Global Film Emperor

Chapter 138 Nomination
"Is it today? Okay, I'll keep an eye on it tonight. I know. I also wish you a nomination, Director Zhuang. To be honest, I'm actually a little nervous. Yes, filming has already started. Okay, I'll hang up now. I'll treat you to dinner when I have time."

After hanging up the phone, Lu Ze handed the phone to Wang Zixuan and told her to put it in her pocket. He then unscrewed the lid of his thermos, which contained honey and jasmine tea. Since Lu Ze became famous, his life hadn't changed much, except that he had become more particular about what he drank.

In June, Zhuang Yu submitted applications for entries to the Golden Rooster Awards and the Cannes Film Festival. Lu Ze had high hopes for the Cannes Film Festival, given the abundance of excellent art films from abroad this year.

For example, there were no fewer than ten classic art films released in 2017, such as the French film "Four Fathers", the German film "Merchant Ship", the British film "The Emerald", and the Italian film "Body of Passion". Among them, three films achieved a rating of 9.0, and the rest did not fall below 8.0.

This data is terrifying. In comparison, Lu Ze frankly said that "Mr. Tree" is no match. In terms of quality, it simply cannot compete with "Mr. Tree".

On the contrary, bad movies have been common in China in recent years. Apart from two commercial films released during the Lunar New Year season last year and a few years ago, the rest of the films have been criticized and have become bad movies in people's eyes.

The main reason is that many popular young male celebrities have started to enter the film industry, bringing higher profits, higher attention, and more criticism to the domestic film industry.

The criticism mainly revolves around the young actors' awkward acting skills, poor special effects, and cringeworthy plots, which are superficial, morally questionable, and rely on selling their looks for revenue.

This situation has been going on for more than just this year. Although last year was a little better than this year, it wasn't much better. While popular young male celebrities were making money, companies were being criticized but still happily counting their cash.

For some reason, directors no longer value their reputation. One famous director even spent 400 million yuan to make an epic flop, instantly ruining his reputation and falling to rock bottom.

This is still within the realm of commercial films; art films are even more stagnant, having not produced a single critically acclaimed film in the past three years, and some even have severely distorted values.

For three years, all major arthouse directors and screenwriters have been in a slump. According to arthouse film enthusiasts, they dare not watch any arthouse films in recent years, as they would make them feel nauseous.

Only "Mr. Tree" and another film, "Fragrance of Flowers," received mixed reviews. "Mr. Tree" needs no further introduction, while "Fragrance of Flowers" is an art film directed by Liu Ying, a well-known female director in China, which focuses on the thoughts of modern women.

If we compare trees and flowers, then the advantages of trees are their weight and depth, their superb acting skills, and their brilliant use of color. The disadvantages are that the camera work is rather clumsy, the editing is awkward, and it leaves the viewer confused and unable to understand.

The strength of the film lies in its portrayal of the thoughts that modern women want to express. The unrequited love leads the female protagonist to gradually fall into depravity. The cinematography and editing are excellent, the production quality is high, and it has been well received by women.

The shortcomings are even more obvious than those of "The Tree". The female lead is a popular idol who is making her acting debut. People can clearly feel that the actress's acting skills have improved rapidly, but she still can't compare with Lu Ze at all. Just in terms of the male and female leads, she can't compete with Lu Ze and Wang Zhen.

Although Lu Ze was called a popular young actor when he played Qin Ming, the role of Shu completely redeemed him. Now, when talking about popular young actors, netizens have gradually stopped including Lu Ze. Some even say that Lu Ze is a monster and cannot be compared with their idols.

Secondly, although the intention of "Fragrance of Flowers" is good, setting up a negative example to serve as a teaching material for female viewers, the values ​​it presents are not very correct, and it also contains vulgar plots such as cheating and abortion.

In summary, the two films are evenly matched. In addition, there are two films released during the Lunar New Year season this year and last year, making a total of four films competing for the 49th Golden Rooster Awards this year.

"Lu Ze! It's time to get ready for the play!"

Liu Ying's shout brought Lu Ze out of his thoughts. Thinking about the possibility of winning an award, he was actually a little excited. He tightened the thermos and put it on the table, trying to calm himself down so that he wouldn't bring his excitement into the filming.

