Who are you calling "little fresh meat"? I'm the king.

Chapter 588 Daily Filming Experience (23)

The most important thing about a film festival is the films themselves…

The Berlin Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, and the Venice Film Festival are the three most prestigious and oldest international film festivals in Europe, and the competition among them is very intense!

Specifically, it refers to competing for the global premiere rights to a particular film.

Here we need to understand a concept and a rule: What are world premiere rights? Why do the three major film festivals require world premiere rights?
Generally, before a film is officially released in theaters after its production is completed, a series of screening and promotional activities will be held. The first screening of a film to the media or the public worldwide is called the world premiere.

A world premiere refers to a brand-new film that almost no one has seen before, and its first screening to an audience.

Following global screening rights is international premiere rights. This means that if a film has been publicly screened in its home country but has never been screened in any other region or country, then the first screening of the film abroad is considered an international premiere.

Further down the list are premieres categorized by region, country, and city, such as North American premieres, European premieres, Asian premieres, American premieres, South American premieres, and even Chinese premieres.

The three major European film festivals almost mandate that films in the main competition have their world premiere at their festival, because world premieres are the most attractive to the media and the public. If a film festival can show a new film that has not yet been released, then the festival's status, reputation and influence will be enhanced accordingly.

The three major European film festivals maintain their status, elite brand, and prestige by requiring films to have their world premiere.

Of course, there are exceptions...

Back then, "Mei Lanfang" was released domestically before participating in the Berlin Film Festival!

When a masterpiece, a new work by a master director, or a film featuring a star-studded cast is encountered, the three major film festivals will extend an olive branch to the film and invite it to participate in their festivals.

This led to competition between film festivals, also known as "film snatching".

Gilles Jacob, the former president of the Cannes Film Festival, once mentioned that in order to snatch Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" before other film festivals, he personally flew to Coppola's Los Angeles residence to watch Coppola cut the film.

The film later won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and its place in film history is still associated with the Cannes Film Festival and the Palme d'Or.

Nowadays, it often happens that when one film festival is hesitant about a film or wants to put it in a secondary section, another film festival may promise to send it to the main competition in order to secure the film.

Back then, Zhang Yimou's film "Not One Less" was rejected by Cannes. Zhang Yimou then publicly announced his break with the film and took it to Venice, where it eventually won the Golden Lion!

Shen Yan's "Burning" is highly valued by the three major European literary and art circles!

Shen Yan is now widely recognized as a leading figure among the younger generation of Chinese-language films.

And he's the producer of "Dallas Buyers Club"...

It's important to know that China's film market has now become the second largest in the world, and many European films also enter China through the import/export program...

The three major European film studios all attach great importance to Chinese-language films!
Otherwise, what qualifications do "Ren Xiaoyao" and "Purple Butterfly" have to enter the main competition?

Here's a rather painful fact: the three major European film festivals are the last fig leaf for the old European film industry; in reality, their film markets have been almost completely destroyed by the United States!

In France, the country that invented cinema, only comedies can make it to the box office charts.

From the perspective of Chinese audiences, the most prominent European films in recent years have actually been those from Spain, a country that doesn't have many well-known film awards.

Other European directors either go to Hollywood or stay in Europe, making a small-budget film only once in a long while, hoping to win an award to satisfy investors.

It's mostly Chinese filmmakers who are enthusiastic about European film festivals. Most of them can't get into the domestic film industry, and they can't compete with their rivals in the domestic market. So they can only try their luck in Europe. The price is that the European-customized films they make are basically useless except for winning awards, and they can forget about box office success.

Shen Yan is different…

He himself holds the record for highest-grossing Chinese-language films, and he also has a very good relationship with the independent film industry in North America!
A director like this making art films... Anyway, the project "Burning" was noticed by the three major film festivals from the very beginning!
Christian Joan, the director of the Cannes Film Festival, personally called Shen Yan to inquire about the film, only to learn that shooting wouldn't begin until July…

It's a pity!
The Berlin Film Festival also arranged for selectors to visit them... including Elena Polach from the Venice Film Festival...

However, Shen Yan ultimately chose the Venice Film Festival!

The reason is simple: it's the most suitable time.

Elena Polach is the Asian selector for the Venice Film Festival…

In fact, Chinese-language films haven't been nominated for Venice much in the past two years—except for 2011.

That year, four Chinese-language films were nominated for the main competition: *People Mountain People Sea*, *A Simple Life*, *Life Without Principle*, and *Seediq Bale*.

Last year and the year before, not a single film was nominated!

In an interview, festival director Alberto Barbera stated, "Chinese films cannot reach the level of Venice!"

Then he was ridiculed by a bunch of people…

Especially the organizers of the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals.

The reason is simple: Chinese-language films are still nominated for Cannes and Berlin – is it that Chinese films can't compete with Venice, or that people don't think Venice is good enough?

The fact that "Burning" was selected for the Venice Film Festival before filming even began is, in a sense, a gesture of goodwill from the Venice Film Festival…

However, the organizers are quite worried about Shen Yan's efficiency!
Back then, Wong Kar-wai's "My Blueberry Nights" was chosen as the opening film of the Cannes Film Festival, but the post-production work wasn't completed until three days before the festival's opening...

"Burning" might not be able to be like this...

So, Elena Polacht simply came to the set of "Burning" to see how things were progressing...

……

Shen Yan makes movies very quickly.

He set a shooting schedule of 15 days for "Burning"...

It's just an art-house drama, with no special effects or big scenes, so there's no reason for it to drag on for several months...

The crew of "Burning" consisted of only about eighty people, making it a standard small production team.

But the photography team alone had as many as 40 people, and they were divided into two groups.

Don't get me wrong, there's no distinction between main and secondary shots; it's just filmed in shifts...

For Shen Yan, the most important aspect of "Burning" is the cinematography...

Around July 5th, the crew had almost finished their rehearsals, and Shen Yan decisively sped up the schedule.

Then, the production assistant director told him, 'Elena Polachy is here!'
Shen Yan didn't take it to heart: "Let her come, don't worry about her, let's just film our own!"

(End of this chapter)