Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 443: Cultural War
"I wanted to ask just now." Taking advantage of the opening song and dance on the stage, Guo Fan looked at Meng Bai: "Why do you say that we have the highest chance of winning the award tonight?"

The main hall of the newly built Straits Theatre is huge and can accommodate tens of thousands of people at the same time. Although the crew of The Wandering Earth was in the first few rows, with such a large venue, there was no need to worry about being overheard when chatting.

Hearing Guo Fan's question, Meng Bai said leisurely: "It's very simple. Think about the timing of this year's Golden Rooster Awards, the location of the host city, and why we need to reform this year."

"Let's just say it, Boss, let's not have these Riddler segments, okay?"

"Alright, alright, no more jokes." Meng Bai said, "But I have to say one thing first, these are just my guesses."

After emphasizing this, he continued: "In addition to the Golden Rooster Awards, there is another award that is also held today, you know."

Guo Fan frowned: "Are you talking about the Golden Horse Awards?"

Meng Bai nodded: "Yes, from the changes in the time and venue, we can tell that this year's Golden Rooster Awards is aimed at the Golden Horse Awards. Of course, it's not just that."

Just like the “three major European film awards” of Cannes, Berlin and Venice, the Chinese-language film industry has also had the “three Chinese golds” of Golden Horse, Golden Image and Golden Rooster for decades.

The Golden Rooster Awards are held every two years and have strict review requirements, so the range of films nominated has always been limited. As Hong Kong films have declined and become more conservative, the Hong Kong Film Awards have gradually become a "self-entertainment" for Hong Kong films.

Therefore, in the past 10 to 20 years, it is the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards that have the greatest influence and the highest gold content. In its heyday, it can really be called the "highest award for Chinese-language films."

However, with the rapid rise of the mainland film market, various large-scale, high-grossing films have emerged one after another, and the Golden Rooster Awards are more tolerant of commercial films, so its influence has slowly increased in recent years.

However, the Golden Horse Awards, which caused such a big disturbance, did not make any response afterwards. It issued a bland statement and then responded with silence, with a very arrogant attitude.

Perhaps the status of the leader of Chinese-language films over the past decade gave them an illusion and made them misunderstand their own strength. Immediately afterwards, a wave of boycotting the Golden Horse Awards began from top to bottom in the mainland.

This year's Golden Rooster Awards were chosen to be held on the same day as the Golden Horse Awards. The venue was chosen to be Xiamen, which is across the sea from Taiwan. The venue was also called "Strait Grand Theater", which can be said to have maximized all kinds of relevance.

Obviously, one of the main purposes of this year's Golden Rooster Awards is to use this reform to completely surpass the Golden Horse Awards and become the new "talking head of Chinese-language film awards."

However, this is only the first purpose of the Golden Rooster Awards. The second purpose is to target the riots in Hong Kong that have intensified this year.

Compared with the problems in Formosa, the problems in Hong Kong are obviously bigger. After all, the former has been causing us trouble for decades, and everyone is used to having an extra Golden Horse.

Therefore, this year's Golden Rooster Awards also sent a signal to Hong Kong in terms of film and television art.

It is precisely for this reason that, even though there are not many Hong Kong films nominated this year, there are still a large number of Hong Kong filmmakers who came to the Golden Rooster Awards tonight to express their attitudes.

It doesn't end here. This year's Golden Rooster Awards have undergone major changes, from the format and venue of the event to the various large-scale investments and innovations in the model. It can be seen that great importance is attached to this ceremony.

And this is obviously related to the current confrontation.

The great power confrontation in the 21st century is no longer decided on the battlefield as it was a hundred years ago. Instead, with the advent of the Internet age, various seemingly civilized but actually more brutal "soft wars" have begun.

From "economic war" to "trade war" to "information war" and finally to the core "war of culture and consciousness", although there is no bloodshed in these battlefields, the results are deadly.

