skin 2" in that time and space was obviously the most 3D one with only subtitles, but it was able to beat "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons", which is quite magical.

But in this time and space, it was awarded to "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" without any suspense.

It would be ridiculous if this award was taken away by any other film. After all, judging from the participating films, there is not a single capable one, or it would be more accurate to say that there is not a single famous one.

Zhou Xingchi was not present, so the representative of the production company had to go on stage to receive the award. The other party just said thank you in a very indifferent way, which was completely different from Baoqiang's funny style of making jokes.

After a song and dance, Yan Ni came on stage to announce the "Most Popular Actress among College Students", which was won by Zhang Yuqi for her role in the movie "White Deer Plain".

After a few small films or small awards, the film festival set aside a special unit called "Stories of Youth" to promote "So Young" which was released at the end of April.

From this we can see that Zhao Yanzi’s power is indeed considerable.

The original time and space should be a single-film promotion for "Partners", but since the film has not been completed yet, it is definitely not possible to promote it on stage. However, "So Young" was able to win this promotion link, which also reflects the energy behind it.

After the "Story of Youth" ended, various awards were still presented. Xu Zheng won the "Most Popular Director among College Students" and Guan Hu won the "Best Director".

Previously, Wang Baoqiang won the "Most Popular Actor among College Students" award, while Huang Bo won the "Best Actor" award.

In general, it is a scene of people sitting in a row and sharing fruits.

Add to that the occasional singing and dancing performances, and all sorts of weird participation prizes.

Although there were many distinguished guests and the awards ceremony was star-studded, it made the ceremony too long and boring.

Finally, it’s time for the last big award, Best Picture. There are five films nominated, namely: "The Grandmaster", "1942", "Lost in Thailand", "Border Storm", and "Killing".

The award presenter invited by the host is Li Xuejian. At this moment, the celebrities in the guest seats can vaguely guess who it is.

Because the entire award ceremony basically follows a rule, that is, the guests invited to draw the prizes have some connection with the winners.

Sure enough, the winning work was Feng Xiaogang's "1942".

As for the famous "The Grandmaster", since there were no decent stars to support it, the organizing committee naturally would not consider it.

Amidst thunderous applause and cheers, Feng Xiaogang went on stage to receive the award and made a long speech with a lot of polite words.

To sum up, I think I deserved the award. The College Student Film Festival is great because it shows that the film is of high quality and has substance.

After talking a lot for more than half an hour, the ceremony was finally over.

The next day, netizens started making fun of it.

Many people made comments, saying that director Feng Xiaogang is still realistic and that whoever gives you milk is your mother.

So, Feng Xiaogang, who was worried about having no topics to talk about, started fighting with netizens again.

While they were fighting, they suddenly started promoting their new movie "Personal Tailor", which stunned netizens.

Some people even mocked him, saying that it was no wonder he could be a director, he was really thick-skinned.

……

(End of this chapter)