"Director Liu is here!"

The filming has been going very smoothly these past few days. After Guan Yong left, Lu Ze's performance didn't decline because there was no one to compete with him; on the contrary, it got better and better, and there were basically no cuts.

Even if there were any, it was because of other characters' mistakes during filming that affected Lu Ze himself. As for low-level mistakes such as laughing on set or forgetting his lines, he has never made them.

As a result, Liu Ying grew to like him more and more, and even made time during filming to let Lu Ze exercise, because he found that Lu Ze would be more energetic and in better condition after exercising.

People in other departments almost worship Lu Ze like a god. They have rarely seen an actor like Lu Ze who can film smoothly and effortlessly. This kind of ability is usually only seen in veteran actors.

This greatly reduced their workload, making things incredibly easy. They only needed to do their job once and then just watch Lu Ze film. There was basically no need to do things twice. Moreover, watching an actor like him film was truly a pleasure. His performance was fluid, natural, and unpretentious. His body language and delivery of lines were extremely precise, making it incredibly comfortable to watch.

However, Lu Ze's condition also put pressure on the other actors, especially the younger actors whose basic skills were not solid. If the scene was cut, the staff would have to prepare again, which would definitely cause resentment among the staff.

They won't blame Lu Ze for taking such good photos; they'll only complain that yours are terrible. And that's a fact—you're just not as good as Lu Ze. Anyone would feel inferior in that situation.

The inferiority complex then manifested as a dislike for people more outstanding than oneself, namely Lu Ze. Even though Lu Ze had no bad habits and was very low-key and humble off-screen, it was still difficult for the actors to like him.

Take Xu Lu, an actress who is currently working with Lu Ze, for example. Whenever she has a scene with Lu Ze, it is a nightmare. The better he performs, the more nervous she becomes, afraid of making a mistake. And when she is nervous, mistakes happen frequently.

"Cut! Xu Lu, your expression is unnatural. Smile, smile naturally! You just smiled like a sales assistant in a shopping mall! Let Xu Lu rest for five minutes and find her rhythm."

Seeing that Xu Lu had stopped smiling, Liu Ying sighed but didn't scold her. "You have to admit, there are differences between people. Sometimes hard work can't make up for talent. Although it sounds discouraging, it's true. It's really frustrating."

The production is progressing incredibly smoothly right now. There's no pressure about money or time, so everything is very relaxed. Only the actors are under pressure, and all their pressure comes from Lu Ze. But can we blame Lu Ze? Yes, but we can only blame Lu Ze for progressing too fast, so fast that other young actors can't catch up even if they take a rocket.

"Here's some gum. Mistakes are normal, don't take them to heart."

"Thanks."

After handing over the chewing gum, Lu Ze didn't talk to Xu Lu anymore. He wouldn't say that he deliberately made a mistake to make Xu Lu relax; that's something an idiot would do. Who would joke about work?

After sitting down in the chair, Wang Zixuan suddenly came running over with her short legs and handed her phone to Lu Ze.

"Brother Lu, Aunt Han sent you a message, take a look."

Lu Ze opened WeChat and found a document. He was stunned for a moment after opening it. The list should have been announced tonight, but it was daytime now, and Shen Jinghan had already sent the list.

Ignoring the other movies, let's first find the nominations for "Hello, Mr. Tree". At first glance, there are quite a few.

"Best Art Direction: Zhuang Yu, Best Directorial Debut/Female Feature Film Award: Zhuang Yu, Best Director: Zhuang Yu, Best Screenplay: Zhuang Yu!"

Lu Ze was not surprised by these four awards. The quality of the films in the past two years has been evident to all. It can only be said that Zhuang Yu emerged at the most opportune time.

"Best New Actor: Lu Ze! Best Actor: Lu Ze!"

"Best Actress: Wang Zhen! Best Supporting Actor: Li Wei!"

"So he was elected after all?"

Lu Ze was really happy. Regardless of whether he could win an award, the fact that he was nominated for both Best Newcomer and Best Actor at the same time would double his salary.

After a while, Lu Ze closed the document and looked at the sentence that Shen Jinghan had sent him.

"Don't worry, we'll definitely win the award!"

(End of this chapter)