This is what the West often calls "peaceful evolution."

Cultural battles take many forms, from the struggle for various discourse rights to the establishment of national image, from the discussion of foreign ideas to the struggle for entertainment methods.

This year is a special year. The strength and momentum displayed by the National Day military parade shocked all countries in the world, indicating that China has reached a sufficient level in terms of hard power.

So the next thing to improve is naturally various cultural soft powers.

And movies, or the film and television industry, is one of them.

At this time, the Golden Rooster Award, which represents the highest award in the domestic film and television industry, has made unprecedented innovations. It is both a challenge to all those with bad intentions and an invitation to supporters.

This can be seen from the four words "Chinese films" which have been mentioned repeatedly since the opening of tonight's ceremony.

The Golden Rooster Awards, which carries an important political mission, cannot help but be influenced in the selection of the winners.

Meng Bai spread his palms and said to Guo Fan, "There are five nominees for the Best Feature Film Award besides us. Gutian Bugle is a mainstream theme, but it is too historical; So Long, My Son is about the changes of the times, and its theme is sensitive; Us and Them is a romance, but its scale is too small; I Am Not a God of Medicine is a realistic theme, but its tone is too sad."

Every time he talked about a movie, he bent a finger, until only his thumb was left standing.

"Among the nominated films, only Operation Red Sea is similar to ours. But in comparison, the concept of 'a community with a shared future for mankind' in The Wandering Earth is undoubtedly superior."

Meng Bai snapped off his last finger and slammed his fist on the armrest: "That's why I said, not only do we need the Golden Rooster Awards, but the Golden Rooster Awards also need us. If nothing unexpected happens, our chances of winning the award are at least 60 to 70 percent."

"Only 60% to 70%!"

Zhao Jinmai, who had been eavesdropping nearby, suddenly said, "Brother, you have been talking about this for such a long time that your blood is boiling. I thought it was a done deal."

Meng Bai and Guo Fan laughed together when they heard this.

"Mai Mai, don't underestimate the 60-70% chance. With six nominated films, the probability is already very high." Guo Fan said, "Don't say that. According to what your brother Meng Bai said, we do have great hope."

Zhao Jinmai thought about it and felt that it made sense. When he was doing multiple-choice questions in the exam, he might not be able to choose the right answer for all four options, let alone now he had to choose one out of six.

"But..." She suddenly added, "If the grand prize is ours, then the Best Director award won't be given to us."

"This..." Guo Fan was speechless. He really hadn't thought about this.

Meng Bai confirmed what Zhao Jinmai said: "Maimai is right. The jury will definitely make an even split among these films. The technical awards don't count. Among the final awards, each film will definitely get one."

From the perspective of the entire film, the final award is definitely the best, which represents the recognition of the overall quality of the entire film. However, from the perspective of the director himself, the "Best Director" is obviously more exciting.

However, most award ceremonies around the world are fair in nature. Unless there is an indisputably strong film in that year, it is unlikely that it will sweep all the awards.

"The Wandering Earth" is indeed amazing. It has opened a new chapter in domestic science fiction, expanded the boundaries of domestic film genres and themes, and proved to the world film market that Chinese-language films are not just about kung fu, history or "the pain of the lower classes", we also have the stars and the sea.

But this does not mean that this film has overwhelming strength. The Golden Rooster Award is still a film award after all. From the perspective of the film itself, "The Wandering Earth" is just an excellent science fiction film.

Guo Fan was quite open-minded. He waved his hand and said nonchalantly, "It's okay. We will definitely win the award if we can. It's not like I won't make movies in the future. There are plenty of opportunities to win awards."

"Brother Guo, you are so generous!" Meng Bai patted his shoulder. "We have also signed up for the Hundred Flowers Awards next year. They value popularity more. I will help you work hard then."

"As for the Hundred Flowers Awards...we'll see when the time comes." Guo Fan smacked his lips, obviously not having much expectation for the Hundred Flowers Awards.

Indeed, compared with the professionalism of the Golden Rooster Awards, the Hundred Flowers Awards were initially positioned as "mass participation and public voting." To put it in a more modern way, it is a "popularity award."

For professional filmmakers, it would be nice to win this kind of award, but there would be no regrets if they didn't win it.

Especially since the Hundred Flowers Awards previously awarded the "Best Supporting Actor" and "Best Supporting Actress" awards to Li Feng and Yang Tianbao, the status of the Hundred Flowers Awards in the public's mind has been on the same level as the Golden Eagle Awards.

It can be seen that the organizers of this year's Golden Rooster Awards have really put a lot of thought into it. In previous years, the awards ceremony was over after the awards were given, but this year, many celebrity performances and interactive sessions were added.

Although it seems a bit stiff under the requirements of the main theme, it is at least a good start. In general award ceremonies, important awards are placed at the beginning and end, and those small awards with less attention are placed in the middle, so that uninterested audiences can skip them directly.

The Golden Rooster Awards were no exception, with the first two awards presented: Best Supporting Actor/Actress, and Best Directorial Debut. The latter award was the most undisputed one today, and it was given to Wen Muye, the director of "Dying to Survive".

They are all new directors who came out of the "Bad Monkey 72 Transformations Plan". Wen Muye's writing ability is indeed better than Shen Ao's. This year's National Day compilation movie "My Motherland and Me" was a big hit, and he also directed a part in it. The quality is not the best, but it is not the worst either.

After the opening few awards, there were some smaller awards for documentaries, science and education films, as well as technical awards.

Although "The Wandering Earth" was nominated in four technical categories, it only won the "Best Recording" award in the end.

There is no way, the Golden Rooster Awards do not have awards such as "Best Visual Effects", otherwise "The Wandering Earth" would definitely win it.

This is also a flaw of the Golden Rooster Awards. There are too few award categories. There are no awards such as "Best Visual Effects", "Best Song", "Best Adapted Screenplay" that are common in regular international film festivals. And most importantly, there is no "Best Foreign Language Film" award.

All I can say is that the organizers still have a long way to go if they want to make the Golden Rooster Awards the highest award for Chinese-language films.

These small awards may be dispensable to many ordinary audiences, but they are indispensable for practitioners because they represent the recognition of the industry.

Meng Bai paid extra attention to the "Best Animated Film" award. The winner was "Wind Whisperers" which was released last year.

This movie belongs to the same "Painting Rivers and Lakes" series as the "Painting Rivers and Lakes: The Bad Guys" produced by Wubai, but with a new protagonist and story. Meng Bai remembered that Wubai's Wuyuan Culture seemed to have invested some money, but like the web drama version, the box office results were not high.

Meng Bai took a photo and sent it to Wu Bai. This guy failed twice in the same project, so getting an award was at least a consolation.

“It’s a pity that the registration period had passed when Nezha was released, otherwise this year’s award would definitely be theirs,” Guo Fan on the side said with emotion.

"It's all the same. The Golden Rooster Awards have been changed to be held once a year, so they will be able to win it next year." Meng Bai said, "Besides, it's also a good thing for us that they didn't make the finals this year."

Guo Fan couldn't help but laugh: "That's true. If there was this publicity gimmick of 'being nominated for the Golden Rooster Award', maybe the box office would be stimulated and we would really surpass us."

This year, the domestic film market has produced two movies with a box office of over 50 billion yuan. One is "The Wandering Earth" released at the beginning of the year, and the other is "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World" released in the summer.

Both movies were extremely popular when they were released, and their release period was extended by two months. Many people wanted to see which of them would win the "Annual Box Office Champion" this year.

Nezha was not released until the beginning of this month, and the final total box office was 50.13 billion yuan, which was only 50.48 million yuan less than the billion yuan of The Wandering Earth, and it could only be ranked second.

Meng Bai and Guo Fan were naturally relieved in private, but they still praised each other publicly. The producers and crew of "Nezha" were already ecstatic about this unexpected result, so they had no dissatisfaction and also responded enthusiastically to "The Wandering Earth".

Both sides gain something, and everyone loves each other.

After various small awards and song and dance performances, more than an hour passed. As the "Lifetime Achievement Film Artist of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles" award came to an end, the spirits of the whole audience were lifted.

The next dish to be served is today’s main course.

First of all, the three awards of "Best Actor", "Best Actress" and "Best Screenwriter" were given to the crew of "So Long, My Son".

The first two awards were within everyone's expectations. After all, Wang Jingchun and Yongmei both won the Berlin Silver Bear for this movie, which is indeed a level higher than other nominees.

Meng Bai was not very familiar with Yongmei, but he knew Wang Jingchun, who starred in Arclight's hit "The Bad Kids" this year.

The "Best Screenwriter" award was somewhat unexpected. After all, Wang Xiaoshuai and his group of directors have never been favored by mainstream domestic awards. I didn't expect to win the award today.

After these three awards, the only two major awards left are "Best Director" and "Best Feature Film".

Almost all the attention in the audience was focused on the two crews of "The Wandering Earth" and "Operation Red Sea". These two big hits from last year and this year have only won one technical award so far.

For the sake of balance, the remaining two awards will definitely be divided equally between the two, and it’s just a matter of who wins the grand prize.

Although he had said it very casually before, when the time came, Guo Fan began to get nervous. It would be a pity to lose either of the two awards.

The same goes for the crew of "Operation Red Sea". Everyone knows that once the "Best Director" award is announced, the final grand prize for tonight will basically be determined.

So even though it was the second to last award, the atmosphere on the scene was like that of the finale.

On the stage, the two award-giving guests knew the expectations of the crowd, so they didn't say anything too much. After a few pleasantries, they happily took out the winning cards from the envelopes.

"The winner of the Best Director Award at the 32nd Golden Rooster Awards is——"

"Lin Chaoxian from Operation Red Sea!"

"Wow—"

There was applause at the scene. Dante Lam with a big bald head stood up and excitedly hugged and congratulated the crew members around him.

Lin Chaoxian is one of the most successful Hong Kong film directors who have moved to the north. His "Operation Mekong" a few years ago opened up the field of military action films. Last year's "Operation Red Sea" won the annual box office championship.

He is the director who is best at commercializing mainstream themes.

Compared to the happy Lin Chaoxian, Guo Fan was a little disappointed, after all, he missed his first top director award. But he quickly adjusted his mood and stood up to applaud the other side.

Meng Bai also stood up and applauded with him, but his applause was much more sincere.

Dante Lam won the "Best Director" award, so "The Wandering Earth" has a 90% chance of winning the final award.

Well, I can only say 90% for now, after all, awards are sometimes too definite. You never know if one of the judges suddenly has a whim and votes for someone else, and in the end, that one vote is the difference.

There's no need to pop champagne at halftime, it's just a matter of seconds.

Listening to Dante Lam's constant thank yous on stage, Meng Bai wanted to go up and pull him off. After finally waiting for the show to end, he heaved a sigh of relief.

Accompanied by a burst of passionate music, the most important moment of the night finally arrived.

Meng Bai frowned slightly as he watched the host's announcement on the stage, and suddenly he felt someone holding his hand.

He glanced down and saw Zhao Jinmai's white and tender palm resting on the back of his hand.

"Don't worry, Brother Meng Bai." The little girl smiled brightly: "We will definitely be fine."

Meng Bai's emotions calmed down, and he also smiled and said, "Yes, no problem."

On the stage, the host and the guest presenting the prize finally finished what they were going to say and opened the envelopes in their hands.

"The winner of the 32nd Golden Rooster Award for Best Feature Film is——"

"The Wandering Earth!"

(End of this chapter)